Ebay tax if retired

dhymeri

If someone is retired, and is selling items on ebay which they have bought at a car boot sale and are selling at a profit (from what I've read they are technically a trader) - and they are making a profit of less than £2,500 pa.

Do they therefore have to register with the tax man? or as they are retired (and only have income a pension) and as this amount of profit is quite low, is it classed as non-taxable income and therefore there is no need to involve the tax man?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

00ec25

sorry but just because you are retired does not somehow mean you are outside the rules. There is no such thing as non taxable income due to being "retired"

you have a source of untaxed income, it should be declared. Whether you actually have to pay tax depends if your total income, including e bay profit, is greater than your personal allowance.

The £2,500 figure is simply the threshold above which you are automatically required to do an SA tax return. The rest of the requirements are you must inform HMRC of any untaxed income irrespective of amount but, if below £2,500, you may not be required to do a full SA return, they may simply deal with it through you sending a letter.
However, as those who are retired tend to have all sorts of pensions and thus allocating their tax code to the correct pension needs to be checked, it is still common for pensioners to be required to do tax returns.

dhymeri

Thanks v much for clearing that up