A small car boot venture??

jadeladine

Hi,

I have a full time job and pay tax. I have started to make little gift baskets as a hobby and sell them to family and friends. I was thinking of selling them at car boot sales and on ebay and things. I will be making a small profit. Do i have to register this as a business? Will i have to pay tax? Ebay says i will need to start a business account, does that mean i need a VAT number etc?

Thank you

CLAPTON

in principle you will need to pay tax and NI : the amount depends upon how much profit you will make

you would need to regisiter for self asssessment as a sole trader

how much do you expect to make ?

antrobus

The current VAT registration limit is (I think) £73,000, so you might not have to worry abour VAT for a while.

If you are going to be 'making a small profit', how small is small? Does your anticipated profit calculation take into account every allowable expense, such as the cost of travel to and from boot sales, the cost of travel to and from the post office (to post your ebay) sales, business use of your home, etc etc?

John_Pierpoint

The first sort of tax you will be expected to pay is the self employed national insurance weekly payment - it acts as a trigger to the self employment tax system based on your annual profit.

If your profit is low you can opt out of this weekly flat rate charge but by then you will be on the self assessment tax regime.

Low profit self employment can help pay for your (modest) car, as you can claim 45p per mile against your profit.

If your "business" is a self financing fun hobby by all means keep it legal tax wise but be aware of what you are getting into. There are lots of threads on here (and on Ebay) where people have posted their experiences of becoming a self employed trader in these uncertain times.

Here is a similar "newbie" to self employment dipping their toe in the water:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3268456