Does buying & selling the odd car class me as a trader?

harveybobbles

The clue here is..

a side line for a little extra income

= buying/selling to make money.

My neighbour does this. He is retired (or !!!!!!?) and always has 2 or 3 cars dotted around the street.

He sells them "to pay for his holidays.."

AdrianC

[quote=[Deleted User];65877475]This has got me thinking, for those who need two cars, but can manage with one for a few weeks at time. Would buying and selling your second car regularly beat bangernomics for moneysaving? If I could repeat my previous success regularly, I could have practically free motoring.[/QUOTE]
I suspect that if you genuinely factored in all costs involved - those insurance fees, time and fuel to view/collect, any basic maintenance on new acquisitions - it'd actually work out a very expensive hobby.

harveybobbles

[quote=[Deleted User];65877475]If I could repeat my previous success regularly, I could have practically free motoring.

I have two cars - one is an old E36 rag top which I bought for some summer fun. I'll keep it over winter and sell it in the spring for either a) what I paid or b) a bit more.

My every day car I bought in 2008 as a stop gap. But at 200,000 miles everything still works on it and it has leather, climate, leccy seats, cruise etc it seems silly to part with it. I'll keep it until it dies. Every year its costs about £100 at the MOT.

I paid £700 for it in 2008 and I'd get that for it now. If I stripped it I'd probbaly get 1500-2000!

[Deleted User]

harveybobbles wrote: »

The clue here is..


= buying/selling to make money.

My neighbour does this. He is retired (or !!!!!!?) and always has 2 or 3 cars dotted around the street.

He sells them "to pay for his holidays.."

But if he actually uses the cars (let's say he has a 4x4 for off-road fun, a supermini for saving fuel costs on short trips around town, a big estate for moving furniture, and an automatic for the wife), then if he happens to enjoy changing cars regularly is he a trader? I guess this is what he might argue in court. But then if all his 2-3 cars dotted around the street are the same type of car then he has no case.

colino

See my post #2. It has !!!!!! all to do with types of car, number or your hobbies.

harveybobbles

[quote=[Deleted User];65878157]But if he actually uses the cars (let's say he has a 4x4 for off-road fun, a supermini for saving fuel costs on short trips around town, a big estate for moving furniture, and an automatic for the wife), then if he happens to enjoy changing cars regularly is he a trader? I guess this is what he might argue in court. But then if all his 2-3 cars dotted around the street are the same type of car then he has no case.[/QUOTE]

If they are all reg'd in his name then I see no problem.

It's if they are still in the previous keepers name/address and "passed to trade" is when it will get fishy..

anotheruser

colino wrote: »

See my post #2. It has !!!!!! all to do with types of car, number or your hobbies.

As the above poster sort of says, does that mean EVERYONE who sells a car a trader?

If the OP registers it in their name and then sells it on, the answer to the question is NO.

Morally, maybe not the best stance but legally... not much of a case if the OP uses the cars. However doing all that would put the value down somewhat.

colino

I find it impossible to believe that you actually read my post. I don't, "sort of" say anything. If you buy an item with the intention of selling it for profit, you are a trader.
HMRC blitzes niches from mobile hairdressers, driveway car dealers to bootleg booze sellers from time to time and few, if any, get away with it.

[Deleted User]

I'd advise the OP to register as a sole trader, read up on the regulations for used car dealing, don't sell lemons to people, and declare all profits.

TiTheRev

An accountant I know suggested that you can earn approx £3000 per year tax free as gifts or payments for services?