Tax on selling whisky 18 March 2021 at 8:25PM edited 18 March 2021 at 8:25PM in Savings & investments 7 replies 433 views

Swafe

Just wondered if anyone can help me. I bought a few bottles of whisky a while ago which I've recently sold, it's not a great deal of money so didn't occur to me at the time that some tax may be due so I'm after someone to give me some advise.
I see online that whisky is seen as a 'wasting asset' so tax isn't due but I couldn't figure out if this was just on casks or on the same of bottles as well.
The other question is if tax is due would it be classed as income or a capital gain? As if it's the latter it will below the threshold,
Thanks

underground99

As it's a 'wasting asset' that isn't expected to last a very long time in the grand scheme of things (unlike a bar of gold or an antique painting) it's not something that needs to be considered for capital gains taxes.

If your bottles were just personal possessions that you decided to sell for more than you paid for them, and there weren't many of them, no income tax is due. We can all sell things we own and don't want, and nobody is going to raise an eyebrow at the tax office. 

However if you're buying and selling them as some part of a trade or business - repeatedly buying and selling stuff for profit - then you could stray into income tax territory. The fact that you do it from home rather than having a market stall wouldn't stop you being considered as running a 'trade', if that's what you're doing.

Swafe

I think that's the difficult bit, I bought 6 bottles as a job lot some time ago as I thought about collecting but eventually decided to offload a few as they're just taking up space, I've made a little bit of money on them but not a great deal. I guess for me it seems like it's a bit of a blurred line and I'm struggling to know which side of the line this sits. I don't want to pay tax if I don't have too but at the same time don't want to get stung if the tax man has a different point of view. 

Thrugelmir

No one is going to be interested in a few personal transactions. Not as if you are undertaking a trade. 

Zanderman

Don't know about tax, but I would check whether you needed a liquor licence to sell whisky! 

D924

You have a £1000 "trading allowance" for miscellaneous income each year.

Do note that this is not £1000 of profit but £1000 of total sales.

It's not a lot and it's actually pretty easy to exceed this in a year when selling clear-out junk on EBay and the like, I suspect a lot of people aren't aware they owe tax.

rich11

D924 said:

You have a £1000 "trading allowance" for miscellaneous income each year.

Do note that this is not £1000 of profit but £1000 of total sales.

It's not a lot and it's actually pretty easy to exceed this in a year when selling clear-out junk on EBay and the like, I suspect a lot of people aren't aware they owe tax.

Wow I did not know that and I think of myself as being clued up. Thanks for the post 

eskbanker

D924 said:

You have a £1000 "trading allowance" for miscellaneous income each year.

Do note that this is not £1000 of profit but £1000 of total sales.

It's not a lot and it's actually pretty easy to exceed this in a year when selling clear-out junk on EBay and the like, I suspect a lot of people aren't aware they owe tax.

This thread is over a year and a half old (even though it was briefly bumped by a spammer) and OP hasn't been back on the forum since then, so it's unlikely that anyone is waiting for guidance on the subject....