Two issues here please help!

savvymum1

Hi, 
I posted awhile ago about having to give up work due to illness. I've been making my own handstamped jewellery for a while and have given them away to family. Now I'm considering trying to sell some only through Etsy, I don't have the energy to turn it into a actual business as some days my illness affects me worse on some day's than others. I have no other income. At what point do I have to register with HMRC? It seems very complicated and I dont think I could mentally handle that so am I best to just not bother at all. Is there a threshold? 

Second question is my husband used to be a Horder and we have a house, garage, shed and attack full of stuff we are finally getting rid of! Now, I'm very confused about the whole HMRC situation as in one breath I'm being told no need to report unless a individual item is worth 6,000. Then I'm being told if you sell your stuff regularly you do report it or if we sell something for a profit? Well how are we supposed to remember what we paid for all this stuff? My husband would also like to  buy stuff use it for a few months then sell it on (good way for him to cope with the hoarding) would this be ok or not? Im very confused! Thank you

kevinburrow

I've been making a few extra £ for years and never bothered with HMRC. I'm not sure you have to tbh, unless you make serious money.

soolin

savvymum1 said:

Hi, 
I posted awhile ago about having to give up work due to illness. I've been making my own handstamped jewellery for a while and have given them away to family. Now I'm considering trying to sell some only through Etsy, I don't have the energy to turn it into a actual business as some days my illness affects me worse on some day's than others. I have no other income. At what point do I have to register with HMRC? It seems very complicated and I dont think I could mentally handle that so am I best to just not bother at all. Is there a threshold? 

Second question is my husband used to be a Horder and we have a house, garage, shed and attack full of stuff we are finally getting rid of! Now, I'm very confused about the whole HMRC situation as in one breath I'm being told no need to report unless a individual item is worth 6,000. Then I'm being told if you sell your stuff regularly you do report it or if we sell something for a profit? Well how are we supposed to remember what we paid for all this stuff? My husband would also like to  buy stuff use it for a few months then sell it on (good way for him to cope with the hoarding) would this be ok or not? Im very confused! Thank you

With anything you make to sell or anything you buy with an intention of reselling you need to register with HMRC once your total income (which includes anything you receive for postage etc) exceeds £1000 per annum. Under that it does not need to be declared. Anything of your own that you sell does not need to be declared.

However things can become complicated if you sell sufficient to get reported either by the selling site or by ‘friends’ as trading, and yes this happens. I used to do voluntary work and we had a never ending supply of people who had been reported usually to DWP not HMRC, for running businesses who believed that friends or family had turned them in. It used to be that sites like eBay were particularly interested in private sellers who regularly sold second hand clothes in multiple sizes , however ebay seem to have given up bothering at whether sellers use private or business accounts with them.