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eBay Private Seller - Self Assessment Tax Return??

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  • martindow
    martindow Posts: 10,569 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 4 January 2024 at 11:21AM
    se2020 said:
    neogeo said:
    Hi,
    I am a private seller and have a large collection of Warhammer, Lego, games etc going back almost 20 years (some the last year or so). A change in circumstances forced me to sell a large amount last year on eBay (almost £10k), some I profited, some I lost - no records of purchase prices whatsoever...where does this leave me?
    If it's a personal collection you are fine.
    Tax is only due on stuff you buy and sell to make money on purpose. 
    You are fine from an income tax perspective... Capital Gains is a different matter

    It is the 'gain' that matters.  The sales brought in £10k, but there will be fees and postage costs to take off that and the initial cost of the items.  The latter will be difficult to determine, but even a smallish estimation would get the gain down below the £6k allowance.
    In addition depending on the dates you were selling the capital gain could well be spread across two tax years. 


  • MSE_Molly_G
    MSE_Molly_G Posts: 186 MSE Staff
    Second Anniversary 10 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Hi everyone. We've published an article on this topic – as commenters have already pointed out, there are no new tax laws but online platforms will now have to report earnings to HMRC. You can read the article here: Sell on eBay, Etsy or Vinted or rent your home on Airbnb? Firms will now report your earnings to HMRC – so check if you need to pay tax.

    Thanks all.
  • Miser1964
    Miser1964 Posts: 283 Forumite
    100 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 4 January 2024 at 12:00PM
    There's a fairly sensible rowing-back from the MSM clickbait scare stories in the Daily Mail today -

    Will HMRC really come after me for selling old clothes? Why it's unlikely you'll be taxed | This is Money
  • steviebabes
    steviebabes Posts: 2,068 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    This is from MSE News -

    Your information WON'T be automatically shared if you only sell a small amount of goods  

    If all you're doing is selling goods online, firms will ONLY pass on data to HMRC automatically if you're selling 30 or more items a year AND have total earnings over the equivalent of €2,000 (currently around £1,700) – so if you're doing a lot less than that, it isn't an issue. However, it's worth noting you may still have to pay tax if you earn £1,000 or more from selling.

  • Spoonie_Turtle
    Spoonie_Turtle Posts: 10,353 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    This is from MSE News -

    Your information WON'T be automatically shared if you only sell a small amount of goods  

    If all you're doing is selling goods online, firms will ONLY pass on data to HMRC automatically if you're selling 30 or more items a year AND have total earnings over the equivalent of €2,000 (currently around £1,700) – so if you're doing a lot less than that, it isn't an issue. However, it's worth noting you may still have to pay tax if you earn £1,000 or more from selling.

    Right, this is exactly where clarification is needed!  So many people read that and think it applies to profit on anything they sell.

    Which is wrong:
    1. It's £1,000 in a single tax year
    2. From TRADING
    3. It's £1,000 gross income, not profit (profit being what most people think by 'earning')
  • Bertie129
    Bertie129 Posts: 43 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    One question that I haven't seen answered is this: if you do some 'trading' (buying for resale) but also sell some unwanted personal possessions on the same platform (eBay), would you be liable for tax on the traded goods but not on the personal items you sell?

  • Also what year does it cover exactly? The new rules came into effect on Jan 1st this year, but they won't have to report until the end of Jan 2025. So they would be reporting the 2024 calendar year and on, right? So it won't be back-dated is my understanding?
  • Miser1964
    Miser1964 Posts: 283 Forumite
    100 Posts First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 4 January 2024 at 5:45PM
    Bertie129 said:
    One question that I haven't seen answered is this: if you do some 'trading' (buying for resale) but also sell some unwanted personal possessions on the same platform (eBay), would you be liable for tax on the traded goods but not on the personal items you sell?

    IMHO it would be prudent to sell using different accounts if you're going to exceed the £1,000 trading allowance; once classed as a 'trader' you'd be obliged to offer the returns etc. that are legal requirements on business sellers. It would also simplify the book-keeping and correspondence with HMRC.
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 18,613 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Second Anniversary Name Dropper
    badmemory said:

    I fully appreciate that it's right for HMRC to want to identify traders who aren't declaring it, but is should be pretty easy for HRMC to evidence and prove those. There are plenty of bigger fish to fry though - medium to large companies pulling all sorts of fiddles, yet HMRC seems obsessed with going after the really small fry stuff recently. Low hanging fruit, but must be very labour intensive for relatively small recoveries.
    But it makes them look as if they are doing something.  No-on seems to be prepared to go after the ones that are really **************.

    Its not only that but the high level of press coverage, the inevitable general discussions of Big Data etc will make at lease some people that have been trading without declaring to think twice and decide its better to declare than be caught and pay fines. 

    Like IR35 prior to the shift to the client... a big scary thing that changed some people's behaviour but was vastly more bark than bite
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