eBay Private Seller - Self Assessment Tax Return??

jaywood

I have a few questions regarding this as the recent news has got me twitchy:

As a hobby I collect art prints and regularly sell them on eBay to free up space when my portfolios are at bursting point. Now assuming I sell these prints at just a smidge over the original price I paid to cover my own shipping cost and seller fees (I offer free shipping), am I considered a trader?

Secondly, regardless of whether I am a trader or not, do my total sale earnings make a difference or is it based solely on profit?

Thanks in advance.

RFW

[Deleted User] said:

My comments on this subject so far have been my opinions, which clearly show you do not understand anything I've said. I don't need you to reply. 

You've made several comments about £1000. I clearly don't understand anything you've said as the majority of it has no bearing on anything that is happening as you've been told several times.

This is not a reply, it's just my opinion

RFW

badmemory said:

They are definitely going after the low hanging fruit & avoiding the larger more difficult stuff.

It's part of an international agreement the UK government have signed up to. It's more to do with international/multi-national tax evasion. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The reporting of it has been woeful mainly because a news story that says "International governments co-operate on tax" gets far fewer readers than one that says "New tax reporting for Ebay sellers".
HMRC have stated that nothing has changed.

LeighBarber

Very confused about this... If, as a full time university student with no employment at all, I sell 2nd hand things I have found (by found I mean literally found and not purchased... Specifically car parts from the side of roads) would I be liable to pay tax on anything I make over £1000? What about the personal £12000 tax allowance?
With no actual job, and money only being made from the above, would i be liable over £1000 or the tax allowance? Do I need to do anything at all?

vacheron

LeighBarber said:

Very confused about this... If, as a full time university student with no employment at all, I sell 2nd hand things I have found (by found I mean literally found and not purchased... Specifically car parts from the side of roads) would I be liable to pay tax on anything I make over £1000? What about the personal £12000 tax allowance?
With no actual job, and money only being made from the above, would i be liable over £1000 or the tax allowance? Do I need to do anything at all?

In your case all your income tax issues would be covered by your personal allowance. However one thing I don't know is if the £1k trading allowance can be added on top of your £12K as all your income is from the "gig economy" which the trading allowance was introduced to simlify. Seems unfair if it isn't. 

[Deleted User]

RFW said:

NonStopStress said:

My comments on this subject so far have been my opinions, which clearly show you do not understand anything I've said. I don't need you to reply. 

You've made several comments about £1000. I clearly don't understand anything you've said as the majority of it has no bearing on anything that is happening as you've been told several times.

This is not a reply, it's just my opinion

Looking at comments I think you actually mentioned the £1000 more times than I have, as has many people, as has the news. It's not something I made up. So why am I wrong exactly? 
If its because of the clarified 30 items around £1700 my points still stand. 
Sell 2 to 3 personal items a month, get your info sent to HMRC for you then to prove your selling your unwanted items. I'm not wrong as this is what has been said. 
Why would anyone bother at all was my original point. Too much hassle for a few quid back on your used items. I'd rather give them to charity now. 

soolin

[Deleted User] said:

RFW said:

NonStopStress said:

My comments on this subject so far have been my opinions, which clearly show you do not understand anything I've said. I don't need you to reply. 

You've made several comments about £1000. I clearly don't understand anything you've said as the majority of it has no bearing on anything that is happening as you've been told several times.

This is not a reply, it's just my opinion

Looking at comments I think you actually mentioned the £1000 more times than I have, as has many people, as has the news. It's not something I made up. So why am I wrong exactly? 
If its because of the clarified 30 items around £1700 my points still stand. 
Sell 2 to 3 personal items a month, get your info sent to HMRC for you then to prove your selling your unwanted items. I'm not wrong as this is what has been said. 
Why would anyone bother at all was my original point. Too much hassle for a few quid back on your used items. I'd rather give them to charity now. 

To be frank here, if this is causing you so much stress despite people pointing out that 99% of people are unlikely to be bothered by the tax man, then I agree, perhaps the charity shop is the way to go.

I have a fair bit of experience of this due to voluntary work in the past, it was actually very difficult even for traders to be caught due to the time constraints on HMRC- and that was before they started to lose employees due to cuts.

rollingmoon

NonStopStress said:

Sell 2 to 3 personal items a month, get your info sent to HMRC for you then to prove your selling your unwanted items. I'm not wrong as this is what has been said. 

The bit in bold is where you are wrong; this could happen if they suspect you of trading but in the vast majority of cases people doing what you (and I) are will hear nothing from HMRC. They simply don't have the resources to chase after everyone, and will go after the far easier - and more profitable - instances of people running businesses pretending to be private sellers.

Grumpy_chap

NonStopStress said:

Looking at comments I think you actually mentioned the £1000 more times than I have, as has many people, as has the news. It's not something I made up. So why am I wrong exactly? 
If its because of the clarified 30 items around £1700 my points still stand. 
Sell 2 to 3 personal items a month, get your info sent to HMRC for you then to prove your selling your unwanted items. I'm not wrong as this is what has been said. 

Nothing has actually changed in terms of the tax rules and what defines trading (or not).

The £1k is reference to the trading allowance (for turnover) below which there is no need to register or declare trading activity to HMRC.  It only refers to trading and not selling own items.

The 30 items is, AIUI, an eBay trigger and not an official HMRC threshold.  I strongly suspect that eBay have chosen this as a "high" threshold that means only a very small percentage of all active accounts are reported.  If I was eBay, I would set this trigger at a level that means only 1% (or something similarly low) of all active (within the past 12 months?) selling accounts triggered the "potential trader" flag.

Again, if someone is only selling their own stuff and the occasional unwanted gift, then there is nothing that gives rise to a tax liability.

RFW

Grumpy_chap said:

Nothing has actually changed in terms of the tax rules and what defines trading (or not).

The £1k is reference to the trading allowance (for turnover) below which there is no need to register or declare trading activity to HMRC.  It only refers to trading and not selling own items.

The 30 items is, AIUI, an eBay trigger and not an official HMRC threshold.  I strongly suspect that eBay have chosen this as a "high" threshold that means only a very small percentage of all active accounts are reported.  If I was eBay, I would set this trigger at a level that means only 1% (or something similarly low) of all active (within the past 12 months?) selling accounts triggered the "potential trader" flag.

Again, if someone is only selling their own stuff and the occasional unwanted gift, then there is nothing that gives rise to a tax liability.

From what I've read the 30 item/2000Euro trigger is part of the international law we've signed up to. The OECD seems to have set it globally, although I can't be certain.
From what I've seen HMRC say they're going to get the info from Ebay, etc and then sit on it until something happens. It's difficult to filter the details from the media hysteria.
Having a little insight as to how HMRC works (fairly badly!) I find the idea that they're going to start sending letters to everyone who's sold 30 items on Ebay for them to prove they aren't trading as quite hilarious.