HMRC ruling on eBay/ Etsy etc

ablfc

Hi - first time on here so please bear with me.  I understand the rule that you are now allowed to sell up to £1,000 worth of goods or belongings on eBay etc before you have declare on self assessment. 

I’m a carer for my child so am in receipt of a carers allowance of just over £300 a month which I believe is non taxable.

if I were to sell more than one thousand pounds worth of items but kept below the threshold of £12,000 would I still pay tax if I’m only in receipt of my carers allowance. At what point would you pay the tax above £1,000? .  Thanks to anyone in advance who can help, I’m happy to fill in a self assessment form but would be helpful at what point you need to worry about tax implications. 

DullGreyGuy

ablfc said:

Hi - first time on here so please bear with me.  I understand the rule that you are now allowed to sell up to £1,000 worth of goods or belongings on eBay etc before you have declare on self assessment. 

I’m a carer for my child so am in receipt of a carers allowance of just over £300 a month which I believe is non taxable.

if I were to sell more than one thousand pounds worth of items but kept below the threshold of £12,000 would I still pay tax if I’m only in receipt of my carers allowance. At what point would you pay the tax above £1,000? .  Thanks to anyone in advance who can help, I’m happy to fill in a self assessment form but would be helpful at what point you need to worry about tax implications. 

You understand wrong and probably easier to read one of the several threads that already exist. 

You only pay income tax if you are selling as a business... ie you buy things with the intent to sell them on as a profit. If you are just selling your old stuff then that isn't a business and doesn't matter if you make £1 or £100,000 from an income tax perspective. 

All HMRC are doing is getting more data to try and spot people who are operating a business but not declaring it. The press coverage is to frighten those breaking the rules to start confessing. 

Miser1964

Check out the MSE article - Ebay, Etsy, Vinted and more to share your data with HMRC (moneysavingexpert.com)

mrcol1000

Also if you were running a business and declared income then you would lose your Carers Allowance if you earnt over the income limit. I think its currently about £ 7k a year or around there. They work the weekly limit over the full year. My wife was told this by DWP when she applied for Carers Allowance as she runs a business and was registered as self employed when she applied. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Incidentally Carers Allowance is taxable income (if it takes you over the tax-free threshold).

ablfc

So to be on the safe side, do a self assessment form in case you sell a bit more than £1.000 on eBay etc even if it’s old toys or personal belongings. Thanks for all the help. 

GadgetGuru

How does one prove something is a personal possession?
I keep all my original boxes etc - so lets say I sell an old computer component, back in its original box etc. I only have a single item - not a larger quantity - but I have several items - maybe I'm taking apart my computer to sell the parts etc. 
Personally, I haven't kept every receipt for every component I've purchased over the past years. 
I could get flagged as a potential trader, but I have no receipts to prove my original purchase even though my case is completely genuine...?
Why should I have to do a tax return 'just in case', for selling my own personal possessions that I have already paid VAT on when purchasing - be it last year, or 10 years ago!

Beginning to think its easier just to let things rot and send stuff to landfill - rather that then give this government any more money over what they take from me already! So much for recycling!

se2020

Computer components should be easy as they will generally be sold at a loss.

I'm sure there may be one or two things that go up in value if they are particularly desirable or discontinued but hmrc will know that as well as I do.
If you happen to be "getting lucky" and selling all/most of your stuff at a profit you might have to convince them it's just luck.
If you list all the items at a 99p start auction then it's pretty easy to say "I got lucky on all of them" or that prices in general/inflation have put the value up since I bought them.
If you buy loads of graphics cards for £75 each and list them on a buy-it-now for £125 each you are intending to make profit.

Similarly,  if they see you are buying complete computers for £100 each on one ebay account and selling off the parts on another account for £250 you'll have some explaining to do..

RFW

GadgetGuru said:

How does one prove something is a personal possession?
I keep all my original boxes etc - so lets say I sell an old computer component, back in its original box etc. I only have a single item - not a larger quantity - but I have several items - maybe I'm taking apart my computer to sell the parts etc. 
Personally, I haven't kept every receipt for every component I've purchased over the past years. 
I could get flagged as a potential trader, but I have no receipts to prove my original purchase even though my case is completely genuine...?
Why should I have to do a tax return 'just in case', for selling my own personal possessions that I have already paid VAT on when purchasing - be it last year, or 10 years ago!

Beginning to think its easier just to let things rot and send stuff to landfill - rather that then give this government any more money over what they take from me already! So much for recycling!

I don't see you have anything to worry about or anything new you need to do. If you're selling personal possessions and are not a business you still don't need to declare it.
You could maybe start to picture invoices/receipts and file them in a cloud or on a file on your laptop. That's not a bad practice anyway.
There's no government department that will start chasing people for a potential few quid in tax.
HMRC have long been able to access the information from Ebay and others.

DullGreyGuy

ablfc said:

So to be on the safe side, do a self assessment form in case you sell a bit more than £1.000 on eBay etc even if it’s old toys or personal belongings. Thanks for all the help. 

Its going beyond the belts, braces and superglue approach.

Even if you sold £10,000 of your personal possessions then nothing to put in your self assessment even if you started to do one but it sounds like you are intending to go beyond simply doing self assessment (which has always had a positive outcome for me) but declaring your personal possession sales as sole trader activity... that, for many, would just result in them paying taxes they don't need to. 

Spoonie_Turtle

ablfc said:

So to be on the safe side, do a self assessment form in case you sell a bit more than £1.000 on eBay etc even if it’s old toys or personal belongings. Thanks for all the help. 

NO, completely unnecessary. 
You only need to do a self-assessment if it's from trading.  Don't start paying the government more of your time and money just because the reporting around this has been so awful.