CAN I CHOOSE WHAT I DECLARE TO HMRC AS TRADING ON EBAY

mollyolly

Hi, I'm getting confused.  I am registered as self employed and informed HMRC in 2021 that I earnt very little online and was a semi retired housewife. They wrote back saying I did not need to fill in a self assessment online after 2022 unless asked to.  My situation has now changed, I am now a widow, no income except the small amount I earn on ebay selling my personal belongings and also buying trainers to sell on, which I understand is trading.  Do I now have to declare everything I sell on ebay including personal belongings or can I keep it separate from selling trainers and just declare the income I get from the trainers ??? . I understand that now if my gross income is over £1000 I should fill in a self assessment.  Can anyone help. Do I declare all that I earn on ebay or just the trainers I buy to sell on. Thanks

Kim_13

The trainers should be sold on a business account and any personal belongings on your personal account, which keeps things separate. eBay will soon have to report certain activity on personal accounts to help capture tax evaders but as all goods sold on your personal account will be belongings that are no longer wanted/needed, you will have no tax liability.

Spoonie_Turtle

Kim_13 said:

The trainers should be sold on a business account and any personal belongings on your personal account, which keeps things separate. eBay will soon have to report certain activity on personal accounts to help capture tax evaders but as all goods sold on your personal account will be belongings that are no longer wanted/needed, you will have no tax liability.

I am no expert but I would think not necessarily in this case.  If the trainers are the only trading items then it'll be easy enough for OP to accurately know how much revenue they get from them, and easy enough to prove to HMRC the revenue and profit if that takes them over the threshold combined with the other self-employment.

Usually if someone is trading various different items then yes the advice is to keep things separate, for simplicity.  But in this instance it may not be necessary.

So in answer to your question, OP, no you can't choose what to declare, but you only have to declare trading.  You definitely shouldn't declare selling personal items.

RFW

mollyolly said:

Hi, I'm getting confused.  I am registered as self employed and informed HMRC in 2021 that I earnt very little online and was a semi retired housewife. They wrote back saying I did not need to fill in a self assessment online after 2022 unless asked to.  My situation has now changed, I am now a widow, no income except the small amount I earn on ebay selling my personal belongings and also buying trainers to sell on, which I understand is trading.  Do I now have to declare everything I sell on ebay including personal belongings or can I keep it separate from selling trainers and just declare the income I get from the trainers ??? . I understand that now if my gross income is over £1000 I should fill in a self assessment.  Can anyone help. Do I declare all that I earn on ebay or just the trainers I buy to sell on. Thanks

Get some independent advice that takes into account your details and circumstances. You may end up with tax rebates rather than having to pay anything.

As for declaring, as mentioned you only need to declare the sale of goods you have traded in.

Vectis

RFW said:

mollyolly said:

Hi, I'm getting confused.  I am registered as self employed and informed HMRC in 2021 that I earnt very little online and was a semi retired housewife. They wrote back saying I did not need to fill in a self assessment online after 2022 unless asked to.  My situation has now changed, I am now a widow, no income except the small amount I earn on ebay selling my personal belongings and also buying trainers to sell on, which I understand is trading.  Do I now have to declare everything I sell on ebay including personal belongings or can I keep it separate from selling trainers and just declare the income I get from the trainers ??? . I understand that now if my gross income is over £1000 I should fill in a self assessment.  Can anyone help. Do I declare all that I earn on ebay or just the trainers I buy to sell on. Thanks

Get some independent advice that takes into account your details and circumstances. You may end up with tax rebates rather than having to pay anything.

As for declaring, as mentioned you only need to declare the sale of goods you have traded in.

Getting, and presumably paying for, independent advice seems a little over the top for someone buying and selling some trainers online. The op even says they're only earning a small amount from the trainers, over and above their personal belongings.

Keep things simple.

km1500

for the avoidance of doubt, it may help to imagine you have two 'allowances'

one for selling personal stuff - this allowance is infinity - unlimited

one for business selling - this allowance is £1000 of sales pa.

mollyolly

Thank you for all your comments. That's made it clear now about which items to include in assessment . Another thing is I just couldn't understand why one has to declare anything over 1k gross, why not after expenses and also what happened to earning 12500 before tax. Why do they need to know if you are nowhere near that .  I did read that it's not a legal requirement unless asked to do so but perhaps beneficial for your own records.

km1500

what they are saying is normally you have to declare everything i.e any profit made but hey what we're going to do is say if you only make £1,000 worth of sales or under then you don't have to - have it on us!

this freebie is entirely arbitrarily set at a thousand pounds and could be changed or indeed removed at any time

soolin

mollyolly said:

Thank you for all your comments. That's made it clear now about which items to include in assessment . Another thing is I just couldn't understand why one has to declare anything over 1k gross, why not after expenses and also what happened to earning 12500 before tax. Why do they need to know if you are nowhere near that .  I did read that it's not a legal requirement unless asked to do so but perhaps beneficial for your own records.

Nothing has changed at all. If you have to declare because your entire takings are over £1000 as a trader then you still prepare your accounts as normal. All income, less all expenses = taxable amount. Your entire income, including taxable benefits  and PAYE or other self employed income is then taken as a whole, your tax allowance is taken into account and you pay tax on the amount left. 

It’s really that simple.

Grumpy_chap

Outside of the taxation matters that are the subject of the OP's query, it may make sense to have two eBay accounts - for personal and trading activities separately.
When selling personal items, the buyers rights are very limited.  A "private seller" account will state this in the listings.
When trading, the buyers rights are greater.  A business account will facilitate this better.

RFW

Vectis said:

RFW said:

Get some independent advice that takes into account your details and circumstances. You may end up with tax rebates rather than having to pay anything.

As for declaring, as mentioned you only need to declare the sale of goods you have traded in.

Getting, and presumably paying for, independent advice seems a little over the top for someone buying and selling some trainers online. The op even says they're only earning a small amount from the trainers, over and above their personal belongings.

Keep things simple.

There are plenty of places to get free advice. From CAB to a local library. Some accountants offer free advice mornings/days. Even a call to HMRC can be helpful, if you don't mind waiting 2 hours for someone to answer.
With what sounds like considerable change on circumstances the OP may be entitled to other resources and tax benefits.
This forum is great for general advice but for specifics relating to someone's circumstances and income probably not so much.