£1,000 reporting on eBay sales

JohnBrook

Hi, My wife is severely disabled and spends the majority of her time reading, as we are in receipt of pension credit we resell these books on eBay to help fund further purchases. These sales exceed £1,000 per annum but there is no element of profit. Should we worry about the new reporting rules? Thanks.

Green_hopeful

Nope, I presume you are not traders and as a result not impacted. If you were buying and selling books as a business you might be caught. I also presume you are not making any or much profit  from selling the books she has been reading. 

DullGreyGuy

JohnBrook said:

Hi, My wife is severely disabled and spends the majority of her time reading, as we are in receipt of pension credit we resell these books on eBay to help fund further purchases. These sales exceed £1,000 per annum but there is no element of profit. Should we worry about the new reporting rules? Thanks.

Is she currently worried that HMRC may think she is running a business?

The laws aren't changing on what is and isn't business, HMRC is just getting more data to spot those hiding their business activities. 

Would have thought a library would be a better option than buying/reselling books but I'm sure there's a reason why it doesn't work for you.

JohnBrook

We buy new ones simply because my wife has a very low immune system and is worried about used books.

Hermann

JohnBrook said:

Hi, My wife is severely disabled and spends the majority of her time reading, as we are in receipt of pension credit we resell these books on eBay to help fund further purchases. These sales exceed £1,000 per annum but there is no element of profit. Should we worry about the new reporting rules? Thanks.

There are no new rules just improved ways of picking up those operating a business at the margins.

The very worst that could happen would be that HMRC would ask you if you were operating a business or not, and even if they decided you were then from what you've said that business would be making a loss, year after year so no tax to pay.

So the most onerous thing that could happen is that you have to complete a self assessment form/online once a year to  report the losses.

No profit = no tax liability regardless of whether it is considered a business or not.