eBay Personal Sales > £6,000

Scruff682

I'm having to fill in a self-assessment and am not a sole-trader, but have made 80 or so sales through eBay this year.

All of the sales are second-hand personal belongings, however a few are bikes and a Mac (laptop) which takes my sales over £6,000.  Everything has been mine, used, and sold for (substantially) less than I original brought the items, so definitely no profit.

I also have a small fledgling company I am trying to start up (not making any money yet), therefore I have an accountant for that, and they will do my self-assessment for me, although tbh, it seems i am filling it all out myself.

My accountant says I need to show receipts etc. for all my sales, and to log it in the sole trader section of the self-assessment, however I am not a sole-trader and aren't registered as one.

Is this where this should go? Or in another section (Capital Gains?)? Or not at all, as I haven't made any profit?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as the guidance from HMRC doesn't seem to capture my scenario.  I didn't think selling items off (for no profit) would be something I would need to worry about. 😕

Bookworm105

as you surmise, the sale of personal possessions is not reportable even if required to do a tax return for other reasons 

the £6,000 limit relates to the value of a single item (or single "collection") for CGT purposes, so is irrelevant in your context.

DullGreyGuy

Scruff682 said:

I'm having to fill in a self-assessment and am not a sole-trader, but have made 80 or so sales through eBay this year.

All of the sales are second-hand personal belongings, however a few are bikes and a Mac (laptop) which takes my sales over £6,000.  Everything has been mine, used, and sold for (substantially) less than I original brought the items, so definitely no profit.

I also have a small fledgling company I am trying to start up (not making any money yet), therefore I have an accountant for that, and they will do my self-assessment for me, although tbh, it seems i am filling it all out myself.

My accountant says I need to show receipts etc. for all my sales, and to log it in the sole trader section of the self-assessment, however I am not a sole-trader and aren't registered as one.

Is this where this should go? Or in another section (Capital Gains?)? Or not at all, as I haven't made any profit?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as the guidance from HMRC doesn't seem to capture my scenario.  I didn't think selling items off (for no profit) would be something I would need to worry about. 😕

If you are paying an accountant but still feeling it necessary to ask questions to unknown strangers on the internet I suggest you consider switching accountants!

You'd need to provide your accountant either with receipts or a log of all sales and all purchases exclusively relevant to your sole trader activities. You dont need to provide them with receipts for liquidating your personal belongings that you haven't claimed as a business expense nor your weekly grocery shopping. 

kinger101

There is no income tax from the sale of personal items.
 
If you accountant says otherwise, then you need to find another one.

Cobbler_tone

kinger101 said:

There is no income tax from the sale of personal items.
 
If you accountant says otherwise, then you need to find another one.

So if I bought a piece of art for 10k and sold it for 50k there would be no CGT on my personal item?

Bookworm105

Cobbler_tone said:

kinger101 said:

There is no income tax from the sale of personal items.
 
If you accountant says otherwise, then you need to find another one.

So if I bought a piece of art for 10k and sold it for 50k there would be no CGT on my personal item?

as already mentioned, there is a 6k limit above which you pay CGT 
you could have found this yourself:
Capital Gains Tax on personal possessions: What you pay it on - GOV.UK

theoretica

Cobbler_tone said:

kinger101 said:

There is no income tax from the sale of personal items.
 
If you accountant says otherwise, then you need to find another one.

So if I bought a piece of art for 10k and sold it for 50k there would be no CGT on my personal item?

Income tax is a different tax from CGT

kinger101

Cobbler_tone said:

kinger101 said:

There is no income tax from the sale of personal items.
 
If you accountant says otherwise, then you need to find another one.

So if I bought a piece of art for 10k and sold it for 50k there would be no CGT on my personal item?

I was answering the OP.  Don't see the relevance of the straw man.