HMRC - Selling on eBay and other selling platforms

[PhillH]

Hi all,

I thought this would be a good place to start this discussion.

Has anyone sold a number of items or gone over the new HMRC threshold for submitting a self assessment tax return? According to the website for eBay it is 30 items or £1700.

I’m guessing we are all the same here, we collect / upgrade parts so we have an abundance of parts in the garage that we sell on eBay if not possible through the forum.

Has anyone submitted a tax return?

 

[Salty Spuds]

Most genuine non-commercial sellers will not be making a profit on their sales, most likely a loss. E.g. I buy a widget for my van, a month later I upgrade & sell the old widget for less than I paid, ergo no profit or tax implications.
Or I buy a dozen widgets, get a discount, and sell them on at a profit, cue HMRC.
It’s simple really.

 

[denz1968]

We are just going through this.
We breed Birman cats - small time - one litter per year, max kittens in a litter 3.

I had a call with the inland revenue last week, and basically with all our costs, and you can carry loss over year to year, we are £6000 loss so far in 4 years.
Now we have included everything bought for our cats, and the kittens along with mileage etc to take the female to stud.

Hope that helps, pm if you need anymore info

 

[PhillH]

Hi @Salty Spuds @denz1968 thank you for your replies. What if you do not have receipts for your costs. E.g. bought a van to convert and sold all the interior parts that are not required.

Would HMRC accept the receipt for the purchase of the van?

 

[denz1968]

I think you would have to ask the HMRC ref that.

Remember your postage costs, packing material costs, mileage to the post office and back @0.45p per mile ETC ETC

We did a simple income expenditure spreadsheet to calculate where we were at

 

[drinfinity]

If you bought them for the purpose of making a profit, you would declare. If it is that old undertray you took off the van when fitting a water tank*, it was your personal possession and you don’t need to declare.

Check if you need to tell HMRC about additional income

Check whether you need to report and pay any tax on income you make apart from your main job or earnings.

www.gov.uk

*still for sale by the way…

 

[PhillH]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it is because of the amount of items and the value it is coming to that is bothering me, more annoying the fact they came from my van or I paid more for them previously and HMRC then want to take money from you.

Again thanks for the replies.

 

[Paynewright]

Ebay have also changed who bears the cost of the sale - used to be the seller and think its switching to the buyer albeit we seem to be in a grace period currently!

I’m yet to fully investigate / understand the changes.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it is because of the amount of items and the value it is coming to that is bothering me, more annoying the fact they came from my van or I paid more for them previously and HMRC then want to take money from you.

Again thanks for the replies.

HMRC are actually quite co-operative. If they decide that you are operating a business/commercially, then you will be able to claim back much more than you pay, in effect it becomes a net loss game for them. I think you’re looking for problems that aren’t there.

 

[LT2019]

Selling online & HMRC | UK Seller Centre

Discover everything you need to know about selling online, digital sales reporting and HMRC, so you can keep selling with confidence.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[PhillH]

Thanks everyone, I have never done a self assessment tax return before or had any dealings with HMRC but hear others say they are difficult to deal with and hard work to try and get through to on the phone.

The most annoying thing for me is the fact they want to tax us on everything.

The link from @LT2019 is interesting and helpful.

 

[drinfinity]

they want to tax us on everything.

The HMRC website states explicitly they don’t want to tax you on selling on your old parts from the garage.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Thanks everyone, I have never done a self assessment tax return before or had any dealings with HMRC but hear others say they are difficult to deal with and hard work to try and get through to on the phone.

The most annoying thing for me is the fact they want to tax us on everything.

The link from @LT2019 is interesting and helpful.

Filling in my self assessment is one of the easiest bits of government bureaucracy I have to deal with. Not quite a pleasure, but one I face with the least dread.

 

[JDC]

Thanks everyone, I have never done a self assessment tax return before or had any dealings with HMRC but hear others say they are difficult to deal with and hard work to try and get through to on the phone.

The most annoying thing for me is the fact they want to tax us on everything.

The link from @LT2019 is interesting and helpful.

They can't tax you if you don't tell them. For a couple of quid, is it really the hassle of filling in them big forms. There's millionaires out there who probably pay less tax than you do. I wouldn't tell them anything.

 

[PhillH]

They can't tax you if you don't tell them. For a couple of quid, is it really the hassle of filling in them big forms. There's millionaires out there who probably pay less tax than you do. I wouldn't tell them anything.

That was my thought but eBay tell HMRC if you have more than 30 completed transactions or sales exceed €2000. I can just hope for the best and HMRC do not contact me

 

[drinfinity]

EBay will feed to HMRC, but HMRC are not automatically going to act on every one. If there’s a regular pattern of 10 sales a day, I would get suspicious, but not worth the effort to chase up someone selling occasionally, probably across a variety of commodities.

You can go to the HMRC website and do their questionnaire (I linked it above) and it will advise. Not linked to your tax records, so costs you nothing to do.

 

[ginkster]

That was my thought but eBay tell HMRC if you have more than 30 completed transactions or sales exceed €2000. I can just hope for the best and HMRC do not contact me

I just don’t see what you are worrying about. Do you think that everyone who sells (for more that €2000) a car via eBay pays tax or informs HMRC? Do you think HMRC chases them? If you are not a business, are not doing it for profit and are selling your personal possessions then it’s simply not an issue. Still not happy, then sell some elsewhere (Facebook, local paper, Gumtree (is that still a thing?!….) to stay under the limits.

 

[JumpShip]

Keep your own records of items sold , if anyone should ask then you have them ....if not then keep your head down and say nothing .

 

[Sasquatch]

Use a VPN and spread the sales round several accounts.

 

[JDC]

I just don’t see what you are worrying about. Do you think that everyone who sells (for more that €2000) a car via eBay pays tax or informs HMRC? Do you think HMRC chases them? If you are not a business, are not doing it for profit and are selling your personal possessions then it’s simply not an issue. Still not happy, then sell some elsewhere (Facebook, local paper, Gumtree (is that still a thing?!….) to stay under the limits.

And set up multiple accounts with different emails. There's always "loopholes".