New rules for traders

[Ian F]

https://www.aol.co.uk/money/selling-goods-online-warned-hmrc-090026242.html

Whatever it is, from used clothes on Vinted, collectables on eBay, to Airbnb lets, profits will now be under scrutiny


This new HMRC initiative may be of interest to traders, definitely worth a read.

Ian F

[GlenAnderson]

Good luck to them if they want to start playing that game. I'd happily declare all the sales I make to the taxman. My old man always said "it's not what you take, it's what you make"... £1000 worth of sales on eBay doesn't mean £1000 of profit. I'm pretty sure that the majority of private sales on such platforms are done at a net loss. Certainly nothing I have sold over the last year has gone for more than I paid for it originally, so I should be able to offset those losses against my PAYE...

[Ian F]

I agree completely Glen. As you say, most of folk like us are passing stuff on which we no longer need, rather than engaging in trading per se.
I suspect these new powers will be used to trace those who sell large quantities of all sorts of stuff on places like eBay and Gumtree.

You only have to look at "sellers other items" on eBay to see the sort of thing I mean.

Ian F

[Peter Holden]

I keep it simple, I tend not to sell stuff but just passit on.  It works because folk do the same with me.

An example - I rescued a 5 bearing diesel to stop it from just being scrapped.  It wasn't complete but I stripped it of useful parts and have passed most of them on.  Other folk have passed items on to me in the same way.

I do occasionally  sell things but not often

Peter

[GlenAnderson]

I have got, probably, thousands of pounds worth of parts. Some of which I bought cheaply because they were available and too good to pass up - the pair of NOS front wings I have are a case in point as they might actually turn a handsome profit - but the majority of it I would be lucky to break even on if I wanted to sell it at anything like a decent pace. I normally have one or two things on ebay at a time, normally on the "buy it now" option at what I consider a fair price as that automatically renews itself and I can simply let it run until I get a "sold" notification. Sometimes things go quickly, other times it can take months. Like I say though, even if I turn over a thousand pounds worth of sales, the actual profit on that is minimal. If I needed to completely clear the decks here for any reason, and had to do so in a hurry - like within the timescale for selling a house - I would almost certainly make a massive loss overall, no matter how much actual cash it brought in.

I appreciate the proposed HMRC actions in the OP are to catch those individuals actively involved in selling enough items to make a living from, but I do think that for the most part "normal" private sellers will be unaffected.

[NoBeardNoTopKnot]

Agreed. This passes the obligation to deal with all this tosh to the general public as well as business. And like business, because it costs HMRC nothing to envoke they think there's no cost. There is. If Joe-public actually follows this, and he won't - the paper-chase is unmanageable.

HMRC know this, thus in the real world it's another tool to use at their discretion.

[John]

In the past I have sold a number of items on ebay, usually to pass on unwanted items, almost all for less than they cost me or at best what they cost me but as most were bought for cash or if new receipts lost over time any loss or profit would be hard for me to prove

[Exile]

HMRC are not going to be interested in the likes of us.

They are not dim. They won't spend £1,000 worth of time, to collect £10 in tax.

There are much bigger fish to fry.

[diffwhine]

At the end of the day, our tax system does rely on an element of trust and honesty. People will always find a way to avoid paying tax and thats what we pay accountants for. If we evade tax, then HMRC rightfully come down like a tonne of bricks. I'm about to start selling off a recent acquisition of Land Rover spares from a deceased's estate. There is heaps of stuff, so clearly I want to make a profit or it will not be worth doing. With ebay's high fees and all the logistics of moving this stuff, my record keeping will need to be spot on for when I declare any profits. My self assessment next year could be a bundle of laughs!

[Wittsend]

Crackdown on second-hand clothes side-hustle: Customers make more than £1,000 in sales on Vinted, Etsy, Depop and eBay could be landed with huge tax bill in new HMRC clampdown

I shouldn't get all excited about this nonsense, small beer compared to the rich toffs who evade avoid taxes with their off-shore money havens 

HMRC going for the easy fruit.

 

[GlenAnderson]

There's a difference between selling a dozen or so items a month, listed and handled in your spare time, and selling enough that it takes you a 40-hour working week to manage the logistics.

I am in the position of earning just above the threshold for having to do an annual tax return while we are in receipt of child benefit for our son, and I have to declare the small  additional income that I receive as a union officer, so an opportunity to offset a loss against that income would quite amuse me. 😃

[Phil2014]

If you are just selling stuff that is surplus to your requirements/clearing out the garage etc, I wouldn't worry, if you are buying stuff with the sole intention of selling on for profit it's a different matter.
Phil.