Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

I have a private account and was/am planning to sell of my collection of signed memorabilia, but am now having second thoughts due to the recent HMRC tax news.

 

Over the years I have collected several 100 (probably thousands) of signed photos and a few other bits. I have collected a lot myself and some I have purchased on sites like ebay and marketplace etc.

 

I have no papertrail as such. Why would I, it was for the love of collecting? As circumstances change I am thinking of selling my collection to help pay for my sons uni fees etc. I know I will sell a lot more than 30 items and would expect to make a few thousand pounds. Nothing well sell for more than £6k (I wish!)

 

I certainly dont consider myself a trader but how do I prove this if HMRC come knocking? And if I do register for self assessment I have no "costs" to put down as I have never kept any records. As I said beofre it was a hobbie for me to see who I could get, it was never about making money.

 

So I guess my questions are:

 

Should I still sell these on ebay and if I do will I have to declare?

If I do declare will I have to pay tax on all of it as it will technically all be profit if I have no costs?

 

Any reassurenace would be much appreciated.

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

*vyolla*
Experienced Mentor

Nothing has changed for private sellers.

 

A private seller selling their own personal items isn't subject to this, it's nothing to do with their tax allowance. See here:

 

https://www.gov.uk/check-additional-income-tax

 

 eBay will be passing on data to HMRC automatically if you're selling 30 or more items a year OR have total earnings over the equivalent of £1,770. eBay will automatically share this information with HMRC by 31 January 2025 .

 

Even though the above data is being shared, it doesn't mean that you will owe tax if you're a private seller.

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

Thanks for the reply. I clicked on the link and all seems good. 

 

However my concern is "Did you only sell personal possessions? Items that you bought with the intention of selling to make a profit are not classed as personal possessions".

 

As I said these are my collection and I did not buy with the intention of selling to make a profit. However I cant prove that if they come knocking.

 

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

If as you say they are a collection you will be fine no tax needs to be paid, just resell in small batches rather than everything all at once, probably better in a specialist auction than ebay so many risks involved. I know 25% seems allot but not likley to go missing in the post, buyers to not pay, get damged , returned, and all the other things that can go wrong on ebay.

Plus you can get rid of everything all at once.

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?


@jedimasterpork wrote:

Thanks for the reply. I clicked on the link and all seems good. 

 

However my concern is "Did you only sell personal possessions? Items that you bought with the intention of selling to make a profit are not classed as personal possessions".

 

As I said these are my collection and I did not buy with the intention of selling to make a profit. However I cant prove that if they come knocking.

 


If you go over the 30 items/£1770 threshold and your sales information is passed onto HMRC they'll likely just send a nudge letter asking you to confirm that you're just selling off your own personal possessions. 

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

Again this is all starting from jan 2024 correct?

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

Jan 24 will be the first month covered by the new reporting system, with the report in Jan 25 being the first report.

 

Nothing to do with the actual tax position has changed. 

 

 

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?


@a.c.r.o.n.y.m wrote:

Again this is all starting from jan 2024 correct?


Here's eBay's guidance page in which they explain what information they'll providing and when:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/account/regulatory/uk-digital-sales-reporting?id=5454&st=3&pos=1&query=U...

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

@jedimasterpork   I can understand how private (genuine) sellers would get confused or worried by this, especially people selling collections, of which i`m included 🙂

i`m currently selling one of my collections entirely and a few of another, which at this point means i have 470 listings, which was just over 500. Now from my point of view, the bit that worries me is the `selling for profit`. Clearly, though not always, people who have collected stuff over many years, means the value of those items clearly, though not always, has risen, in other words, something i purchased 10-20 years ago for say £20, could now be worth 5 or 10 times that much. So obviously, if i sell an item for £100 that i paid £10 for years ago, because that`s it`s worth now, that`s  clearly what i`m going to do, so i`m selling for profit, where`s the difference?

 

@moldosgifts   ` just resell in small batches rather than everything all at once`

 

That`s fine in principle, but for myself and the o.p, along with many others who have say `larger` collections, splitting into `small batches` would not only take forever to sell all your items, we shouldn`t have to do that in the first place, whether i sell £1700 worth or £17,000 worth, their still my personal items. if i have say 10 batches of items, i list batch one, but whilst that batch of 30 items is waiting to be sold, i`m missing out on sales from people out the other 9 batches, because they`ve gone somewhere else or purchased somewhere else.

Now i know i`m doing nothing wrong, but it still plays on your mind, it`s that old `i`d rather not fight in the first place` thing, getting the questions, having to prove what you say, how to prove what your saying.

i 100% agree with what their doing and why, but boy, isn`t it just the craziest things we worry about 🙄

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

The 'profit' element is just one of the badges of trade which have to be considered together.  Simply selling something at a profit does not make that a trading sale subject to tax.  It might even be considered one of the less significant ones as you can still trade at a loss and the badge refers to having a 'profit motive',  not just making a profit.

 

A business that buys something to sell, gets the market wrong (misses the boom), and sells at a loss, is still selling that item as a business, or trading, sale.

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Ebay tax help. Should I sell and if so do I need to declare?

I would talk to an accountant. Like you said you collected a lot yourself but did buy some, that would be the grey area and not having a paper trail for it all. They would tell you the best thing to do

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