Can I go over my 30 item early limit with being taxed

[5607ellis]

So recently I’ve been selling my collection of retro video games which I’ve built up since I was a kid as I’m moving house and want to declutter. I’ve now reached my yearly 30 item limit and have made around £1700. I’ve sent my national insurance number to eBay as requested. As I’m a private seller can I still continue to sell my items as I have around another 60 gaming items to sell or will I be taxed on further sales? How does eBay/the inland revenue decide who is a private seller and who is a business which should be taxed. EBay’s policy on this kind of thing seems very unclear 

[susapric-68]

Selling your private collection is ok, the 30 items/£1700 is the limit that eBay has to report you to the HMRC. If it's a personnel collection then you're ok and can sell over that

[wintersdawn1]

Example — selling unwanted items

You’re clearing out your attic and decide to sell your unwanted items using online marketplaces. None of the items you sell are worth more than £6,000.

It’s unlikely that you’ll need to tell us about this income or pay any tax, no matter how many items you sell.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-need-to-tell-hmrc-about-your-income-from-online-platforms#s...

• If you are selling unwanted personal possessions such as old toys or clothes, this would not be classed as trading or miscellaneous income, and there is usually no tax to pay. In some circumstances there may be capital gains tax when selling valuable items such as jewellery, this is covered in our flowchart.

https://www.litrg.org.uk/news/selling-online-make-sure-you-keep-clear-records

Do I have to share information with HMRC?

From January 2024, new UK digital sales reporting rules require digital platforms like eBay to share information with them. However, this reporting doesn’t change your tax obligations.

On eBay, this should only affect newly registered accounts in 2024, which will extend to all accounts in 2025.

eBay will only report if you pass certain yearly sales thresholds:

• If your total sales on eBay exceed €2000, or roughly £1740, after fees.

• If you complete 30 or more sales transactions on eBay.

In general, selling personal items is not taxed if they’re below £6,000 and you’re not selling as part of a business.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/selling/selling-online-and-hmrc

[lucy_farmer]

If you are a genuine private seller selling off your own stuff that you've had for years, you should be just fine. There is no financial limit for selling your own stuff (unless you make a single sale of over £6000.00 ; but I don't know anybody brave enough to try that on ebay 😱)

As long as the things you are selling are not 'Brand New' , and not multiples of the same thing , you're OK.

Once your details are passed to HMRC, whether or not they take a closer look at you is anybody's guess. But they'll also be looking for evidence of people who 'buy to sell' .

So evidence in your ebay account of buying  things, if you immediately flogged them on, as well as selling would probably come into the equation.

HMRC would be looking for accounts selling lots of brand new stuff, loads of the same new things, 'choose your size', 'pick your colour',  'consumables' (which are, logically, difficult to be second-hand) etc..

People keep saying 'keep your receipts'...... well , I dunno about you, but when I buy something *for me* as soon as it becomes evident I don't need to take it back, the receipt goes in the bin!

And receipts for things I bought years ago , went in the bin years ago 😂

Basically, if you're genuinely not trying to pull a fast one you'll be fine.........

[jckl1957]

Ebay don't have a policy - they are a selling platform, not a tax collector.

They have to report the sales of all UK sellers who sell 30 items or more.

Then, HMRC decide what, if anything, to do with the information.

There is not a '30 limit'.  Private sellers can sell as many items as they wish.  As long as you are not trading, so buying items to sell on for a profit, or monetising a hobby like knitting baby blankets, the money you make from selling is not taxable income.

[t32997]

Everyone keeps saying you should be fine, and the official government tax calculator says:

"Personal possessions you sell for less than £6,000 are not subject to tax"

"You do not need to tell HMRC about this income"

BUT then people on here start saying "I've just received a letter from HMRC which requests all sales info up to April 2023" and you look at their listings and its just 100 listings of obvious regular household stuff with maybe only 50 items sold not even totalling £2000. Not just one seller but many private sellers like this.

The letters have also been saying "we have information that shows you've earned income from online marketplace sales up to the tax year ending 5th April 2023. You need to tell us about this income as you may owe tax".

Which means either the digital sales reporting are breaking their one year promise by handing over data from several years before it started or HMRC are betraying us by threatening us with fines if we don't tell them everything now after going over the digital sales reporting limits.

It's not right when HMRC have clearly always told us the opposite by stating "YOU DO NOT need to tell HMRC about this income".  😡😡😡

[lucy_farmer]

'BUT then people on here start saying "I've just received a letter from HMRC which requests all sales info up to April 2023" and you look at their listings and its just 100 listings of obvious regular household stuff with maybe only 50 items sold not even totalling £2000. Not just one seller but many private sellers like this.'

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The letter that some sellers have received is a generic sort of letter that HMRC will send to anybody who they even slightly suspect of pulling a fast one....

If you're genuinely *not* trying to pull the wool, just tell HMRC so!  And tell them they're welcome to have a good firkle in your bank account and online selling account....

If you're telling the truth, you'll be fine.

[t32997]

I'm sorry but if they clearly told us "YOU DO NOT NEED TO TELL US" that should be their guarantee that we don't need to.

Otherwise it would have said "YOU STILL MIGHT NEED TO TELL US" in which case I may have not chosen to sell anything on here in the past (which I am choosing to do now) because I don't trust them and as proved they cannot be trusted.