HMRC tax on £1000 sales

[Anonymous]

Does the £1000 p.a. sales figure include postage? I sell low value items & the postage is usually higher than the value of the item.  On £1000 sales i'd be lucky to make £200 profit.  Seems the end of Ebay for sellers like me.

[simon.willcock.antiques]

I agree with everything said and also support the use of Ai 👍🏻

[notonlymars]

Are you using fake id or address like me do?

[cattuner]

I did £25000,only £1500 profit ,buy from auction,a lot of work i'm over seventy, now taxman wants his cut 

not worth doing 

[cobwebcottage]

'I did £25000,only £1500 profit ,buy from auction,a lot of work i'm over seventy, now taxman wants his cut 

not worth doing '

You buy to sell then you should pay your taxes. Just because you are over 70 and you say have only made a profit of £1500 has nothing to do with it. You have a gross of £25K sales and do not pay any fees to list your items on Ebay. Do you think that's fair on the businesses who sell similar items to you and pay fees as well?

You want to play the game but make up your own rules.

[storme30]

AI is comedy gold on ebay..especially selling 2nd hand..where precise details are req'd..sellers just press AI and walk away ..then moan when refund/returns mount up 

[jow1995]

Hopefully the NIN and HMRC reporting will help sort out these problem sellers.

[edd_chickenham]

When does the £1700 that eBay has to report for sales to HMRC get reset. Is it after 12 months from your first sale or is it in each tax year and resets in April?

[brookheather]

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@edd_chickenham wrote:

When does the £1700 that eBay has to report for sales to HMRC get reset. Is it after 12 months from your first sale or is it in each tax year and resets in April?

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Neither - it is per calendar year from January to December as this is the agreement between the various countries that signed up to this reporting.

[edd_chickenham]

Many thanks, I was curious about that rule.

[storme30]

Its a load of old pants having left EU we sign up to EU annual tax law Jan-Dec when we run from Apr-Apr making it clumsy and the 2000 euro conversion again is vague when converted to £.

Should be if it has to exist at all 50 sales or £3000 base-line ..all thats gonna happen now is the system will either get bogged down in paperwork or HMRC will ignore accounts under say £3000 unless it wants to waste tax payers money chasing diddly..

[brookheather]

It's OECD tax reporting rules not EU.

[pamel_3339]

It seems that Trump school of Economics has been tasked with setting up eBay's reporting.

1. UK Tax year is 6th April to 5th April. Not a Calendar Year.

2. As a private seller. I see the Buyers protection fee is added to my revenue when this revenue is nothing to do with me.

3. The monthly statement is a pile of garbage as there is no strip out of Buyers Protection and the postage that is not identified separately.

As people who do over £50k a year turnover (not me) from 2026/27, they will have to do digital quarterly reporting to Inland Revenue. 

I see no download reporting tools in eBay to allow this to happen. 

As a final note i can see eBay shutting it's UK business if they are tasked with HMRC requirements and people say it's not working and give up listing.

[double_o_heaven]

I would not recommend doing that.

Also, in reply to the preceeding post, the reporting requirements and periods were not set by eBay - it is one rule for many countries who have different tax years.  We seem to be the anomally compared to a lot in Europe who quite sensibly match it to the calendar year!

The buyers protection fee should absolutely not be part of your turnover however.   But of course, if is then determined that you are trading, then that won't continue to be a problem.

[fotherbale]

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@Anonymous wrote:

....... if I buy an item say, from a charity shop, is it not a personal item once I have paid for it, even if I decide to sell it a week later? Seems murky waters to me.

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It is murky waters, but if it is a one off HMRC is unlikely to regard it as a business trade. 

If you make a regular habit of buying stuff and then almost immediately selling it, that would be a different matter, but in the end HMRC are fairly pragmatic and are unlikely to pursue somebody where the amount of tax recovered is less than the cost of recovering it. 

The reporting requirement on ebay and the rest is designed to catch volume business sellers who have not been declaring their income from such trading, rather than to put the wind up private individuals who may sell a few odd items that may have been sold on soon after they had been purchased by the seller. 

[sml192]

The amount of time between purchase and sale is one of HMRC's 9 'Badges of Trade'.   They look at all the 'Badges of Trade' collectively in determining whether someone is 'Trading' and won't base any decision on any one of them in isolation. 

Interval of time between purchase and sale

see BIM20310

Assets that are the subject of trade will normally, but not always, be sold quickly. Therefore, an intention to resell an asset shortly after purchase will support trading. However, an asset, which is to be held indefinitely, is much less likely to be a subject of trade.

[storme30]

Like your words.

Still think 50 items/£3000 would give people (non-trade) confidence in this process..£1000 is so low that its hardly worth chasing potential tax. 

[double_o_heaven]

And indeed they probably will not - it is just the figure above which HMRC have to be notified.  Not that they then have to take action.

Except actually it isn't - it is about £1,700 or 2000 euros.

The £1,000 is the allowance given by HMRC for trading income (not personal possessions) above which it is the individual's responsibility to report themselves.  Two different things.

[storme30]

Your reply neatly sums up what a 'dogs dinner' the process is.

[papso22]

I think the reply sums up how people are confused about the reporting thresholds and actual tax issues.