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.

[sml192]

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@happychappysales wrote:

EBay are saying that their tax year is January 1st to December 31st not April to April which makes it even more confusing 

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Nothing to do with eBay or the UK tax year.  January 1st to December 31st is the reporting period defined by the UK digital sales reporting legislation in accordance with the OECD Model Rules.  Most of the 38 member countries of the OECD use January to December as their tax year, unlike the UK, hence why that period was chosen.  

[happychappysales]

Thank you for clarifying that for me but to the layman it's just so confusing I'm sure if you end up owing tax on your sales and eBay let's HMRC have your sale details after 30 sales or £1000 if they think you owe tax they'll let you know. I'm still a little confused about it being £1000 or £1700 and personally I think 30 sales seems pretty low but as I'm just a private seller selling my family's old stuff and not a business the goal posts are moved regarding the tax offices interest,, we'll just have to wait and see .

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[lucy_farmer]

'I'm still a little confused about it being £1000 or £1700 and personally I think 30 sales seems pretty low but as I'm just a private seller selling my family's old stuff and not a business the goal posts are moved regarding the tax offices interest,, we'll just have to wait and see .'

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If you are genuine private seller, HMRC will not be sending you a bill for anything, regardless of how many sales you have made.

(Unless you sell a single item-or a collection like stamps/coins etc- for more than £6000.00 , which puts you into Capital gains tax. Mind you, anybody selling a single item for more than 6 grand on ebay is either nuts or the bravest person in the world....😱)

If you have made lots of sales and HMRC decide to have a look at you, they (or more probably their A.I. system) will have a look at what you have actually sold.

If you sold 35 pairs of trainers, all new, all different sizes.... Or 47 tubes of un-opened sun-cream. ...Or 142 new dish-washer spare-parts ..... etc etc! *Obvious* new stuff bought to sell on.

In that instance HMRC will judge you to be selling for business purposes and treat you as such. And you'll get a bill.

If, on the other hand, you sold a second-hand tool kit, 2 used handbags, some inherited camera accessories,  some now unwanted collectors coins, your old stereo and a new but unwanted Christmas present pack of soaps etc etc ... HMRC wil leave you alone!

[happychappysales]

Thank goodness, I actually don’t sell many new items usually used clothing items or my family no longer want or need, a few collectibles, ornaments etc, old trainers, jeans, jackets, they actually sell pretty well so I sell well over 30 items a year and may well make over £1000 in a year which in fact includes little profit, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but thank you for your reassurance 👍

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