Online Marketplace

Hope someone can help on this please. For the purposes of online trading through marketplaces, if selling personal possessions my understanding is that there is nothing to declare unless there’s a single item over £6k. If selling and a profit is made then any profit over £1k trading allowance needs to be declared. Is this understanding right please?

Is anyone able to help on this please?

Just reposting as all recent posts seem to have a response except this one. Can someone please help

Do you mean you're selling your own belongings (for example, used clothes on eBay)? If yes, then you are allowed to sell them as long as they are used or in your possession for longer than 6 months. If the overall yearly profit from those sales is more than £1k, you have to declare it and pay tax on this profit. If you selling on regular basis and those items are new, you have to register as a Sole Trader.

Hi Jay,

That is correct - see guidance at:

Selling online and paying taxes - information sheet

Thank you.

Thanks both! So it’s just if there’s any profit that’s greater than £1000 in the year that needs to be declared. So for instance, majority is personal / used items. (These should be excluded for purposes of tax), where’s there’s the odd couple of items bought to trade, is it just when the profit ticks over £1000 that this needs to be declared? Say for example, you buy an item for £1500 and it sells for £1600. If it’s just one sale nothing would need to be declared. If it’s 9 sales, again nothing would be declared, but if it’s 11 sales at (£16500) and a profit of £1100, then it’s the £1100 or the £100 above the £1000 that needs to be declared? If the total profit is under £1000, I’m assuming it does not need to be declared? Thanks for any help on this

Unfortunately not. Only occasional sales with a total value under £1000 per year are free from tax. Regular selling (even if it's used items) falls under conducting trade (you have to register). Selling anything you bought to resell with the intention of making a profit is conducting a trade (you have to register). Furthermore, an item's value equals profit, so if you sold something for £1600, it means you've earned £1600 (not £100). Why? Because you can't include that £1500 in expenses since you're not officially running a business.

Hi Jay,

Yes, if your total profits (less expenses) for a given year are £1000 or less, you do not have to declare them - unless, that is, your expenses exceed your trading income and you want to claim a trading loss to carry forward to future years.                                         
You can find guidance here - Tax-free allowances on property and trading income

Thank you.