Selling online

Hi, can you clarify if I am allowed to sell 30 items and make up to £1000 from April 2023 until April 2024 and then 30 again from April 2024 till April 2025 (ie. tax years) without being reported? Or is it January 2024 till January 2025? Thanks

The guidance seems pretty clear. If you are selling personal possessions for less than £6000 you don't need to declare. If you are buying stuff to resell them, you are trading and only the £1000 exemption applies. I am a private individual and this is my opinion.

Hello I am registered self employed nothing to do with ebay sales but I have items i want to sell ( have not sold anything yet ) some over 5 years old bought by ex partner who is now deceased no receipts so if I sell any of these items which I have used or had in a wardrobe do i include them on my tax return as I don't have a trading allowance as am self employed use expenses ? If I do have to include them on the tax return ( I think they may turnover £300 to £400 if lucky ) do I then have to list these sales as a separate business as my business is not online ebay sales ? thank you

Hi Susan,

Yes, you can. It is the tax year 06 April to 05 April.

Thank you.

Hi DorotheeP,
Yes, you will report this income.
Show it as other earned income.
Thank you. 

 

Hi, to add more to the mix, Vinted had some info on their app today, which states the below. Based on this and the previous questions and answers to my specific circumstances (house clearance, +£1000 sales current tax year but won’t make that much again, around 80 items sold, all personal 95% used items, sold for much less than paid), I continue to take the stance that I don’t need to declare this on my self assessment for 2023-24 tax year. Personal income tax rules Country of tax residency United Kingdom Is there a tax on selling second-hand? Selling your items on Vinted is not taxed. koy Sell items for less than you bought them for? There's no tax to pay. へ Let's say you bought a shirt for £30 and sold it for £29 - you made no profit, so there is no tax. • Is the price of your single item below £6,000? There's no tax to pay. へ Imagine, you sold a luxurious watch for £5,999 and not a single pound more - there is no tax. • Is your yearly profit below £3,000? There's no tax to pay. Let's say you bought a dress for £90 and sold it for £100 - you made £10 profit. That means you'd need to sell a lot of dresses in a year to make a profit over £3,000. And even then you can reduce it with the £3,000 tax-free allowance. If you don't hear from us, you don't need to do anything! You're all set to keep selling.

Hi, I’m getting confused by what seems conflicting advice on this forum regarding online selling. I sell on one or two platforms on behalf of family members stuff they bought but no longer or didn’t use like clothing,footwear,books. For instance old magic books on behalf of my mother in law, dresses I haven’t worn ,my husbands worn/unworn trainers , my sons vintage Lego sets..does this come under ‘chattels’ and if under £6k per financial years does not need to be reported to HMRC. I’m not buying to then sell at a profit. It’s just stuff our household didn’t or no longer uses.

LITRG, which is the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group from the Chartered Institute of Taxation has written some handy guidance on this. It's written in a way that is easy to follow and is well worth a look. There's also a flowchart to help navigate how the rules affect you. https://www.litrg.org.uk/sites/default/files/240109%20OECD%20rules%20flowchart.pdf

I work for a registered charity that has volunteer groups across the UK raising funds by selling items on eBay (amongst other fundraising activities). The items sold are mainly donated by the public. The selling is undertaken by a designated volunteer within each group, who will typically use their personal eBay account to sell each item, and then either select for 100% of the proceeds to come to the charity, OR they sell it as a private seller in the usual way and transfer the proceeds to their volunteer group's bank account - where it is then forwarded to the charity as part of the group's general fundraising transfers. All the proceeds come to the charity (note that gift aid is not claimed for this) - though sometimes an agreed amount may be kept back by the volunteer group to cover some of their operational costs. These volunteer sellers often raise over £1000 per year via their eBay accounts in this way, but based on previous conversations we've had with HMRC they are told that they won't have to declare this income to HMRC, as long as they can evidence that the funds went to our charity - either directly or via their relevant volunteer group's account. I wanted to check this is correct? Thanks

Hi Ballemporium Ball,

You can dispose of assets that you or your husband owns and they will not count towards selling online, falling under capital gains guidelines.  

Selling assets of other people, could be considered trading, as you do not own the assets and this would fall under Income Tax guidelines.  

We can only provide general information and guidance in this forum, for an answer to a detailed question of this nature, you would need to contact our Self Assesment team or seek professional advice.

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you.

Hi bhb_01,

Your volunteers should refer to the guidance below to check their own personal circumstances:

Selling online and paying taxes - information sheet Updated 3 January 2024

Thank you.

Hi admin, I'm confused by your responses to @BMad and @caitlinmcdermott earlier on in his thread. You've advised their personal sales 'could be seen as trading income' and that anything that isn't a one off could be considered trading. I contacted HMRC via chat function as I am in a similar situation. I have sold my old clothes and my son's old clothes and toys on Vinted. Since April, I have had 151 sales totalling £771.50. All items were ours and none bought for profit. All but a handful are used. All have been sold for considerably less than I paid for. The advisor said 'so because you are selling items that your child has grown out of or doesn't use anymore. You will not need to report this. Unless you end up making a profit of more than £1000' She confirmed by profit, she meant when I earn more than what I paid for an item. This is how I had interpreted the guidance originally. However, This is different to the advice and information you have given to previous posters. Can you confirm what is correct?

Hi I am really confused as I really know nothing about tax. this is my situation. I to am having a clear out of things I no longer want, 90% of them are all mine and have been for yrs so I have no receipts for any of them , but after my nan and my husband's mum passed away we have a load of stuff we have no room for and don't want to keep so was going to sell on vinted. however now this new law has come in it seems pointless selling anything if we are now being forced to pay tax as we will be no better off than sending it all to landfill. we won't be making more than £1,000 and was going to pay bills and buy things for our grandkids but are now very disheartened to do so . we have not brought anything to resell and it is all our own stuff so if we made under the 1,000 mark would we have to declare it? Also I am disabled and claim a benefit so can't go out to work but would selling my own possessions online be classed as being self employed and therefore working as I wouldn't class it as so but where do I stand! I haven't actually sold anything as yet other than a sunlamps I no longer used last yr and there was definitely no profit made as I sold it for much less than I brought it but it was brought as used so had no receipt anyway. You can see my delember as I want to be sure I'm not going to get in trouble with HMRC or end up having to pay tax on my own belongings so will head to the dump if needs be. so can you tell me where id stand on both questions. 1, am I ok selling my own stuff online if I stay under £1,000? 2, would selling my own stuff online be classed as working and affect my benefit? 3, am I ok to sell things that I have got from inheriting them like ornaments china and glass or would it be better to just dump everything at the landfill?! MummaB

Hi also can I clarify something. I brought a little runaround just before Christmas for £600 and was hoping to sell it on as only driven it a few times as I hate it but needed a car over Christmas to ferry family about that are unable to fit in my husband's van. I haven't sold it on yet and it will be for only about 4/5 hundred anyway so definitely under the 1,000 if I don't sell anything else and this would also be a one off sale but what I wanted to know is are the rules the same for vehicles if it's your own car and your not a dealer!? MummaB

can I also point out that the items that was left by my nan and my husband's mum was 15yrs and 11yrs ago so have been in our garage and loft ever since so do they count as being our belongings . they are not Antiques worth thousands or even hundreds of £ by any means. Also what would b classed as selling on a regular basis, for instance if we was to do the odd boot sale during the summer season to get rid of all the stuff we have until it's all gone is that classed as trading or a one off as it's all the same clear out stuff we are trying to get rid of! And if I post something on vinted and it's there for wks or maths without selling at first is that classed as trading? I don't consider myself to be a trader or to be working I simply want to get rid of stuff I don't want or need, none of the items are new, none of the items would be sold for the same or more than they cost so already had tax on them when I purchased them so I really don't understand why tax needs to be paid on the same item twice. even if I buy second hand items at a boot sale the items are for me not for resale so do I have to keep a note of what they cost me should one day I sell them in the futcher so I don't accidently charge someone £1 more than I brought it for as I don't want to be fined. sorry to ask so many questions but the information given in the guidelines doesn't really cover all situations and I like others want to know exactly where I stand on this to protect myself as I don't want to inadvertently make a mistake and get into trouble . thanks

Hi MummaB,

You can refer to the online tool here:

Selling online and paying taxes - information sheet

Thank you.
 

I have already read all of the links in this thread which did not simplify the situation at all for my circumstances which is why I asked the questions after reading that had made it as clear as mud for me. is there someone on here that can answer my particular questions so that I know what I'm doing as I don't want to end up doing something wrong in the eyes of either the benefits agency or the HMRC. I do not consider selling my own items for considerably less than they was brought for and making less that £1,000 in any one tax yr braking any rules. nor do I consider selling them online and leaving them online till their selling even if it takes a few maths and during that time adding a few more items to be trading as I consider someone trading to be selling new or used items for more money than they cost and for them to be doing so every wk or mth throughout the yr as trading. But none of the links confirm what the HMRC consider as trading, it merely says trading to be regular but doesn't give an indication as to what "regularly" actually counts! for instance, if someone sold their own items for much less than they was purchased for at a boot sale 5 times in the entire season bearing in mind the season is roughly 7 to 8 maths long , would that be classed as trading or not. the rules seem to be very sketchy and not at all defined as set in stone like say that of being over the limit for driving under the influence of alcohol so there are not variations but this unless you are trading every wk and making a profit is subject to many variables which is why people are getting so confused and what is on the HMRC's web pages are not making it any clearer. People just want to know exactly if these new rules are definitely going to effect them or not so they are not hit with a big bill or fine or find someone on their doorstep because they have unknowingly broken these new rules .

Hi,

As this forum is for general guidance only, you will need to contact our Self Assessment team to discuss your own circumstances.

Self Assessment: general enquiries

Thank you.