If I bought an item new for £1,000 and sold it on ebay for £400 so a £600 loss can I stack this up as a tax loss in my capital gains pot? Assume I need to factor in depreciation.
Paypal are not involved. The only fees are eBay’s.
It’s made quite clear than anyone selling something at a price lower than they paid has nothing to worry about…
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Unless you use your car for business there is no fear of CGT on selling your car.
Similarly there is no CG on any personal possession with a limited lifespan (i.e. less than 50 years). This includes watches and other ‘machinery’.
This has been coming for a while and is clearly aimed at traders who try to dodge tax by claiming they are selling on their own personal possessions and largely claim ignorance of the laws they are breaking. It is not intended to tax those selling their own stuff on ebay, or at car boots etc.
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Ah the BBC…. Wouldn’t take to much notice, not comprehensive or contextual info as usual
Dream on!
The worry is that intent and outcome don’t necessarily correlate.
Just watched the first episode of the Post Office scandal thing. Just by-the-by.
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You don’t have to declare self-employed income under £1,000 per annum.
Note income, not profit, and nothing to do with capital gains tax in this instance… it’s about trading/selling for profit.
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Possibly, but what if you bought something in, say, 1980, for £1100 and sold it now for £1500 - is that actually a profit? Numerically, yes, but £1100 in 1980 was worth more than £1500 now.
It’s about traders, not selling on your own stuff.
As A…212 notes above, these rules are directed at those deriving a regular income from trade, not passing on personal goods, whether ad hoc sales or as a result of clearing your own loft, garage, record collection, toy boxes etc.
RogerGround has already posted this above but please read and stop fretting!
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Yes, I read it. It did not reasure me. Yes, there was the bit about selling stuff from the attic, and it says “it is unlikely that” - so presumably it is possible.
Looking at the examples, it would appear that the criterion is whether you make a profit. If you do, then you may well (or definitely will) be caught by these regulations.
I would imagine that if you buy something at a car boot sale for 50p, find out that it is something rare and valuable and sell it for £20,000 then you will be liable for tax. Similarly if you clear out your parent’s old stuff, and find something very valuable and sell it then again you will be liable.
I see nothing particularly reassuring in that article.
Well then there’s clearly just no hope for some…
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The powers that be have form. But I’m glad for you that you are reassured with things like “it is unlikely that”,
I would imagine there would be some algorithm that uses all the data to determine if the sales are regular and often, or ad hoc. For example selling a load of Naim hi fi components over two months, then nothing for a year, would not be an issue, whereas selling 40-50 items of children clothing every month would flag up a possible investigation.
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The tax man cometh, the tax man taketh 
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I’ve not seen the Guardian article yet, but there were very confused posters on the BBC page, it didn’t seem clar at all, unless they’ve edited the article subsequently.
Scary click-bait a go-go…
I’m sure I saw that years ago but revisited earlier - the one problem I can potentially see is that the onus is on you as with most tax matters to determine if your are liable or not.
Lovely gender stereotypes too in their example ‘Sally the nurse selling home made gift cards initially for cost but becomes liable when she starts seeing a profit’ but ‘David deals in model cars’ and ‘Steve imports goods for sale’.
I seem to recall there was some stipulation on Amazon that if you exceeded a certain number of listings or sales you were considered a trader by Amazon rather than a private seller selling secondhand/used goods.
There was a comment on the BBC site where someone mentioned ‘individuals’ with hundreds or thousands of feedback reviews on ebay over several years are the kind of people being targetted not people selling good quality kids’ clothes which are no longer needed.
As with the BBC one I suspect (or maybe that was the one you referred to).
Here in Washington State we have whats referred to as a B&O Tax (Business and Occupation). The State taxes you on your sales. Those of us that were contractors and had to bid on work obligated you to pay tax on the contract dollar amount even if you lost money. They also require you to report all business transactions every month. I was injured at work and in bed for 6 months. Consequently no work was accomplished during my convalescing so the State put a lien on my bsnk account and withdrew 10K saying that because i didnt report they averaged what I would have owed. I asked if a doctors letter would suffice and they replied no. Silver Lining to the story. I was able to write the 10 off against my federal taxes.
There’s an old saying that goes “Somebody’s always trying to put their hand in your pocket.”
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