Selling gifted items

[Geniegirl12]

In my local area there are lots of mums giving away large bundles of baby clothes for free. In the past I’ve collected a few bundles, picked out items that I wanted for my baby and passed on the rest to charity shops or other parents.

I have 3 children, 2 are disabled so money is tight like most people. I thought about selling some bundles of these free clothes on places like eBay and vinted to make a small amount of money to treat myself and the kids with as we don’t really have much. I know with vinted that when you sell something the money gets stored on your vinted balance and you can choose to leave it there for vinted purchases or transfer it to your bank account.

As I am currently receiving universal Credit, is selling clothes that I’ve been gifted something I would need to declare to them?

Respectfully, I’m not looking for answers about whether reselling free items is moral or right or something people approve of. Thank you

Not if you sell the odd bit here/there.

If you're doing it regularly with the intention of producing income then you should let them know what you're doing.

In theory, yes it should be declared and also to register with hmrc if you go over 1000.

Who's to say though that these were thjngs that you didnt already have and are just selling clothes your kids have outgrown?

I can't get worked up about someone making a small amount, particularly when members of the current government try and get away with £000000 of tax evasion. Or members of the House of Lords scam their way to a new yacht.

if you buy or get to sell you have a £1000 max trade allowance a year works out about £20 a week, that is profit though so if you sell for £3 and charge £3 postage and it costs 20p for a mailing bag your profit is £2,80 ( unless you are a registered business you can't count petrol or bus fares or parking as it is assumed it is part of your general errands etc )
the £1000 would also include things like baby sitting or odd jobs like dog walking occasionally too, but an extra £1000 could easily keep you and your DC in clothes and shoes for a year

Cottagecheeseisnotcheese -Thank you for this. Is this something I need to let universal credit know about, or after I go over the £1000?

I don't know the exact legal position for UC but for general tax purposes it has to be under £1000, if it is more you have 3 months from start up to declare your business to inland revenue (and I assume UC) if you go over you need to submit a tax return as it is classed as a sole trader small business
if you are on UC I would try and make sure you stay under, keep records and try to keep it reasonably evenly spread through the year.
selling stuff that is your personal possession doesn't count
to keep things simple long term I would sell personal stuff and "business" stuff on two different accounts we have an ebay business ( mine is registered as I do it as a part time job and make more than £1000) and a separate ebay account for buying selling personal stuff
as it is per financial year you could make £1000 between now and 5th april 2024, but the next £1000 would be Aril 2024 to april 2025

I wouldn't be declaring anything. You're unlikely to make crazy money off it, just a little extra to get by. No one should judge you for that, especially when people in parliament comp their lunches and run up £11,000 phone bills.