Query re tax and Ebay

[madcapmyrtle]

I have sold a few things on Ebay over the last few years - mainly old books and children's items. Over the last couple of months I have made several hundred pounds from books that have just been gathering dust in the loft! It has made me think that being a little more organised about selling might be quite worthwhile!..but wondered about the tax implications? How much can you earn from Ebay before you start paying tax?

I thought you were ok if you were selling off your old stuff rather than buying stuff to sell.

tax allowances

You can earn up to £6475 a year without paying tax, but if you are doing it as a business other aspects apply (like NI, insurance etc)

If you have another job your tax allowance maybe taken up by your allowance.

You postage & packaging should be taken off your turnover to give you an idea of 'profit'- although quite probably there are other 'expenses' to allow

Have a look on business link to read about starting a business

Good Luck

Afaik if you're selling your belongings there are no tax implications but if you're buying to sell on then it becomes part of ordinary income and subject to tax allowances etc as katymac has said. But only on your profit so any fees, p&p etc are not taxed.

Sorry I thought you meant to do it as a business - as the others said selling your own stuff is different

Well, at the moment I have plenty of my own books to sell, but wondered if for example, I bought £5 worth of old Ladybird fairytale books at a car boot sale (unlikely I know!), put them on Ebay immediately and sold them straightaway for say £40, is that technically 'trading' and should I pay tax?
Or perhaps regularly spent £10 on books at a car boot and put them straight on Ebay to earn some money?

yes, that is classed as trading and classed as taxable income. You also need to register as a business on ebay.