Capital Gains Tax

[supergoose]

I think sadly our kids (who lets face it only have eyes for eBay when it comes to our collections - or mine does anyway ) - will face a tax issue. I'm no expert but there have been a few reports on chances to HRMC's rules and approaches from this year: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2...online-be-warned-hmrc-will-soon-know-about-it

I think this new move could well push down online sales and push people back to in real life transactions... Cash is king....

Thanks for that link - interesting read. There's going to be a lot of grey area with the statement "HMRC says people selling off items that they originally bought at a higher price will not be liable for tax on that income" if original items were bought face to face for cash at toy fairs etc. how can either side prove either way ?

 

[lejackal]

Do people honestly think HMRC are sufficiently resourced to go through eBay/paypal etc sales to then audit people? There's no legal requirement to keep proof of purchase for every item you sell, you could just as easily get a few receipt books to say you bought x, y or at whatever toy fair, in whatever year, for whatever amount in cash. HMRC then have to prove otherwise. Which unless your bank etc has evidence to the contrary in the last 7/8 years they can't do

 

[supergoose]

Do people honestly think HMRC are sufficiently resourced to go through eBay/paypal etc sales to then audit people? There's no legal requirement to keep proof of purchase for every item you sell, you could just as easily get a few receipt books to say you bought x, y or at whatever toy fair, in whatever year, for whatever amount in cash. HMRC then have to prove otherwise. Which unless your bank etc has evidence to the contrary in the last 7/8 years they can't do

Agreed. The concerning thing in the article though was the statement "Sellers on eBay will need to supply their national insurance number, and the site says it will launch information pages with the details it will be collecting" Sounds like they are edging towards this being automated so no real resources needed on HMRC's side just a automatic brown HMRC envelope arriving at the door at the end of each tax year saying what you owe ? Hope I'm wrong. I sell fairly infrequently on ebay (when I do it's personal items / collectibles usually to fund recent overspending on star wars items lol), but over the course of a year I would easily break their thresholds outlined. I guess time will tell.......

 

[edd_jedi]

I agree that generally the likelihood of being singled out are slim, but my main concern is having a large amount of money come into my bank or PayPal with no explanation, could even get flagged as money laundering

 

[lejackal]

I agree that generally the likelihood of being singled out are slim, but my main concern is having a large amount of money come into my bank or PayPal with no explanation, could even get flagged as money laundering

You can prove sales, they have to prove profit imo

 

[supergoose]

You can prove sales, they have to prove profit imo

True

 

[ODB]

You can prove sales, they have to prove profit imo

No they can assess you and if you can't prove the profit you've declared they can establish one for you.

Also if you pay in a large amount of cash the bank will go through the money laundering checks and again it could flag you to HMRC.

 

[Palifan]

Not really sure what to make of all of this but it does make me think twice about seelling too much on ebay each year. I can see this changing things though for sellers and maybe as mentioned earlier, it could mean that things go back to a more 'cash' transaction at toy fairs ect.

I would have thought though that the first targets will be those that sell loads of items each year and don't declare any of it, I'm sure there are a lot of those sellers out there.

Ian