Overhauling pedalboard... sales tax?!

[Iolaire]

Hello all

I've been selling off everything on my pedalboard to totally overhaul it. I was wondering if someone could answer a quick question I've got - will I be paying tax on selling them? I was wondering because I've been told by someone I know that I will do, and read both "no stop worrying so much" and nightmare stories of HMRC demanding unpaid tax from eBay sellers. Which side will I be on? I've had a look around this tax calculator and have added up what I'm expecting from the sales and it's a good dent in what I'd get from them if I do end up paying tax on it. Should I be worrying or is selling a pedalboard then putting that money straight back into buying more pedals not going to come up on HMRC's radar?

Thanks in advance!

[ElectricDruid]

If you're not doing it in the course of a business, you should be fine. After all, you can sell your car on eBay, and you don't get a tax demand for having done so.
If you start selling loads of stuff on eBay, HMRC might consider that you're running an unregistered business, and at that point you'd have to registered it as a self-employed business or set up a company or whatever and pay tax on the income.

[bean]

I don't know about the UK but here in the States Paypal will automatically report your sales to the IRS if you meet certain criteria. I believe it is over $10k in sales and/or a certain # of unique transactions. I'm sure you could find a better answer through Google or on the eBay or Paypal sites.

I have the same problem because my primary income is disbursed through Paypal (which I pay tax on, of course). But, any private sales I do of gear also goes into the same pot which then gets taxed. It's not a huge deal because I don't sell a lot of my personal (non-business) belongings but I have gotten some surprises over the years at tax time.

BTW: you can have two PP accounts: a business and personal account. But, it doesn't matter for tax purposes - once your business income is reported to the government your personal PP acc't gets reported along with it as income.

Maybe there is a way to sort it all out but I've never bothered to look.

[ElectricDruid]

Probably the same/similar in the UK. But $10k is a pretty big pedalboard, even with a few original Klons on it!

[Ice-9]

It sounds to me that you are just selling your pedals off the board, regard them as selling personal items as second hand ? Everyone is entitled to sell anything they own as personal items.
If on the other hand you are selling many items, I am talking about selling everyday  for a long long time then that could be classed as a business.


Use a bit of common sense, and if you are just having a clear out of pedals to make room for some new ones then you are not an ebay selling business.

Sounds good to go to me.