Selling online, the HMRC net closes in on Vinted sellers
Vinted is an extremely attractive and somewhat addictive online platform for all of us wanting a bargain or to sell off unwanted items. It works well and is a highly mechanised system almost foolproof !! and beneficial to most users. But it has been widely publicised that Vinted is obliged to automatically report the information it holds on sellers to HMRC if they reach 30 sales or £1,700 in a calendar year.
Obviously HMRC work on a tax year basis running to the 5th of April each year, but the information it gets will be easy for them to estimate and make a decision whether you fall into their quite recent reporting obligations.
This reporting rule does not necessarily mean you owe tax, as selling your own personal, unwanted second-hand items for less than you paid for them is tax-free. You may however have to prove this, so keeping good records is essential if you are a regular seller.
You would not owe tax for clearing out your drawers and cupboards and selling off old clothes and household items at a loss, (as above meaning they are sold for less than you paid for them). This is not classed as taxable income. However repeated and regular sales spanning more than one tax year may cause HMRC to have a second look. So whilst there is no tax limit or requirement to declare the earnings if you are simply decluttering (and even if you exceed the 30 items sold limit) good records will help you defend yourself should a letter arrive on the mat.
If your initial intentions of making a bit of money from having a clear out gave you the bug for selling on Vinted and you have ended up for example buying items from charity shops or car boot sales or other third party sources and selling on Vinted to make money with a profit motive, contact us and we will be able to advise you of what you can claim against your income and how to make a voluntary disclosure to HMRC before any letter arrives.
We can make that voluntary disclosure for you and give you a clean sheet and for that we will give you a fixed price for what it will cost for us to do all of the work for you. See our blogs for what constitutes a voluntary disclosure to HMRC.
Drop us a line on email or call and we can answer your questions:-
Call Andy on 07879 464577
Alex on 07538 418839
Lindsay on 07584 706664
Or email her on Lindsay@lhtax.co.uk