The art of lying (better known as discogs)

Music
41

If you want to know real pain, try running a small business - openly and legitimately.

Individuals and small businesses are the economic canon-fodder picking-up the slack left by tax-avoiding megacorps like (e.g.) Amazon and (Oh the irony!) Ebay.

HMRC’s only rule: Always Hurt The Little Guy. ALWAYS. The big guys can afford the kind of legal battles that HMRC can’t, and on the other side of the tarnished coin, the Little Guys can’t afford to buy their own politicians…

Shakespeare’s line “The usurer hangs the cozener” remains as true today as it always was…

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42

The law hasn’t changed - Sales over 1K are taxable. If you say I bought it for this and sold it for that so tax my profit you are in effect buying to sell - Which makes you a business. It gets better if you go past £6K - if you sell a chattel and you make a profit of more than £6,000 (£3,000 from the tax year beginning 2024), you need to record the gain in your Self-Assessment Tax Return. This road can lead to capital gains - Whoopee!

43

So how do HMRC deal with a sale that results in a net loss?

If I buy for £1000 and sell for £600, does that give me a right to demand some of my tax back!

We all know the answer, it’s the wrong answer, but it’s the answer HMRC would stick to.

44

You can still write losses off against your personal tax. It’s easy if you do self assessment but even if you don’t you send HMRC a one off declaration of capital gains loss and they add it to your tax code.

It’s a fairly simple process but just something nobody really does so assume it’s not possible.

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45
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46

Seems to me then, for most of us, as long as we make no profit on anything, it’s a bit of a non issue?

47

it’s a complete non issue for most of us.

1 Like