Do I have to pay tax on money I received from a laptop recycling place? I got over £1k

[WolfLoverPro]

So I live in the uk and sold well gave in a MacBook Pro that gave me £1120 for it 

 

do I need to register as self employed or pay tax? I also plan to give in another old laptop but not MacBook and phones since they pay nice amounts unlike musicmagpie lol. I have a few phones from ended contracts over the past like idk years but both iPhones too..... however if I get tuns of money from this company will I be in trouble lol? Since a business is sending it to me does it class as something else? 

 

Idk if this makes sense. I have no job I’m under 20 years old so I know nothing about tax or self assessment stuff however on the gov website it says about personal allowance and national insurance I think it was 

 

Money is sent via bank transfer. 

 

 

[porina]

If you paid more for it in the first place, then it would probably count as a loss (assuming it is a loss) and therefore not attract any additional taxes. If you got it for less and selling for more, that can be different. Not a legal expert in this matter, but look up capital gains as a possible area which might apply.

 

Edit: personal allowance and national insurance is more about earned income, so doesn't seem applicable here.

[Orange1]

I would think any profit at all would be taxed. But its not enforceable really, which is why many people in the service industry undervalue their tip profits when doing their taxes.

[dizmo]

If it's your personal item, no.

If it's something you've gotten some other way to make a profit on, yes.

[TetraSky]

What Dizmo said.

 

It may vary depending on the country, but usually, you've already paid taxes on it before and thus can't be taxed for the same item.

That's why there's usually no taxes on second hand goods at not for profit stores.

 

But if you were buying cheaply or dumpster diving to sell as a profit, then yeah.

[Blue4130]

5 hours ago, TetraSky said:

What Dizmo said.

 

It may vary depending on the country, but usually, you've already paid taxes on it before and thus can't be taxed for the same item.

That's why there's usually no taxes on second hand goods at not for profit stores.

 

But if you were buying cheaply or dumpster diving to sell as a profit, then yeah.

If you are in Canada, you definitely can and will pay taxes on used/second hand goods. Absolutely rediculous. 

[WolfLoverPro]

10 hours ago, TetraSky said:

What Dizmo said.

 

It may vary depending on the country, but usually, you've already paid taxes on it before and thus can't be taxed for the same item.

That's why there's usually no taxes on second hand goods at not for profit stores.

 

But if you were buying cheaply or dumpster diving to sell as a profit, then yeah.

 

10 hours ago, dizmo said:

If it's your personal item, no.

If it's something you've gotten some other way to make a profit on, yes.

I got it from amazon uk the MacBook 

[dizmo]

10 hours ago, TetraSky said:

What Dizmo said.

 

It may vary depending on the country, but usually, you've already paid taxes on it before and thus can't be taxed for the same item.

That's why there's usually no taxes on second hand goods at not for profit stores.

 

But if you were buying cheaply or dumpster diving to sell as a profit, then yeah.

Kind of depends. If you were to buy something with the purpose of selling it, you'd pay tax twice; on the purchase, and then you'd have to remit tax for the sale. No one does for private sales of small things, and the government isn't going to go around enforcing it, but it's something that is technically required.

4 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

If you are in Canada, you definitely can and will pay taxes on used/second hand goods. Absolutely rediculous. 

I mean. Very few people pay taxes on used goods. It's voluntary, more-or-less.

25 minutes ago, WolfLoverPro said:

 

I got it from amazon uk the MacBook 

It doesn't matter where you got it, just what your intent was.

[Teddy07]

I am not sure where you live but in my country only earning above a certain income are taxed and $1000 would be well below that.

[Blue4130]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

. Very few people pay taxes on used goods. It's voluntary, more-or-less.

 

Haha ask the CRA if it's voluntary. The distinctly fall under the "less" category. Just because they don't actively hunt people down doesn't mean that it isn't illegal. 

[TetraSky]

7 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

If you are in Canada, you definitely can and will pay taxes on used/second hand goods. Absolutely rediculous. 

It depends

 

I don't know about the rest of Canada, but I doubt it's that different.

In Quebec, they wouldn't be paying taxes for selling their laptop since they are not selling it as part of a commercial activities (as a business) :

Quote

However, used property is not taxable if sold by a person not engaged in commercial activities (for example, an individual who sells personal items at a garage sale).

https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/businesses/consumption-taxes/gsthst-and-qst/special-cases-gsthst-and-qst/used-property/

 

If they were operating a flea market, while they would need to fill a form each month for their sales, as long as they make under $30k every 3 months, they could pass it as a "small supplier" and not pay taxes (Talking about sales taxes here, not Income Tax. These are different things).

 

Can you imagine the extra paper work the gov would have to sift through, if everyone, including those who aren't registrant (businesses) reported the sales of used goods?

 

If they were buying with the intent of reselling for a profit (like the scalpers do with GPUs right now), they absolutely would need to charge and pay taxes on them... But selling on Ebay could probably fall under the Flea Market rules and let them pocket in up to $120k sales tax free per year (they would still be paying the Income Tax according to the revenue bracket... If they are honest and tell the gov they made that money in the first place... I kind of doubt it, though)

[Blue4130]

44 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

It depends

 

I don't know about the rest of Canada, but I doubt it's that different.

In Quebec, they wouldn't be paying taxes for selling their laptop since they are not selling it as part of a commercial activities (as a business) :

https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/businesses/consumption-taxes/gsthst-and-qst/special-cases-gsthst-and-qst/used-property/

 

If they were operating a flea market, while they would need to fill a form each month for their sales, as long as they make under $30k every 3 months, they could pass it as a "small supplier" and not pay taxes (Talking about sales taxes here, not Income Tax. These are different things).

 

Can you imagine the extra paper work the gov would have to sift through, if everyone, including those who aren't registrant (businesses) reported the sales of used goods?

 

If they were buying with the intent of reselling for a profit (like the scalpers do with GPUs right now), they absolutely would need to charge and pay taxes on them... But selling on Ebay could probably fall under the Flea Market rules and let them pocket in up to $120k sales tax free per year (they would still be paying the Income Tax according to the revenue bracket... If they are honest and tell the gov they made that money in the first place... I kind of doubt it, though)

As a non-business, if it was sold at a profit, it would fall under "other income" on the general tax form. But like I said, no one claims stuff like this and the CRA has no way of tracking it.