How often are you allowed to do car boot sales ?

Question

I was reading a web site about trading and car boot sellers and it says you can only do a car boot every few months as you could be classed as a trader if you do them often.So if I wanted to go back for a few weeks to get rid of my stuff I would have all the hassle of self employment ,this does not make sense ,does anyone out there do them often and do they have problems with this

Answer 1

my friend does one every sunday- for the past 3 years, who checks.

Answer 2

The test of whether or not you are trading is not how often you do a car boot sale, but what you are selling. If you are just selling your own unwanted goods, then this is not seen as trading. However, if you are selling stuff which you have bought for the purpose, then you are trading with a view to profit and even if you only do one sale, you are self employed and need to declare this income.

Local tax offices do go to car boot sales and note number plates of people selling there and can obtain those people's names and addresses in order to check whether they are declaring the income.

Answer 3

only your self needs to no your doing a car boot not the taxman

Answer 4

Even if you do it once you are suppose to declare it to the tax man as taxable income - my friend who was on benefits took all the old baby clothes and toys to car boot sale and made £30 but someone told DSS and she had to pay it back to them - who in reality would declare it to tax man?

Answer 5

You can do as many car boot sales as you like, the taxman would only become interested if you were buying stuff and then selling it at a profit.  The profit you make on this stuff would be taxable.

But just selling your own items then there is no problem whatsoever.