Selling online - when do I have to pay tax?

loveisdivine

Hi,

My partner and I have decided to start selling some of our homemade items online, Etsy specifically. My husband will be selling his own photographs and I will be selling homemade soaps/candles etc. We both still work full time and don't foresee that changing anytime soon.

This is literally just a little extra on the side. At what point do we need to start looking at registering to pay some kind of tax? Will it be different because we already work full time as well?

Sorry if this is not the right forum.

Thanks

rubadub

I've just moved this from "online selling & auctions", probably better off here.

Peterdalkey

you must return any profits made on your annual tax return. There is a section for "other income" on the form Form 12 or 12S

bizinchina

Just make sure to keep copies of the invoices for any of the products that you purchase for your business. You can claim some back from expenses. I see a lot of small business not keeping invoices of expenses , and at the end of the year they expect the accountant to work a miracle.

loveisdivine

Thanks for the replies so far.

Well it looks like selling my soaps and candles may be a no go anyway as you have to have them tested and register with the Cosmetics Notification Portal and Public liability insurance and it all seems way moer hassle than its worth just to sell a few bars of soap.

So for the photography, we should keep receipts when we purchase photo paper, ink and a new printer and camera equipment? and then copies of invoices and payments received when we sell a print?

Do we need to fill out a form TR1 to register for self assessment? Will our full time employment have any affect on this?

Will we actually have to pay any income tax, PRSI, USC or VAT as our profit will be very small. If we sold 2 prints a week (unlikely) every week for a year we would only make less than 2k after expenses.

Its all very daunting. We just want to sell a few pictures!

Edit - We don't currently file our own tax returns as everything is handled through the companies we work for (I assume). Thats why I'm a bit unsure if we have to register etc.

Peterdalkey

you can include this information on frorm 12 or 12 S and yes you will have to pay tax, PRSI, USC etc!

Axwell

Your own tax at your job stays the same, you then file form 12 or 12s for the additional income and the tax, PRSI, USC you have to pay on that. Depending on your tax credits per month and income in your 9-5 job will depend at what rate of tax you will be paying so you might find the additional income isnt worth all the effort, so its worth doing the maths first to avoid disappointment or a shock down the line.

loveisdivine

Axwell wrote: »

Your own tax at your job stays the same, you then file form 12 or 12s for the additional income and the tax, PRSI, USC you have to pay on that. Depending on your tax credits per month and income in your 9-5 job will depend at what rate of tax you will be paying so you might find the additional income isnt worth all the effort, so its worth doing the maths first to avoid disappointment or a shock down the line.

Ahh now I get it. The extra income is added on to what we already earn, for tax purposes.

I think in my mind I was classing the extra income as totally seperate so thought it wouldn't hit the threshold for tax, but I see now that its all just counted as 1 figure.

Thanks!

The Corinthian

loveisdivine wrote: »

I think in my mind I was classing the extra income as totally seperate so thought it wouldn't hit the threshold for tax, but I see now that its all just counted as 1 figure.

Sure, if they were all treated as separate, then we'd all be working 350 'separate' part-time jobs...