Claiming expenses for taxes as a reseller

Phil1969

Hi Guys,

I am looking to start selling as a reseller very soon but want to clarify a few things when it comes to expenses and keeping records for the tax man.

1. How do you claim for expenses for items you have bought that have no receipt? For example, items I would buy from a car boot sale, jumble sale or privately etc? Many times it would be very difficult to get a receipt. Do I just record any money spent in a log book with date, item and money spent?

2. Often, I will be buying job lots and not individual items, do I summarise this in my expenses as a job lot or do I need to somehow break everything down individually?

3. When do expenses/sales, do I just record all expenses for the month and all sales for the same month. What I mean is, if I only bought 1000 euros worth of coats in September but then only sold 2000 euros of hats and scarfs (from previous buy) during September and no coats, would my expenses be 1000 and my sales be 2000? Or, do I based on per item, which would be a lot of paper work???

4. I was just going to use Google sheets for my book keeping, or is there a simpler option which is worth doing and cheap enough.

5. Not related to my heading but I can still not find the answer, can I open a Ebay basic shop on Ebay.ie and then use the 200 BINow inserts on Ebay.co.uk site or do I need to use them on Ebay.ie? Or does it make a difference?

Thanks

whiterebel

Mod: Moved to a more suitable forum.

OP please take note of the charter for this forum.

Gloomtastic!

As far as I know, if you don’t have receipts from the vendors, you can’t claim the expense. Revenue will allow occasional exceptions but won’t if it happens regularly. Someone else here may know differently.

Job lots are irrelevant. For each month/year, you’ll have your total sales against your total expenses (or cost of sales). The difference is your profit/loss.

Here’s an accounts template you can import into Google Docs. Look in the Comment section for notes.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5p32c5jo4cfybp2/Accounts Template with VAT.xls?dl=0

Phil1969

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

As far as I know, if you don’t have receipts from the vendors, you can’t claim the expense. Revenue will allow occasional exceptions but won’t if it happens regularly. Someone else here may know differently.

Job lots are irrelevant. For each month/year, you’ll have your total sales against your total expenses (or cost of sales). The difference is your profit/loss.

Here’s an accounts template you can import into Google Docs. Look in the Comment section for notes.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5p32c5jo4cfybp2/Accounts%20Template%20with%20VAT.xls?dl=0

Thanks for the advice. I thought I would need receipts but was not sure when it comes buying from car boot sales etc. Good to know tho, best to get receipts whenever I can.

Thanks for the template, that makes sense and is easy to follow. I was worried that each single item had to be recorded for purchase price and sale price which would of took me forever!

Thanks

StupidLikeAFox

Phil1969 wrote: »

3. When do expenses/sales, do I just record all expenses for the month and all sales for the same month. What I mean is, if I only bought 1000 euros worth of coats in September but then only sold 2000 euros of hats and scarfs (from previous buy) during September and no coats, would my expenses be 1000 and my sales be 2000? Or, do I based on per item, which would be a lot of paper work???

Stock purchases are not expenses.

Simple example:
When you start the business with €1000 it is an asset. When you buy stock with that you swap €1k in cash assets for €1k euro in stock assets, you haven't incurred any expenses as such. When you sell that stock for say €1500, you now have €1500 in assets and you have made €500 profit. Let's say you spend €100 on diesel - that is an expense so you deduct that from the profit.

Your situation now is that you have 1400 in the bank (current asset) and you have made €400 profit. €400 Is what you use to assess your tax bill. All of the above assumes you are not registered for vat