Tax definition of trading

[Bigmarc]

I was reading a post on the sales thread of a member quiet obviously trying to dodge tax by trading crypto. 

The thought popped in my mind about the definition of a trader through the eyes of HMRC regarding income tax. Now on their website this is how it is explained. 

 

So earn £1000 before the deduction of expenses? Does this mean if you sell an ounce of gold it needs to be reported regardless if you have only made £100 on it as surely the original value is an expense. 

Here are some of there definitions on what a trader is. 

 

 

The way I am reading this is if you are selling with a view of making a profit and you reach the £1000 limit then it needs to be declared. What are your thoughts? 

 

[ZRPMs]

As I understand it. Once an Item leaves your ownership wither you sold it for £780 GBP or swapped it for a quantity of tins of soup. A transaction has occurred. A Tax liability would be due on the on the profit of the market value of the soup. If the value of the soup on the open market ie:- at ALDI's came to £800 at the time of the trade. Then once the purchase price has been deducted, Lets say £700. Then tax would be due on the value of £100 profit less any allowance. Even if, two weeks later the value of the tins of soup dropped to £700. The HMRC use the GBP £ only as a measure of value. It also happens to be the most common for of payment. However they will take other currencies, assets or property to the value of the amount determined by them.

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

I'm happy to be corrected but my understanding is gold in UK legal tender form (i.e. Sovereigns, Britannias, QBs, anything with a face value) is fully VAT and CGT-free. You only pay tax on profits so if the profit is CGT-free there is no taxable event

UK legal tender silver is also CGT-free

The issue arises AFAIK when you sell foreign items or bars, anything that isn't legal tender in the UK

[Bigmarc]

9 minutes ago, ZRPMs said:

. A Tax liability would be due on the on the profit of the market value of the soup

But at what point do you decare it? Is it the sale of an item over £1000? Or the profit of over £1000? What threw me was the before expenses, if I quote a mate to paint his house at £1000 and it cost me £800 in materials then that's an expense and I have to declare it. 

If I sell 3 sovereigns and it cost me half as much to buy them then that's a expense and still need to declare it.

[ZRPMs]

1 minute ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

I'm happy to be corrected but my understanding is gold in UK legal tender form (i.e. Sovereigns, Britannias, QBs, anything with a face value) is fully VAT and CGT-free. You only pay tax on profits so if the profit is CGT-free there is no taxable event

UK legal tender silver is also CGT-free

The issue arises AFAIK when you sell foreign items or bars, anything that isn't legal tender in the UK

The accountant hate's my collection. It's such a grey area. If I sell, am I a collector downsizing a personal collection. or if I sell quite a bit. Have I become a trader. I think there is also an amount of profit that can be claimed as personal gains on a coin. Some of the rules even seem to contradict themselves. As far as I go. I log it down and hand it to the accountant. It's not as simple as you might at first believe. 

[SiCole]

3 minutes ago, ZRPMs said:

The accountant hate's my collection. It's such a grey area. If I sell, am I a collector downsizing a personal collection. or if I sell quite a bit. Have I become a trader. I think there is also an amount of profit that can be claimed as personal gains on a coin. Some of the rules even seem to contradict themselves. As far as I go. I log it down and hand it to the accountant. It's not as simple as you might at first believe. 

That's the thing. If you were to make £100k profit on selling sovereigns in a personal name through personal finances and HMRC were already looking at you, I feel they would have a try at you saying your a trader. Especially if an existing or ex business owner.

[ZRPMs]

6 minutes ago, Bigmarc said:

But at what point do you decare it? Is it the sale of an item over £1000? Or the profit of over £1000? What threw me was the before expenses, if I quote a mate to paint his house at £1000 and it cost me £800 in materials then that's an expense and I have to declare it. 

If I sell 3 sovereigns and it cost me half as much to buy them then that's a expense and still need to declare it.

I leave the decision to the accountant. I believe he logs the capital purchase and the sale of the coin/s less costs (postage, packing, etc) as he would any other property. At the point of sale. Even losses should be logged/ declared as these would in effect help your allowance, wither you are treating it as an income or a capital gain.

[Bigmarc]

57 minutes ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

I'm happy to be corrected but my understanding is gold in UK legal tender form (i.e. Sovereigns, Britannias, QBs, anything with a face value) is fully VAT and CGT-free. You only pay tax on profits so if the profit is CGT-free there is no taxable event

UK legal tender silver is also CGT-free

The issue arises AFAIK when you sell foreign items or bars, anything that isn't legal tender in the UK

Was trying to figure out (in the eyes of HMRC) what the crossover point from an investor to a trader. Traders (I would have thought) would have to pay tax like any business on their profits. 

[ZRPMs]

9 minutes ago, Bigmarc said:

Was trying to figure out (in the eyes of HMRC) what the crossover point from an investor to a trader. Traders (I would have thought) would have to pay tax like any business on their profits. 

I would say that the HMRC would look at the time held in forming their decision as to wither you were a trader or a collector. If you had held these coins for over a year it could be easily demonstrated that the 3 coins were a personal collection that you perhaps no longer wanted. Any gain would be treated as capital gains, of which sovereigns are exempt. However, if you got the sovereigns a few weeks prior to selling them. They might try to argue that you got them to try your hand at trading. At which point the gains would need to be treated as income and would be taxed accordingly. The CGT exemption status would not come in to it. 

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

42 minutes ago, Bigmarc said:

Was trying to figure out (in the eyes of HMRC) what the crossover point from an investor to a trader. Traders (I would have thought) would have to pay tax like any business on their profits. 

There's a difference between being a VAT-registered trader and being a private seller when it comes to legal tender precious metals, which are a category with special status

AFAIK you can sell VAT and CGT-exempt legal tender gold and keep 100% of the profit tax-free as a private seller - that is what CGT-exempt means.

If you are a business and flip gold for profit, you won't be paying taxes on the gold but when you take money out of the business as a wage, that is a taxable event. Lots of small traders (VAT-registered businesses) will pay themselves just under the tax-free personal allowance of £12,570 and reinvest the remainder in their business. You could sell unlimited amounts of VAT and CGT-exempt legal tender gold, pay yourself £12,500, put the remaining £X million into buying more stock and new premises (like Amazon) and pay zero tax. Eventually you would have to pay tax when you extracted money from the business or sold it on. 

The above is a special case and is quite different to the items mentioned in your OP - importing cameras for profit, model cars, greetings cards. In the case of non-legal tender products which accrue VAT, you would have to register for VAT with revenue above £85K. Note the VAT taxable turnover threshold of £85K refers only to items which accrue VAT - which is just about everything except for legal tender gold, which is VAT-exempt. If you sold £85K of silver in a given year you would have to register for VAT regardless of profit

Reading the OP it would appear anyone selling non-legal tender VAT-accruing items and making profit > £1000 has to fill in an SATR (Self-Assessment Tax Return). So if you made £1000 profit on non-legal tender silver, you would have to fill in an SATR. As for the cross-over between sole investor and sole trader, there isn't one when it comes to legal tender gold, but there is for every other category including silver and regular items and services which accrue VAT. 

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

The above is not professional advice nor do I claim to be a tax expert. If you have any doubts you should be like @ZRPMs and use a fully qualified accountant. If anything goes wrong it's then their fault, not yours 😎

[Zeuk]

24 minutes ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

The above is not professional advice nor do I claim to be a tax expert. If you have any doubts you should be like @ZRPMs and use a fully qualified accountant. If anything goes wrong it's then their fault, not yours 😎

Unfortunately, its still one's own fault even if you have an accountant

[ZRPMs]

1 minute ago, Zeuk said:

Unfortunately, its still one's own fault even if you have an accountant

Yep, The accountant is there to help you, but the responsibility is your own. Its no defence to say I had bad advice sorry. You'll still have the penalty to pay. 

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

10 minutes ago, Zeuk said:

Unfortunately, its still one's own fault even if you have an accountant

You are correct it was a poor choice of wording on my behalf. While it may not be your fault if an accountant makes a mistake it is still your responsibility in the eyes of HMRC

A reputable accountancy firm has public indemnity insurance. If the accountant makes a mistake and admits to it or you can prove they made a mistake, you can take them to court and get compensation. If the accountant doesn't have PII then you're unlikely to receive compensation of any kind. 

[sixgun]

There are clearly some members on TSF who are traders. They are always buying and selling. Some will turn over £100's of thousands a year. It is not for me to suggest who any of them might be.
Then there is the rest of us. We sell bits and pieces - we might buy a few coins, sell a few coins - chop and change our collection. Now i am not in either group as i haven't sold any of my own coins here - whenever i have sold i have sold on behalf of someone else, a friend or relative. This is not me subtly suggesting i always post that before a sale so that no-one could accuse me of selling coins, it happens to be the truth but it might be something for people to think about. Selling on behalf of wives, brothers, sisters, children, friends, the school lollypop lady (if they still exist) - i mean you could potentially sell for lots of people.
You are selling your personal possessions - your coins and bars. They are like children to me and sometimes they feel more valuable. 

Your personal possessions are chattels - they are not goods - they are not property relating to commerce - they are personal property and hence defined as chattels. HMRC likes to maneuver you into commerce - they like to tax you accordingly. i have covered chattels before on the forum b/c there seem to be many members who imagine they are in commerce when they are not.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-hs293-self-assessment-helpsheet/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-2021-hs293

Guidance Chattels and Capital Gains Tax 2021 (HS293) Updated 6 April 2023

This is from 2021 but updated this year.

What does it say?

What are chattels? - 'The word ‘chattel’ is a legal term meaning an item of tangible, movable property – something you can both touch and move. Your personal possessions will normally be chattels.'

Well my coins and bars belong to me - they are my personal possessions and i can touch them as long as i wear cotton gloves. 

Reading down the page it says: 'You only need to include in your tax return any gain on the disposal of a chattel where the disposal proceeds were more than £6,000 and the chattel is not exempt from Capital Gains Tax. '

So you don't mention coins exempt from CGT - and i will assume every coin you sell is exempt - i mean let's be real who would know anyway.
And you only need to declare a gain if the proceeds were more than £6,000. This £6,000 they talk about isn't per year, so i must assume it is per completed sale - the page reads like that. 

Now there is more detail on the page but i think i can probably stop there not having seen many sales on the TSF over £6,000.

There it is - you are not in a trade, this is a hobby and you are selling your personal possessions and none of the completed sales were for more than £6,000, so who cares what the gain on that might have been. So now you can forget about all the CGT clap trap and carry on stacking and then rearranging your stack. 

So i suggest all tax residents in the UK take a look at chattels and arrange their hobby accordingly. i have coins and bars - which are of course all UK legal tender, i have spoons and forks, candle sticks, and other household items - i have jewellery - never get asked about jewellery even at the airport. Stay diversified. Know that you are sovereign. Come back to tell me i am wrong if you think so. i'm still not going to declared any of my treasure - but as i say i never sell any of mine and it is mine and i'm not a slave.

Edited May 28, 2023 by sixgun

[flyingveepixie]

9 hours ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

I'm happy to be corrected but my understanding is gold in UK legal tender form (i.e. Sovereigns, Britannias, QBs, anything with a face value) is fully VAT and CGT-free. You only pay tax on profits so if the profit is CGT-free there is no taxable event

UK legal tender silver is also CGT-free

The issue arises AFAIK when you sell foreign items or bars, anything that isn't legal tender in the UK

But if you're buying and selling regularly and making an income from it as a business (in the eyes of HMRC), you will be liable for income tax whether you're buying and selling CGT exempt legal tender or otherwise. For example. If I purchased 1000 sovereigns in a single transaction 10 years ago and kept the receipt(s) as proof,  then sold them all again last week to a single buyer in a single transaction, common sense, (but maybe not HMRC) would dictate that to be a casual event and not a business transaction. If however I buy 10 sovereigns this week and sell them all to 10 different buyers, then do the same next week, and the following week, and the week after that,  ad infinitum,  then I am running a business and liable for income tax on my profit.   Tax deductable allowances are things like postage costs, advertising costs, depreciation of vehicle and transport costs for business use, a portion of my heating and lighting bill if I work from a room at home, the cost of any kit like a sigma machine, computer etc.  There's a long list of allowables and an equally long list of things you can't claim for.

@sixgun makes some good points above relating to individual sovereignty and common law, but if you go down that road you really have to know your stuff to be able to fight your corner in court if it ever came to such a thing, and also understand the differences between the definition of 'legal' and 'lawful', and understand contract law as contracts are involved in every transaction whether you realise it or not, as well as fully understanding the language the legal world uses which looks like English but is actually something else called Legalese which has it's own dictionary.    Going off topic a bit and starting to ramble now so I'll shut up...🙄

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by flyingveepixie

[AR03]

So every sale of a gold coin or bar (ounce) goes into category? Because it's always over £1600? I had asked a similar question a year back, but the answers seems so vague. I mean not necessarily the answers but the system or the law. CGT exempt or not!!! Held for a year or not!!! Including expenses or not!!! £1000 or not!!!... The list goes on... I guess every person's story will be different, and because there is increase in gold sales on online platforms, hmrc might come up with some simple black and white rules regarding gold sales/trading. 

[ZRPMs]

7 minutes ago, AR03 said:

So every sale of a gold coin or bar (ounce) goes into category? Because it's always over £1600? I had asked a similar question a year back, but the answers seems so vague. I mean not necessarily the answers but the system or the law. CGT exempt or not!!! Held for a year or not!!! Including expenses or not!!! £1000 or not!!!... The list goes on... I guess every person's story will be different, and because there is increase in gold sales on online platforms, hmrc might come up with some simple black and white rules regarding gold sales/trading. 

Exactly this. Every situation has subtle differences. The rules are open to interpretation so it would depend upon your individual circumstances and the investigating HMRC officer should you be investigated. Al you can do is try to seek professional advise and even this is not infallible. I think the situation will never be black or white, Sadly.  

[flyingveepixie]

3 minutes ago, ZRPMs said:

Exactly this. Every situation has subtle differences. The rules are open to interpretation so it would depend upon your individual circumstances and the investigating HMRC officer should you be investigated. Al you can do is try to seek professional advise and even this is not infallible. I think the situation will never be black or white, Sadly.  

I think a fairly good rule of thumb is that if you're trading regularly, ie buying and selling to make a profit, then it could, and probably would be viewed as business activity, but if you sell a couple of second hand bits and bobs here and there and stay within the defined limits of profitability as outlined above you should be ok.  I agree though, it's all very grey and open to interpretation on their part.

[Norskgeld]

If the HMRC info was in English it would be much clearer.

Unfortunately, as @flyingveepixie has noted, it is in Legalese which looks like English but key words have a completely different meaning.

Quote

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by Norskgeld

[Bars]

11 hours ago, sixgun said:

There are clearly some members on TSF who are traders. They are always buying and selling. Some will turn over £100's of thousands a year. It is not for me to suggest who any of them might be.
Then there is the rest of us. We sell bits and pieces - we might buy a few coins, sell a few coins - chop and change our collection. Now i am not in either group as i haven't sold any of my own coins here - whenever i have sold i have sold on behalf of someone else, a friend or relative. This is not me subtly suggesting i always post that before a sale so that no-one could accuse me of selling coins, it happens to be the truth but it might be something for people to think about. Selling on behalf of wives, brothers, sisters, children, friends, the school lollypop lady (if they still exist) - i mean you could potentially sell for lots of people.
You are selling your personal possessions - your coins and bars. They are like children to me and sometimes they feel more valuable. 

Your personal possessions are chattels - they are not goods - they are not property relating to commerce - they are personal property and hence defined as chattels. HMRC likes to maneuver you into commerce - they like to tax you accordingly. i have covered chattels before on the forum b/c there seem to be many members who imagine they are in commerce when they are not.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-hs293-self-assessment-helpsheet/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-2021-hs293

Guidance Chattels and Capital Gains Tax 2021 (HS293) Updated 6 April 2023

This is from 2021 but updated this year.

What does it say?

What are chattels? - 'The word ‘chattel’ is a legal term meaning an item of tangible, movable property – something you can both touch and move. Your personal possessions will normally be chattels.'

Well my coins and bars belong to me - they are my personal possessions and i can touch them as long as i wear cotton gloves. 

Reading down the page it says: 'You only need to include in your tax return any gain on the disposal of a chattel where the disposal proceeds were more than £6,000 and the chattel is not exempt from Capital Gains Tax. '

So you don't mention coins exempt from CGT - and i will assume every coin you sell is exempt - i mean let's be real who would know anyway.
And you only need to declare a gain if the proceeds were more than £6,000. This £6,000 they talk about isn't per year, so i must assume it is per completed sale - the page reads like that. 

Now there is more detail on the page but i think i can probably stop there not having seen many sales on the TSF over £6,000.

There it is - you are not in a trade, this is a hobby and you are selling your personal possessions and none of the completed sales were for more than £6,000, so who cares what the gain on that might have been. So now you can forget about all the CGT clap trap and carry on stacking and then rearranging your stack. 

So i suggest all tax residents in the UK take a look at chattels and arrange their hobby accordingly. i have coins and bars - which are of course all UK legal tender, i have spoons and forks, candle sticks, and other household items - i have jewellery - never get asked about jewellery even at the airport. Stay diversified. Know that you are sovereign. Come back to tell me i am wrong if you think so. i'm still not going to declared any of my treasure - but as i say i never sell any of mine and it is mine and i'm not a slave.

My man!

[HonestMoneyGoldSilver]

5 hours ago, flyingveepixie said:

But if you're buying and selling regularly and making an income from it as a business (in the eyes of HMRC), you will be liable for income tax whether you're buying and selling CGT exempt legal tender or otherwise. For example. If I purchased 1000 sovereigns in a single transaction 10 years ago and kept the receipt(s) as proof,  then sold them all again last week to a single buyer in a single transaction, common sense, (but maybe not HMRC) would dictate that to be a casual event and not a business transaction. If however I buy 10 sovereigns this week and sell them all to 10 different buyers, then do the same next week, and the following week, and the week after that,  ad infinitum,  then I am running a business and liable for income tax on my profit.   Tax deductable allowances are things like postage costs, advertising costs, depreciation of vehicle and transport costs for business use, a portion of my heating and lighting bill if I work from a room at home, the cost of any kit like a sigma machine, computer etc.  There's a long list of allowables and an equally long list of things you can't claim for.

@sixgun makes some good points above relating to individual sovereignty and common law, but if you go down that road you really have to know your stuff to be able to fight your corner in court if it ever came to such a thing, and also understand the differences between the definition of 'legal' and 'lawful', and understand contract law as contracts are involved in every transaction whether you realise it or not, as well as fully understanding the language the legal world uses which looks like English but is actually something else called Legalese which has it's own dictionary.    Going off topic a bit and starting to ramble now so I'll shut up...🙄

 

I agree and I think I covered that in another comment. Of course if you are selling gold as a business and claiming for business expenses you have to pay tax - but not on the gold - you pay tax on the profits you extract from the business

If you are a private seller, have no staff, pay full postage costs and are not claiming tax relief of any kind, then you can sell an unlimited amount of legal tender gold without registering for VAT or paying taxes of any kind. The frequency and value of those legal tender gold trades is irrelevant. 

I agree with @sixgun in some things but I disagree in others -  The CGT-threshold of £6K operates over an entire tax year and includes all items in that period. Legal tender gold and silver are CGT-free and are 100% exempt regardless if you make £6 million in a single transaction as a private seller (you pay taxes on profits as a trader/business owner)

Sixgun makes an excellent point about some members on TSF who are traders and should be VAT-registered. People are free to make their own decisions and IMHO it's criminally unfair we pay VAT on legal tender silver and pay any taxes on monetary metals, foreign or otherwise. I could never support the law chasing people down but I could totally see why they might. When I'm PM of the UK all precious metals will be VAT and CGT-free and the UK will be the continental centre for all things precious metals. I'd also allow every small business a £1 million tax-free revenue threshold with zero bureaucracy other than protections for workers (must pay min wage, be clear about job security, give holidays, etc)

[sixgun]

1 hour ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

If you are a private seller, have no staff, pay full postage costs and are not claiming tax relief of any kind, then you can sell an unlimited amount of legal tender gold without registering for VAT or paying taxes of any kind. The frequency and value of those legal tender gold trades is irrelevant. 

The frequency and value does matter.  (see badges of trade)

Of course this matters

If you were buying and selling a couple of silver Britannias a week it would be a push to recognise this as a trade even though those Britannia sales would breach the £1000 / annum threshold for online sales. Commonsense tells you this is John Smith shuffling around his collection to free up money to buy something else.
HMRC might start to take notice:

If you regularly sell goods or services through an online marketplace you could be classed as a ‘trader’.

And if you earn more than £1,000 before deducting expenses through your trading, you will need to pay Income Tax on this.'
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/selling-online-and-paying-taxes/selling-online-and-paying-taxes-information-sheet

Were HMRC says earning more than £1000, that means the value of your sales is £1000+ - not profit.  This allowance came in during Osbourne and we have had a wack of inflation since then, it should be increased.

So don't behave like a professional seller - that have a trade name, a logo. Do you issue 'professional' invoices? What volume of sales and purchases are you involved in?

This £1000 limit is for people running a 'little business' online which doesn't make enough to warrant the paperwork of the HMRC. It still isn't the same as selling chattels.

1 hour ago, HonestMoneyGoldSilver said:

I agree with @sixgun in some things but I disagree in others -  The CGT-threshold of £6K operates over an entire tax year and includes all items in that period. Legal tender gold and silver are CGT-free and are 100% exempt regardless if you make £6 million in a single transaction as a private seller (you pay taxes on profits as a trader/business owner)

I am not talking about CGT - i am talking about the sale of chattels. This is something totally different. This is about selling personal possessions. I said HMRC likes to make you think you are in commerce and then you will think you should pay tax. If you do the CGT calculations and present it on your tax form - they'll take your money. They will think these aren't chattels or else you wouldn't have gone to the bother.

Look at the chattels link i posted. If a single completed sale of chattels is no more than £6000 you don't need to declare it - it never happened. 

On the HMRC website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-hs293-self-assessment-helpsheet/personal-possessions-and-capital-gains-tax-2023-hs293
Have you made a gain

'You only need to include in your tax return any gain on the disposal of personal possessions where the disposal proceeds were more than £6,000 and the personal possessions are not exempt from CGT.' 

Chattels are a special category - a trader is buying and selling for profit - when he buys something it becomes a business asset. It becomes part of his stock which he will hopefully sell at a profit. 
When you sell chattels in a single completed sale with a value of less than £6000 then as far as your tax form is concerned it never happened. 

Don't behave like a trader and you don't need to worry about CGT or income tax. This is a hobby you do for fun. This isn't a business - profits are by happenchance.

Here are the badges of trade - this is what HMRC would look for if an inspector were deciding whether you were running a business.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205

Edited May 28, 2023 by sixgun

[Bratnia]

On 28/05/2023 at 12:43, sixgun said:

The frequency and value does matter.  (see badges of trade)

Of course this matters

If you were buying and selling a couple of silver Britannias a week it would be a push to recognise this as a trade even though those Britannia sales would breach the £1000 / annum threshold for online sales. Commonsense tells you this is John Smith shuffling around his collection to free up money to buy something else.
HMRC might start to take notice:

If you regularly sell goods or services through an online marketplace you could be classed as a ‘trader’.

And if you earn more than £1,000 before deducting expenses through your trading, you will need to pay Income Tax on this.'
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/selling-online-and-paying-taxes/selling-online-and-paying-taxes-information-sheet

Were HMRC says earning more than £1000, that means the value of your sales is £1000+ - not profit.  This allowance came in during Osbourne and we have had a wack of inflation since then, it should be increased.

So don't behave like a professional seller - that have a trade name, a logo. Do you issue 'professional' invoices? What volume of sales and purchases are you involved in?

This £1000 limit is for people running a 'little business' online which doesn't make enough to warrant the paperwork of the HMRC. It still isn't the same as selling chattels.

I am not talking about CGT - i am talking about the sale of chattels. This is something totally different. This is about selling personal possessions. I said HMRC likes to make you think you are in commerce and then you will think you should pay tax. If you do the CGT calculations and present it on your tax form - they'll take your money. They will think these aren't chattels or else you wouldn't have gone to the bother.

Look at the chattels link i posted. If a single completed sale of chattels is no more than £6000 you don't need to declare it - it never happened. 

On the HMRC website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/chattels-and-capital-gains-tax-hs293-self-assessment-helpsheet/personal-possessions-and-capital-gains-tax-2023-hs293
Have you made a gain

'You only need to include in your tax return any gain on the disposal of personal possessions where the disposal proceeds were more than £6,000 and the personal possessions are not exempt from CGT.' 

Chattels are a special category - a trader is buying and selling for profit - when he buys something it becomes a business asset. It becomes part of his stock which he will hopefully sell at a profit. 
When you sell chattels in a single completed sale with a value of less than £6000 then as far as your tax form is concerned it never happened. 

Don't behave like a trader and you don't need to worry about CGT or income tax. This is a hobby you do for fun. This isn't a business - profits are by happenchance.

Here are the badges of trade - this is what HMRC would look for if an inspector were deciding whether you were running a business.

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205

Gold for me is a investment asset, part of a broader investment portfolio. I am a private investor so consider myself as falling within the private investor category, where gains are liable to CGT, but where legal tender gold coins are exempt from CGT

This link is interesting as it looks at the same issues but from a stocks and shares trading angle

https://www.daytrading.com/taxes/uk

I also hold stock shares inside a ISA, which are also exempt from taxes. Gold is just part of a broader portfolio and where I could hold gold exposure (as a investment) via a ETF/fund, as a physical in-hand investment (coins), or even via Traded Options/Futures. I also hold stocks/shares outside of ISA, in a general account, that are liable to income (dividends/interest) and capital gains taxes, as are other forms of holding gold, but where equally you can offset capital losses in one asset against capital gains in other assets. If I sell one form of gold to buy another for tax efficiency reasons, I wouldn't consider myself to be a self-employed trader, rather just a investor who was buying/selling for tax-harvesting purposes.

HMRC could reasonably argue that I might be a trader rather than a investor, as investment income/gains is a primary source of income for me, in addition to a pension, however that wasn't my sole activity prior to retirement, I worked and saved/accumulate, have since transitioned into retirement/drawdown. So I suspect that a court would find against HMRC and in my favour, but where the rules are such that nowadays practically anyone can be taken to court for potentially having broken one rule or another, such is the world we now live in. Increasingly individuals are being considered as guilty until they can prove otherwise, and we live in a open prison where all our movements/actions/thoughts are tracked/recorded/monitored.

[Bratnia]

Consider another example, if the Police raided your home tomorrow and found a stack of gold and cash then they likely would confiscate that as being the assumed potential proceeds of illicit activities, leaving it to you to prove otherwise. Automatically assumed to be guilty. Yet that is a practice that some prefer to that of depositing money into banks, where such deposits becomes the banks money, with a promise to (perhaps) repay it back to you at a later date, and where increasingly you're questioned or have to explain why you want some or all of it back.

Instead of bonds/cash-deposits, where in effect you're lending to others, some investors shift bond risk over to the stock side, might hold 50/50 stock and hard-cash for instance.. So for example instead of a overall 50/50 stock/bonds asset allocation you might hold 75/17/8 stock/gold/hard-cash to somewhat similar overall effect

US data example

Somewhat a sad world when however one who holds 25% of their liquid investment capital in the form of physical gold and hard cash in a safe is automatically assumed to be guiltier than another who instead had lent their money to banks/government (held cash-deposits/bonds).