Hello,
So this year I decided to sell my personal coin / banknote collection on eBay, as well as a few books - to clean my closet and have these items go to someone who could appreciate them. As the tax year rolls around I'm wondering do I have to claim this as income for 2019.
Obviously I am selling my coin / banknotes for best price I can get and my books as well. I cant remember what I paid for any of my coins/banknotes and items but likely I'm breaking even, gaining a bit or losing. One book I sold I collected as a kid and my parents paid probably 4x what I sold it for.
I've basically sold everything I wanted to and will stop selling on eBay by the end of this year as I have no need of it anymore. I have kept all my receipts and made an excel sheet just in case I need to report but reading other peoples posts it seems if its personal items you do not have to report (but this is vague). I'm not looking to make a profit and I have no plans to run this as a business.
If I do require to report, obviously I cant remember what I paid for some of this collection but I figure if I can give to the bank for face value and not have to claim the value of the currency then if I sell a $100 dollar bill for $150 on eBay, then I would have to claim the $50?
Thanks
Generally, you do not need to report income earned from selling personal items such as the ones you listed or sold on eBay. If an individual item is sold for over $1,000, or had an original value (ACB) that exceeded $1,000, you may be required to claim a Capital Gain for that particular item.
As it sounds like you are nowhere near the $1,000 threshold for any of your items, you likely will not have any income to report to CRA, nor would you be able to report any "losses" if you were to sell an item below its original cost.
The following links further explain Personal Use Property, and if and when you would report the sale of them on your personal income tax return.