Not done a dispatch for a while and this one seems to have a touch of the real life about it.
I've recently had a clear out of older wargaming projects. You know the sort of thing: Units that never made it to the table top, spares or projects that have not seen a battle in few years, its always good to release extra funds for new projects.
Thanks HMRC.
Selling more than 30 items on platforms such as eBay can trigger reporting requirements to HMRC under the new digital platform rules. That doesn't automatically mean tax is due, but it does mean your activity may be reported.
What sticks in the throat slightly is that many of these miniatures, rulebooks and hobby supplies were bought new years ago, complete with VAT. In many cases they're being sold at a substantial loss rather than a profit. It feels a little cheeky that after paying VAT on purchase, a hobbyist having a clear out can find themselves caught up in tax reporting thresholds designed to identify trading activity.
I get it, of course there's a difference between running a business and simply reclaiming some shelf space and while HMRC generally distinguishes between genuine trading and selling personal possessions, I thought I only had to worry about the wife finding out about my spending habits.😉
On to real life distractions.
Spotted these on Kickstarter from Brigade Games in the US and yes you can rest assured tax will be due on the import, a great collection of Chinese civilians to add to the Sino-Japanese project to populate the new buildings and clutter up the roads.
Sad news with the death of Patrick Stewart last week, he played King Leondegrance in Excalibur and a great battle scene. On the thread on the Northstar FB Nick mentioned some very exciting news.
Coming in January - A whole new range to compliment the movie.... Well that scuppered my original plans for 2027 and Operation Torch.
It looks like 2027 could be back to the 80's & 90's.... Over 12 years ago I kicked off a project for Starship Troopers we had some great campaign games, but scale was always an issue, when you want to re-fight the battle for Ft Joe Smith but you only have managed to amass 50 bugs it felt a little below par.
So why not do it in 6mm I thought?
Crow Industries have produced some great individual prints including a whole cluster or swarm of bugs.
A few odds and ends to clear this month but December will be bug central if the Excalibur range lands in January and the tax man does not snaffle all my funds. Being mostly black they should not take that long - But so many legs....
Finally one for the Blogger community, it will be interesting to see what others are seeing. Every now and again you get random comments pop up on posts, normally an advert for some off shore something or other. But lately AI posts appear to be creeping with far more content. Apologies to Omar & Michael if you are real but not many humans write 3 paragraphs about how insightful and great each post is. :-)
ai is beginning to feel like the bugs from that film series! I think the change with HMRC is the reality that people need three jobs these days to make any lifestyle and that includes gigs, so HMRC are really farming new territories as traditional PAYE firms literally evaporate along with those easy tax harvests. I agree about the “paid tax” once already issue, but again it seems to be that the activity is the sole criteria these days simply because it’s the easiest way to harvest tax. Finally I have started to see a lot more bundling on eBay which I suspect is also a tax driven reaction?
ReplyDeleteThose Brigade Games figures look great Stu - shame they are a bit on the pricey side AND the US postage is extortionately expensive!
ReplyDeleteI really dig those bugs from Crow Industries. I played a game of starship troopers in the summer which I *think* the minis where from their sculpts.
ReplyDeleteThe AI comments are definitely weird and I've noticed them from posts/comments years ago that are being resurrected with somewhat insightful spam.
I'm also noticed my reading list inside the backend of blogger is totally borked and has been for weeks. It's pretty irritating as I quite like being able to follow and comment on the blogs I thought I was following.
I didn't know about that HMRC rule??? I've had a big clear out of dead projects and now will post them on my blog or facebook, I pay enough tax already!
ReplyDeleteT'was a shame Patrick Stewart, loved him in Star Trek.
Oh my, vat when you're dreaming and a review when you're facing the truth. Life is tough. I guess I will concentrate on the lead pile getting painted and be judicious on new projects.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or do a lot of the actors I know seem older? Patrick Stewart, Walter Koenig....a long time ago and far away.
The AI think I've seen on quite a few Blogs now, but my SPAM filter has caught any trying to get posted on my Blog, as I've had it set to my having to approve them first, which has massively reduced said SPAM compared to previous years. Yep, the HMRC thing a bit of a pain, but it has been around for a while now?
ReplyDeleteStu, I have seen quite s few strange comments pop up of late that are clearly AI generated - they comment directly on pretty much statement in the post and then have an embedded link. Since I moderate all comments I delete them without question, thinking that the link may be malicious.
ReplyDeleteA marvellous mixed-bag post.
ReplyDeleteYou are surprisingly calm about potentially paying VAT on no added value. No doubt you can get an exemption, but it will take a few hoops and lotsa paper work?!
Funny, by chance I re-watched 'Excalibur' the other day. This time it produced more mirth than awe though as I kept thinking of lines from the Holy Grail. Those shiny knnnnights were everso romantic weren't they? Particularly Lancelot's shiny silver version.
I received a couple of those modern bot comments. Marked as spam and deleted.
Best wishes, James