Hello Myself and my family currently live in England (military father, we move house quite often) and we're set to move again. I have one fairly major issue with that - I have a small collection of WW2 weapons I've built up over the last years, and nobody to leave them with. Most of the time I've been able to get away with keeping them as it's moves within the UK, however our next move is to Amsterdam. As far as I know, it's going to be an absolute ballache trying to get them across the border, so my next resort is selling them off. I was wondering if I'll end up having to pay tax on them? I work self employed & will continue to do the same once we've moved. I've calculated my income tax and still totally lost - can someone help me out? (of course, the next step is finding someone who will take them before we move, that'll be fun!) Many thanks!
The simple answer is to ask a tax attorney but I had a similar experience in the US. I collected precision 10M airguns, circa late 50;'s until the early 70's. I bought the vast majority out of the EU and the UK when shipping was easy. I kept a folder of receipts and cost on my computer. I received a very fair offer for the lot, 67 at that time. My accountant told me to simply subtract my cost from the sales amount and pay tax on the difference as regular income based on my tax rate. I did have the paperwork or I could not prove my cost. Otherwise, it would complicate matters. As I was able to sell all as a group I gave the buyer a discount but still made money as I bought in Europe and the guns were worth more in the US. Might you be able to rent a small storage unit until your return?
A thought, we have a sister forum ww2talk.com with a predominately UK and European membership. They probably have far better advice and perhaps a barrister or two ! Plus potential buyers themselves or perhaps know some. I have been an Anglophile most of my life but love the Neverlands as well. Gaines