Quote Originally Posted by maltfalc View Post
the only difference selling your personal gear makes is you can't claim what you originally paid for it against what you sold it for, otherwise everyone would be having garage sales just so they could claim an $800 loss on a cd player they bought in the 80s. selling your personal gear is still taxable income.
Doesn't make sense. The only way I could claim the loss of the $800 I originally paid for that CD player is if I am running a business, not if I'm selling my personal gear. If I'm selling personal gear, I paid income tax on the money I used to buy it, I don't have to pay income tax again when I sell it. If I buy a house and re-sell for the same price, there is no tax payable because there is no capital cost gain with the transaction. It's only if I sell it for, say, $100K more than I paid, that $100K appreciation is taxable unless it falls under the personal exemption for my primary residence.

If they ever come after me and force me to register for GST/PST (Quebec), I am allowed to claim those taxes on everything I have in inventory (because I'm assumed to have paid them when I bought everything), which would add up to +$100K worth of gear, so they would mail me a check for $15K. Which they actually did when I first registered for sales taxes in the '90s.