Selling puppies?

[Hatiere]

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Hello

Recently I had my dog Poppy have puppies - I wasn't expecting a huge litter as she's not particularly big but wow! She's had a litter of 14 puppies and there's no way I can look after that many myself.

I was curious - if I was to sell them, would it count as taxable income? I've not done anything like this before and selling that many puppies wouldn't be an insignificant amount of money, which is worrying me a little.

Has someone around here been in a situation like this and could point me to some good resources/the like? I've checked out this tax calculator and it would most definitely put me into the next tax band. Should I worry about it?

Thanks in advance

 

[JoanneF]

I don't really think I understand the problem. Presumably if you go into the higher tax bracket, you pay the extra tax but as a one-off self employed lump sum source of income alongside your normal income, and pay tax separately just on that lump sum.

If you don't want to go into the higher tax bracket, I suppose you could reduce the price of the pups.

What breed are they, and have you kept receipts for the health tests that hopefully were done before the mating to offset against the income?

 

[merlina]

If you have trouble selling so many puppies (and please do home checks because not everyone who comes along wanting one should necessarily get one) you could consider approaching your local dog rescue- or Dogs Trust, say. They will ensure only the suitable homes get a puppy and the fee they charge will go to the charity itself to help other unwanted dogs. Litters of puppies can be a godsend to rescues because they subsidise rehoming the old/sick and frankly less attractive dogs. So you'll have done a massive good deed for dogs in general.

 

[Mad Murphy]

Strictly speaking if you sell the pups at a profit then tax is payable on that profit. I think you would need to make a spreadsheet detailing all your costs and the amounts the pups sell for so that you could prove the profit you make.

 

[PWDmum]

My understanding is this, if you Re an unlicensed breeder and only have one or the odd litter. You are not obliged to inform the tax man... if you constantly breed then that’s another matter

 

[JudyN]

I found a website here that suggests that you're OK as long as this is a 'one off': Dog Breeder See the link to 'badges of trade'.

If you're happy to keep it all completely legit (and obviously the forum admin wouldn't suggest anything less as they are responsible for content) then you could try ringing HMRC - I found them really helpful when I went self-employed. But obviously, if they are generally happy to turn a blind eye to certain practices, once you ring them they can't turn a blind eye any more...

Make sure you keep a record of all extra expenses - stud fees, extra food for Mum, any vet fees, food, wormer and vaccination for pups, toys, blankets, cleaning products, more cleaning products, replacing ruined carpets...

 

[leashedForLife]

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If the pups aren't purebred, they will not be worth as much per pup as pedigreed pups -- unless of course, the litter is a spozedly-"Designer" cross-breed, some of which sound to me like excellent reasons for a mismate jab.
I mean, try to imagine a litter of Dalmatian x Shar-Pei pups? - that was an ad in the newspaper, a few years back, & I was horrified. Unattractive, to say the least, & in a worst case scenario, the poor pups get both the Dal purine-issues / gout, AND the many skin and ear problems plus brachy-breathing issues, inherent in Shar-Peis. What a curse to live under!

returning to the OP's litter, if sire and dam were not screened for heritable issues [which I sincerely hope they were - the parents of any deliberately-produced litter should be screened prior to any mating, even in the case of random-bred or crossbred parents], that's another reason to lower the price.

Will Ur vet do the initial vaccinations? - or will U have the buyers take care of that? If the latter, that's another reason to lower the price; at least here in the USA, the breeder is expected to do Vax #1, & the buyer's vet does #2 & any additional [rabies isn't usually given b4 pups are at least 4-MO, or 6-MO in some states].

Breeding done right is rarely profitable, not below the stratospheric heights of Westminster or Crufts winners, & even then, it's usually stud-fees that are money-makers, not litters. Show-quality pups can command a hefty price, but breeding & rearing them to sales age isn't cheap.

- terry

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