Selling prints - how to price + tax?

Hello all

I'm looking to print & sell some things I've designed (few quid each, only sold if they're a quality that I'd use myself) and was wondering how to price them. I've already got my money back from the printer just out of fun and helpful things I've made out of it.

Also - is the income from selling 3D printed bits and bobs taxable? I'm not entirely sure how it works and haven't been able to find much about it. These salary calculations say I am just about in the higher tax band, so basically anything else I make on top of my income will be at 40% (UK).

Should I be worried at all or does it not matter?

Cheers!

Use the government sites to determine if you need to pay tax such as:

[www.gov.uk]

At a quick glance it is unclear whether you could get the first £1000 of income tax free under the self employment exemption if you are already receiving a taxable income. Keep all receipts for material and consumables and try to keep a seperate stash of consumables for personal use. That way if you decide you don't need to pay tax but are wrong you can beg forgiveness and give the records to an accountant for them to cslculate the due tax.

As for costing that's your call really. It should cover things like filament, consumables, operator time, covering a share of the machine & computer's cost within a set time frame, return on investment, and operator time. If you plan to do a significant volume then you could be running at a loss if you don't consider some of these which makes it impractical for people competing to try and earn a living from printing. Likewise you would find it difficult to expand reducing your 9-5 or replace a worn out machine.

Edit; probably stating the obvious but if you try to calculate your day rate based on your salary it isn't salary / 365.25, it needs to take into account weekends and holidays including public holidays.

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2018 10:33PM by WesBrooks.

As a musing/aside ftom your described situation we're now slowly getting toward the poimt where there are so many printers out there that to expect to earn a living from a printer is similar to expecting to earn ftom an office laser printer (ie printing text/pictures rather than desktop sintering!). What works in our favour is the skill required to run these machines at there best, particularly if pushing toward a more novel material. Like with traditional printing you'd need to focus on an neich such as large format, high volume, high quality, or high performance materials.