IN July 2014 John decided to clear out his garage and have a sale of the miscellaneous tools he had. He heard that an effective method is to put them on e-bay. He completed the process of membership and Paypal through which he received the payments. Using his digital camera, he soon had his own site and he said "I am in business". Within there months most of his tools were sold. He realized the equivalent of $130,000. He told his friends of his business success and they gave him their tools from their garage, and he sold them on their behalf and retained 15% from the sale proceeds for his expenses. By year-end 2014 John's had realized a net gain on all the sales of $1,250,000. 

A) What is Johns liability to tax (if any) on these e-bay sales in year of assessment 2014?

John became very proficient at selling on e-bay. In early 2015 he saw that there was a market for certain items such as hand-printed T-shirts of which he had a large personal collection.

When he had sold his collection, he bought in a closing out sale, 20 dozen hand printed T-shirts which he put on e-bay and sold in lots of three for the price of two. 

B) Is John trading? Give reasons for your answer and referring to leading cases in this area.