Starting an Ebay Shop

mattknight · 12 March 2009 at 4:46PM

Hello,

I am thinking of starting a ebay shop as a bit of extra money. I'm having trouble understanding rules regarding tax.

I plan on making £100-£200 profit if I'm lucky. I will still be working full time.

I understand from what I've read that I need to register as self employed or let them know what I'm doing.

I've also read that I need to get an accountant. Do I really need one or is it going to be something that I can do myself?

Many thanks
Matt

soolin · 12 March 2009 at 4:52PM

The basic rules are as follows:

Firstly you need to register as self employed with HMRC within 3 months of starting to trade, make sure you do that as penalties for leaving it longer can be harsh.

You don't need an accountant, as long as you keep below £15k a year simple accounts will suffice, basically income less expenses to give net profit. 3 lines are all you get on your tax return for this. Do keep very good records though, keep all your receipts including COPs for 6 years.

soolin · 12 March 2009 at 4:54PM

Just one other thing, make sure a shop is the way to go as they are bloomin expensive now. Price it all out, check profits, fees and postage etc very carefully before committing to buy stock. Many of us have cupboard loads of things that with hindsight we didn't do enough research on.

mattknight · 12 March 2009 at 5:05PM

Many thanks for your reply.

If I kept a normal ebay account would I still need to do everything as a business (register as self employed etc.) as I am planning on buying items to sell on?

naijapower · 12 March 2009 at 5:06PM

You may not need an ebay shop as it cost more. You can just be a seller on ebay. The shop concept is an extra level with added expense. Start as a seller and see how things go before upgrading to shop

soolin · 12 March 2009 at 5:41PM

mattknight wrote: »

Many thanks for your reply.

If I kept a normal ebay account would I still need to do everything as a business (register as self employed etc.) as I am planning on buying items to sell on?

You'd need to change the ebay account over to a business one simply because other users will report you for being wrongly registered.

Starting an Ebay Shop

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