First Time Tax Return as an Ebay Seller.

M_Thomson

Hi Everyone,

Forgive me if I am asking silly questions, but this is my first time filing a tax return. I am trading on Ebay part time as I have a full time job during the week. I have a few questions that I wondered if someone can help me with?

1) In the box on SA Online Turnover - takings, fees, sales or money earned by your business do I have to put the total amount earned through trading or just the profit after buying the stock etc?

2) Do I include cost of stock in the total allowable expenses box or the box in question 1?

3) Am I right in thinking you can claim the following as expenses? Ebay Fees, Paypal Fees, Cost of postage, Packing materials for the items.

4) Some of the items I sold came in bundles when I purchased them. They were Video games consoles and games. Some of the items from these bundles were sold seperatly. If I estimate roughly what individual items cost me to purchase and it turns out to be a couple of pounds wrong will I be in trouble with HMRC?

5) Some of the items sold went for less than what they cost me to purchase. Can I claim back for the losses? Which box should this go in?

6) As a first time Tax Return filer, does that make me more likely to be audited by HMRC? I've nothing to hide, but I just worry that if I got audited, I would be in trouble if I have made any mistakes!!!

My turnover isn't huge so that's why I doing the SA myself.

CIS

1) Turnover is your total sales

2) You don't include the total stock purchased as an expense, only the cost of the stock actually sold. (Purchases + Opening Stock - Closing Stock)

3) They are all valid expenses that you can claim for,

4) As long as you use a realistic value then you shouldn't have an issue but try to be consistent if you can.

5) You don't claim back any loss as a separate figure , it will be taken in to account by your turnover and costs of stock sold.

6) Its unlikely unless however HMRC do pick cases at random to audit.