Letter off social asking if have ebay shop

emweaver

My sister has been selling some things on ebay in the past 2 months, unwanted xmas gifts and having a major sort out sold about 80 items. Anyway today she had a letter off the social as shes out of work asking if she has a business on ebay. How would they know that she has sold things and is she going to get in trouble?


I stress she is not a business does not buy to sell on, just sells her unwanted gifts, childrens old toys / clothes and the odd competition win she doesnt want

cyberbob

She won't get into trouble if its just private sales. If she is buying to sell she needs to declare it. If not she should be fine

They may have found out if someone reported her (its normally friends or family) or could be a seller she is competing with. I would normally bet though its someone who knows her

emweaver

I did suspect she was reported but her friends and family know shes not a business. I wasnt sure if the bank saw the paypal money going in and notified the DSS or if they randomnly check bank accounts for money going in. Either way she is a bit worried about it

I dont know how a competitive seller would know shes out of work tho

soolin

emweaver wrote: »

I did suspect she was reported but her friends and family know shes not a business. I wasnt sure if the bank saw the paypal money going in and notified the DSS or if they randomnly check bank accounts for money going in. Either way she is a bit worried about it

I dont know how a competitive seller would know shes out of work tho

Almost certainly a friend of relative, HMRC once stated that they got most of their reports that way. Someone she knows will have got jealous of her having a bit extra money and turned her in. That's the 4th one I've heard of now in a year.

What will probably happen is that she'll also get a note from HMRC at some point either asking her to submit a tax return or just sending a large estimated bill for online sales.

She needs to get her 'evidence' sorted now for both the DWP and HMRC to prove this was her stuff. Photos maybe of her house looking a bit cluttered with items proving she easily had enough to sell, letters or printouts confirming that the new items were all won by her for her personal use, that sort of thing. meanwhile just tell her to stay calm and explain politely but firmly that it was all her unwanted stuff, and just hope she isn't one of those unfortunate sellers from other threads that have a dozen or more brand new unwanted items or unwanted gifts going through her ebay account as that might be difficult to explain.

BTW you say a shop, does she actually have a shop or is she just selling through a nromal private ebay account. Having a shop would make this slightly more interesting , and not in a good way.

cyberbob

emweaver wrote: »

I did suspect she was reported but her friends and family know shes not a business. I wasnt sure if the bank saw the paypal money going in and notified the DSS or if they randomnly check bank accounts for money going in. Either way she is a bit worried about it

I dont know how a competitive seller would know shes out of work tho

As far as I understand it Banks cannot inform the DSS.(I could be wrong though) DSS can though ask to see your bank statements

emweaver

soolin wrote: »

Almost certainly a friend of relative, HMRC once stated that they got most of their reports that way. Someone she knows will have got jealous of her having a bit extra money and turned her in. That's the 4th one I've heard of now in a year.

What will probably happen is that she'll also get a note from HMRC at some point either asking her to submit a tax return or just sending a large estimated bill for online sales.

She needs to get her 'evidence' sorted now for both the DWP and HMRC to prove this was her stuff. Photos maybe of her house looking a bit cluttered with items proving she easily had enough to sell, letters or printouts confirming that the new items were all won by her for her personal use, that sort of thing. meanwhile just tell her to stay calm and explain politely but firmly that it was all her unwanted stuff, and just hope she isn't one of those unfortunate sellers from other threads that have a dozen or more brand new unwanted items or unwanted gifts going through her ebay account as that might be difficult to explain.

BTW you say a shop, does she actually have a shop or is she just selling through a nromal private ebay account. Having a shop would make this slightly more interesting , and not in a good way.

just a private account, i doubt she has kept letter of items she wins i know i dont. she has photos on ebay of the items she took but thats all its a bit late to take photos of the stuff in her home once shes posted them

do you think shes likely to get asked to submit a tax return?

RHemmings

cyberbob wrote: »

As far as I understand it Banks cannot inform the DSS.(I could be wrong though) DSS can though ask to see your bank statements

Can the DSS ask for a list of names from paypal?

emweaver

its a bit scary to think selling your personal items can get you into trouble its not as though your working on the side, like being under surveylance

Floxxie

Isn't it more likely to be someone informing on her re her benefits? I wonder if for benefit purposes they even make a distinction between money made through selling your own stuff or running it as a business?

Floxxie

cyberbob wrote: »

As far as I understand it Banks cannot inform the DSS.(I could be wrong though) DSS can though ask to see your bank statements

The banks wouldn't be trawling through accounts and informing on people but they do work with such agencies, when approached.

soolin

emweaver wrote: »

its a bit scary to think selling your personal items can get you into trouble its not as though your working on the side, like being under surveylance

Blame the people breaking the rules for that. You've seen some of the threads on here where someone (usually me) will suggest that someone needs to be registered for tax and the other people who will then all proudly say that they never bothered and have never got caught, There is currently an interesting discussion on another board about private trading when you actually buy stuff at say car boot sales to sell on, and again asome people admit to doing it as it isn't really a business and they don't want to pay tax.

DWP and HMRC ar enot daft, they know that many private sellers on ebay are actually businesses not declaring so every now and then they act on the reports they get and approach all the people whose names they had. Whilst many of them will be trading, some will not but they get the same treatment regardless until they can prove that they are in fact just selling their own unwanted items.

Your Sister should be fine as long as her sales make sense, for instance is she has all teenage boys then selling teenage boys or younger boys clothes would be perfectly explainable, probably selling baby girls clothes would not. Likewsie selling wins from competitions could be explained if there is any note of entering or a letter of congratulations, but even if there isn't a few odds and ends shouldn't be a problem if the seller sells those amongst normal household tat that we all sell.

If she is completely a private seller then she will be fine as it should be obvious from the sales that she is only selling her own stuff. If DWP back off then HMRC will probably not bother either. In fact I am already vaguely helping someone I know through my volunteer work with a claim like this, but in her case she was trading (with more sales than me on one account!)and can even identify who reported her. In that case though HMRC contacted her first and only then did the benefit people get involved.