How does eBay work

frivolous_fay

Go and fess up to the tax man before he comes a-knocking, if you think you're liable.

tsharp

Does the tax man really spend time trawling thru ebay at ppl selling dog eared copies of Jeffrey Archer novels for 99p? More likely they just keep tabs on those likely to be importing stuff and selling in huge quantities...

soolin

tsharp wrote:

Does the tax man really spend time trawling thru ebay at ppl selling dog eared copies of Jeffrey Archer novels for 99p? More likely they just keep tabs on those likely to be importing stuff and selling in huge quantities...

more likely that someone turns them in. All those people in the pub, or at work or even relatives and friends who know you dabble on ebay..they are the ones likely to get jealous and make an anonymous complaint. There was even an anecdotal thread a while ago on the unmoderated boards that suggested that someones ebay competitors actually were trying to wipe out their competition by turning other sellers in.

The IR plus customs and excise rely quite considerably on reports from the public, apparently they get more people being grassed than they can actually cope with and have a backlog!

FloFlo

The way I look at is that I only pay on my profit, no profit no tax - seems fair enough to me. I did try it out first I was selling for a few weeks and things took off so I registered and back dated it to when I started it gave me peace of mind.

cafenervosa_2

rls1973 wrote:

what sort of thing do you sell, cafenervosa, if you dont mind me asking?

I'd rather not say what I sell like many other sellers on here. The competition is tough and will only get worse if more people sell the same.

Last year the guy in the flat below me took an interest in what I was doing & selling. He had never even used a computer and one day bought one and learnt how to use windows on his own with a little help from me. Then he kept asking me to show him how to use ebay & I did and told him some of my secrets abd sources. We now share a house together because it works out better for the rent but now hes turned into the most committed ever on ebay lol. He sells what I sell and hes turned into my competition. Hes doing pretty well for himself now. When I told him how to use ebay I thought he would sell his own thing.

So my mouth is zipped, sorry