The legalities of setting up an online store

freelancer666

Hi guys,

Apologies if this is not the right 'genre' of question for these forums but I've had good responses before so seemed a good place to begin.

I've just setup an online store using, for the time being, PayPal as the payment gateway. I've built the site myself and am the only person involved (and will be for the foreseeable future). The first orders have just started to come through so before anymore come through I wanted to look into the legalities of taking money online to keep everything above board.

I have the money going into a PayPal account setup specifically for the site. I wondered what the laws are here with regards to paying tax? Do I need to declare myself as a business? Or a sole trader? And how much do I have to earn before paying out to the taxman?

Apologies for all the questions. I suppose I'm really just looking for advice on the next steps I should take. I've looked but honestly can't find anything written in black and white on the web.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Steve

DS4215

I just asked a similar question on the Small Biz board - you need to register with HMRC as soon as for self assessment for taxes.