Hmrc

ThomasK31ly

"The tax authorities are going to use improved surveillance software to track down people trading on marketplace websites but failing to pay tax"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13754275

Hammyman

Excellent news.

s_b

good good good

shaun_from_Africa

I just hope that the software they use works better than the new software that ebay allegedly introduced a few years ago that was meant to detect shill bidders!

soolin

Whilst I applaud any initiative from HMRC to weed out the wrongly registered 'private sellers' I do have a suspicion that this is all a red herring and the do nothing different except panic some people into registering just in case.

Although last time i said that on a different news group there were several people who swore blind they were definitely caught after the last such announcement.

Oliver14

There's normally a story like this every 6 months. As much as I would like them to crack down on some of the "Private sellers' Government agencies history in using and purchasing specialist software does not bode well for a system that will work.

Chocmonster7

A report in the News of the World (I know!) a couple of weeks back said that they were going to class anyone who sold more than 100 items a year as a business. Not sure what happens to Ebay's free 100 listings a month for private sellers if that is the case!

macfly

Similar software is tried and tested, Goofbay springs to mind.
You can understand their point of view regarding selling levels. It's an easy one to defend if your sales are private. It's a sign of a desperate government with not enough revenue. I can imagine the faces of the already snowed under staff at HMRC. There's a huge backlog of tax returns, mostly improperly completed, piled up in every office.
I would be more supportive if I thought the money would be put to good use. However, history tells us that giving it to governments is like giving it to your kids. It spoils them.
Anyone fancy another war? Syria....Iran?

Myyrrddyn

I like this bit of the report _ "If you look at these websites it is obvious that people have got a stock of goods they are selling, and hiding the proceeds in undeclared offshore bank accounts," said Ronnie Ludwig of accountants Saffery Champness.
Offshore bank accounts I wish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What planet are these people on?

mobile48

Here a link to what I think is the press release from HMRC:

http://nds.coi.gov.uk/clientmicrosite/Content/Detail.aspx?ClientId=257&NewsAreaId=2&ReleaseID=419897&SubjectId=36

There is nothing about E-marketplaces on the HMRC Campaigns web page yet.

RFW

soolin wrote: »

Whilst I applaud any initiative from HMRC to weed out the wrongly registered 'private sellers' I do have a suspicion that this is all a red herring and the do nothing different except panic some people into registering just in case.

Although last time i said that on a different news group there were several people who swore blind they were definitely caught after the last such announcement.

I think I've mentioned on here before that due to having two addresses I have received a letter from HMRC asking why I wasn't registered for tax and VAT with my Ebay account, as I was it was easily sorted, but they did ask for quite a lot of information and already had a fair amount, so whether this is a new initiative or not, there are investigations.