Ebay business sellers, what % profit is acceptable

blue_monkey_2

Hammyman wrote: »

Not any more. It changed this year. AFAIR, it was £70k on the 2010-2011 Self Assessment form.

Yep, just checked the PDF copy of mine and it states on page 11 "Self Employment (Short):

If your annual turnover was below £70,000 you may just put your total expenses in box 19, rather than filling in the whole section.

You know, I forgot that. This year it asked me whether I wanted to break it all down or just give one figure, never gave it a 2nd thought as I have already broken it down I entered those figures.

I turnover less now and make more - got out of eBay a few years ago now. It was a good platform for starting my business I'll admit, but in the end it just got ridiculous, always someone under-cutting and selling for a loss just to get a feedback star and you end up having to compete against those people.

antrobus

stevew8975 wrote: »

Again from experience, it may be worth converting from a sole trader to a single director Ltd company, draw a nominal salary, then enjoy a tax free dividend from the business

Well there's no such thing as a "tax free dividend", all dividends are taxable.

Incidentally there's also no such thing as a "single director Ltd company" either. There is however such a thing as a 'limited company'; how many directors is has is of no particular significance.

stevew8975 wrote: »

You can also do things like take salary sacrifice and pay into a pension through the business as well.

All pension contributions are tax deductible (within the limits) anyway.

milfhunter

antrobus wrote: »

Well there's no such thing as a "tax free dividend", all dividends are taxable.

Is that what he meant by taxes through the business rather than personally? My missus has a similar arrangement and I'm sure she said that a divide can be up to £30I or before it attracts personal tax?

I always thought a company needed a director and secretary from what I learnt in business studies years ago. Didn't know that had changec.

antrobus

milfhunter wrote: »

Is that what he meant by taxes through the business rather than personally? My missus has a similar arrangement and I'm sure she said that a divide can be up to £30I or before it attracts personal tax?

There are indeed tax/NIC saving (or avoidance if your prefer) arrangements that you can make that involve the payment of dividends, but it would be rather dangerous to think that the dividends involved were 'tax free' in any way.

milfhunter wrote: »

I always thought a company needed a director and secretary from what I learnt in business studies years ago. Didn't know that had changec.

Yes it has changed. Since 2008/2009 (?) you don't need to have a separate company secretary anymore, unless you're talking about a PLC.