Private v business seller

Quenastoise

How clear is the definition of business seller please ? I do buy for resale (at car boots, mostly) but it's my first year of trading on Ebay and I don't make enough profit out of it yet to declare the income to the Revenue and change my activities on Ebay as business (I'm selling less than 100 items a month anyway).

I have just bought an item for my own collection but the seller advertised it in the wrong category and didn't research it, so it went for a fifth of what it would have sold for if marketed properly. The temptation to make a sale is there. Say that my luck strikes again and that I were to sell why I buy on Ebay, would I land myself in hot water with Ebay as a supposedly private buyer ? (I would open a separate Ebay account to do so)

Many thanks in advance

soolin

Quenastoise wrote: »

How clear is the definition of business seller please ? I do buy for resale (at car boots, mostly) but it's my first year of trading on Ebay and I don't make enough profit out of it yet to declare the income to the Revenue and change my activities on Ebay as business (I'm selling less than 100 items a month anyway).

I have just bought an item for my own collection but the seller advertised it in the wrong category and didn't research it, so it went for a fifth of what it would have sold for if marketed properly. The temptation to make a sale is there. Say that my luck strikes again and that I were to sell why I buy on Ebay, would I land myself in hot water with Ebay as a supposedly private buyer ? (I would open a separate Ebay account to do so)

Many thanks in advance

You are abusiness as you admit yourself and it is not only ebay you need to worry about but HMRC as well.

I'm a business seller, albiet a very small one and rarely sell 100 items a month through ebay - so number of sales is not important at all.

There are some details in this thread about how to register etc

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/47120145#Comment_47120145

RFW

Ebay and HMRC especially aren't bothered about you making a profit, if you're a business you're a business, using your criteria, more than half the companies in the country wouldn't be declaring.;)

Call HMRC and get some advice, if you're losing money you may be able to offset this against tax, so would be beneficial to register (although registering is mandatory).

As for Ebay, business sellers do have some fee advantages over private sellers, so you are risking a lot for no real material gain.

mummyplus3

RFW wrote: »

As for Ebay, business sellers do have some fee advantages over private sellers, so you are risking a lot for no real material gain.

Do they? When I looked at the fees for business sellers they didnt look any different to me and it cost 10p to list an item under 99p

RFW

mummyplus3 wrote: »

Do they? When I looked at the fees for business sellers they didnt look any different to me and it cost 10p to list an item under 99p

Shop sellers have different listing fees and discounts are available for top rated sellers. You may not see any immediate effects but if we were private sellers our fees would be at least 15% more than they are as business sellers, there is also a better rate for Paypal too with higher turnovers.

RFW

mummyplus3 wrote: »

Do they? When I looked at the fees for business sellers they didnt look any different to me and it cost 10p to list an item under 99p

Just had a look at the final value fees and Tech (3%), Parts (8%) and Media (9%) are all less than for private sellers, clothing, however is at 12% for business sellers, where all private seller final value fees are at 10%.
The only substantial benefit for a private seller are the 100 free 99p auction listings per month and the occasional free listing days, any decent business seller would be able to work with paying the extra for those listings.

MyOnlyPost

To answer your first question, if you buy something with the intention of selling it for profit, eBay would say you are a business. A private seller only sells their own personal possessions

Solarjunkie

"I have just bought an item for my own collection" - so if you then sell it again, it is simply a legitimate sale of your personal possession, with no business implications.
In this case, no worries. If you buy 100 of these items and then immediately list them , then you are acting as a business. But there are plenty of businesses selling items but not listed as a business, my most recent purchase from a "private" seller came with a VAT invoice, to my surprise. So it's often a very grey area.

RFW

Solarjunkie wrote: »

there are plenty of businesses selling items but not listed as a business, my most recent purchase from a "private" seller came with a VAT invoice, to my surprise. So it's often a very grey area.

It isn't a grey area, some people are just wrong, there is a clear definition (especially for HMRC) as to what constitutes a business seller, any deviation from that can be seen as tax avoidance.

As for a private seller sending a VAT invoice they are obviously idiots, any VAT registered business seller can have the VAT on fees reduced from their Ebay account but would need to have their VAT number and business details registered with Ebay.

MyOnlyPost

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/business.html

1) You should tell eBay if you're operating as a business

You should register as an eBay business if you:
sell items that you have bought to resell
make items yourself and sell them, intending to make a profit
are a Trading Assistant
buy items for your business

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (April 2008) makes it an offence in the UK for a business to falsely represent itself as a private individual. So if you are misleading potential buyers into thinking that you are a private individual when you are in fact a business seller (ie: by not registering as a business seller with eBay), you will be breaking the law.

Not very grey really.

soolin

Solarjunkie wrote: »

"I have just bought an item for my own collection" - so if you then sell it again, it is simply a legitimate sale of your personal possession, with no business implications.
In this case, no worries. If you buy 100 of these items and then immediately list them , then you are acting as a business. But there are plenty of businesses selling items but not listed as a business, my most recent purchase from a "private" seller came with a VAT invoice, to my surprise. So it's often a very grey area.

It is not a grey area at all, some people are happy to defraud HMRC and others are not.