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Ebay & tax

Just a word of warning. The HMRC (the new name for Inland Revenue after it merged with Customs) has recently begun making noises about clamping down on ebay sellers who are not declaring income and therefore not paying tax on earnings on ebay. There are also some rumours about ebay itself helping HMRC in the UK to source information on sellers to identify those who should be paying tax - nothing private or against the DPA, just volume information. This is something that has been flagged up recently as a bit of a hot tax issue.

HMRC has further information at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/findout/index.htm for e-traders.

As I understand it, the Revenue are of the opinion that if you are reselling unwanted personal goods (new or second hand) at a low volume i.e. they are of a suitable volume and range that they are indeed personally owned items, then you are not liable for tax on earnings on these, however if you are obviously sourcing goods regularly and in volume to resell on ebay to make a profit, then you are considered trading and earnings could be liable for tax.

However, please do not take my word for it as it is not something that i have looked into professionally; do some research yourself, read up on the topic and decide if you need to start declaring income.

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