Ebay business or personal account

BigDebtBoy

I was just wondering what are the ins and outs of all this, I am selling off a load of my stuff like cd/record collection and others bits and bobs I don't need because I am skint however I have just tried to list some more things (have about 90 on now) and they are saying I need to register as a business account to carry on listing

is this just a formality or am I likely to end up having to pay tax on selling my own stuff, also are the fees any more expensive ?
will probably have a few hundred items on soon but after they sell or not after a few relists that will probably be that

should I just register as a business or just not list any more stuff/ dont want to get into any trouble etc ?

thanks

RFW

Registering as a business on Ebay is not the same as registering with HMRC. Personal sellers have a restriction on the number of listings. If they are all personal possessions (ie items not bought with the purpose of reselling) you wouldn't have to pay tax and don't need to contact HMRC even if you are registered on Ebay as a business.

Crowqueen

eBay don't like private sellers uploading too many listings - they are not fond of hard and fast rules, but it will be based on your usage of the facilities. If you have tripped their 'wire', so to speak, you need to scale things back - it may be that you have to register as a business to list anything more, or you need to stop listing for the moment.

As regards business registration, think hard. You won't have to pay tax - that is between you and HMRC - but you will have to accept returns, you might be held to a higher standard of operation by your buyers or they might have higher expectations of you, and next year business sales will all be subject to the Distance Selling Regulations which mandate change of mind/cancellations. Formally they won't apply to you but informally you might be challenged by buyers to adhere to them and you might suffer because being seen as a business to outsiders might make them expect more rights as a matter of course.

A friendly and DSR-compliant returns policy might help: the relevant guidelines are here. I sell mostly media items and I don't find I have a high rate of returns.

You also have to display contact details and a phone number on your listings. The former is a legal requirement for actual businesses and eBay add the latter as a rule. It seems to be automatic that they are added to business listings nowadays.

Also, if you upgrade to a business account, then you will have more flexibility to actually buy goods to sell on - I'm not sure CDs are a good market to be in long-term (I now buy most of my music as mp3s, though I will still buy obscure CDs and rip them) but you might find you diversify and can take advantage of items being sold as job lots to sell on (as long as you declare the income for tax purposes; any PAYE income will be set against your personal allowance first, so be careful).

techspec

A lot of people seem to do it. At the end of the day - Ebay told you to do it - so you may aswell do it. It does not mean you are a business.

Of course, had you set up more than one account to start with - you would have been OK.