Small business on Ebay - can i still sell personal belongings on same account?

morrismonkey09

Hi, sorry if this thread seems mis-placed, however i couldn't seem to find a better place for it!
I set up a small business on Ebay, buying from wholesalers and selling for profit. I also have a number of personal belonging i wish to sell and would like to use the same account for this. Anything i make from selling these will go straight into my business account and be used to buy stock, so i am not wanting to keep them separate unless i have to.
My problem is how to put it through my books when i do my tax return. As i have no receipts for these, what should i do?
For example, i may have a teddy that sells for £20.00 but no receipt to show how much profit i made. Would it be acceptable to put the full £20.00 through as pure taxable profit then the fact that i have no reciept shows that i am not trying to dodge tax? Or does the receipt issue cause more problems than that?
The teddies will be brought back from my mums house as they were mine when i was younger. Technically my mum bought them, so would it be acceptable for me to buy them from her and for her to issue a receipt to me? Which option looks best in the eyes of HMRC?
If anyone can answer me i'd be very happy as i've been tring to search the web but can't find a definite answer. Thanks very much!

gb12345

There seem to be two considerations here -

1. The eBay rules on using a business account for selling personal items.
2. The tax side of things.

I can't help you with 1, but would suggest you try the eBay sub-forum further down the list.

If you are selling personal items then you aren't liable to pay tax on them as they are not part of your business, so why would you want to put yourself in a position where you have to?

You don't say how formal your business is - does it have it's own bank account or are you just using your personal account?

Personally, if I was in your position I would set up a seperate eBay and PayPal account for the personal items so that there is a clear division between them.

morrismonkey09

It's only a very small business. I set it up all properly, registered with HMRC with its own paypal account linked to a separate bank account, but only had a couple of hundred pounds to initially but stock, so turnover is slow.
The reasons i wish to sell personal items on the same account are
1) for the ebay feedback score
2) so that the money goes straight into the paypal account linked to the business and i know it will be used to grow the business and i won't dip into it.
I see what you are saying though! (why pay tax on something you don't have to?)
I've also considered using the ebay account to sell them, but not putting them through my books at all. In reality, would i be breaking any laws by excluding them from my business books, but using the sales to increase my ebay feedback score and filter money into my paypal account to buy stock? Hmmmmm..... i've been selling on ebay for a while but i'm new to all the business side of things. I think i will give ebay a call to check anyway, as i did upgrade from a personal to business account so i do need to check where they stand on this. Thanks.

gb12345

morrismonkey09 wrote: »

In reality, would i be breaking any laws by excluding them from my business books, but using the sales to increase my ebay feedback score and filter money into my paypal account to buy stock?

I can't see that you are breaking any laws (eBay rules maybe) by selling personal items through your eBay account.

As you are a sole trader, there is no legal distinction between your money and the business's - it all belongs to you, so you are free to do what ever you want with the money your business earns.

As I see it, your main problem would be convincing the tax man if you were audited that the extra stuff you have sold was personal and therefore not liable to tax.