Ebay spreadsheet vat

dparker224

ive been an ebay seller for a few years, i have a high turnover but very little profit, ive been on the antique dealer margin scheme which is about 7 percent of my turnover including postage aswel, all i seam to be doiung is working like mad to pay 7 or 8 grand vat every 3 months, im no good with paperwork and i asked my accountant for a better vat scheme as im just getting further into debt, he says there is a better one but it involves much more paperwork, i have sleepless nights constantly worrying about vat and im always late paying so get charged hundreds exta aswel, when you phone the vat people up for help they talk to you as if you are a naughty schoolboy!! and dont offer any help, i went on a vat course and asked if someone could show me how to do things easier but they said look on the website they dont do one to one help anymore, paperwork and figures baffle me, im on antidepressants because im constantly stressed about vat bill, ive tried to search on the internet for help but nothing makes sense, i sell on average 100 items a month and turnover is average £30,000, i love buying and selling on ebay but im really on the verge of going bankrupt due to paying my vat bills on various credit cards over the years, more i sell, more i have to buy from auctions, and the higher ebay fees i get and then have to constantly sell like mad to pay vat...its like im just selling to pay the goverment and i cant sell less otherwise ill come to a dead end with multiple bills i cant pay, does anyone know of an easy spreadsheet to use for a margin scheme which i want to change to. all i can find are ones in us dollars or ones that you need to fill everything in and there isnt enough hours in the day. any help much appreciated:(

RFW

Sounds to me like you need to find a better accountant. 300 items/quarter shouldn't be difficult to manage at all.
Also have a word with Business Debtline for some advice. I'd imagine they could help buy you a few months breathing space.
With a decent turnover and hopefully a decent profit you should be able to settle things down.
Have a look in your local newspaper for a bookkeeper, often you'll find retired accountants and secretaries who will be cheap and efficient.
You can buy some decent British tax related software, there are probably some open source ones around. Frankly, though you'll be better off getting outside help. Your bank may be able to offer help/workshops too or try joining the Federation of Small Businesses.
There may also be some antique trader forums who may be able to help you out.

dparker224

thanks very much for that, i was recommended this accountant by someone on the market, but he is miles away so i think best thing is to change as i really need someone more local, id love someone just to take over the paperwork side of things as it would take alot of stress off me, but i have spoke to a couple of local accountants and no one seams to have a clue about ebay sellers. thanks again for your quick reply and suggestions, thanks, dan

RFW

dparker224 wrote: »

but i have spoke to a couple of local accountants and no one seams to have a clue about ebay sellers.

I'd have thought there were plenty of Ebay savvy accountants knocking about these days. That said there isn't a great need for that much knowledge, it's fairly straightforward. If you have records of purchases and records of sales you then need to add Paypal records and Ebay fees, both of which are easy to get. You can download any period from Paypal and print out Ebay monthly invoices. Then you'll just need postage costs and your other expenses.
Even an accountant who had no idea what Ebay was should be able to work it out in a few minutes.
Sounds to me like you need a nice single office accountant, one who likes antiques would be good.

martindow

With £360,000 turnover you need to look carefully at your pricing. You know in advance there will be VAT, Ebay and Paypal fees to be paid. If you are struggling you need to set your prices so that you have a decent margin after all of your expenses.

You're right - there is no point in working hard if you make negligible profits.

I hope it works out. I tend to agree that your accountant is not very good. He should be helping you in all aspects of your business.

JasonLVC

VAT should not be a problem because if you are charging VAT in your pricing, then your customer is paying the VAT which you pay over to HMRC. You are merely a middleman for HMRC.

If you have no money to pay the VAT bill, then this means you are doing something wrong. Taking the VAT the customer has paid you (to pay to HMRC) and using it instead to either buy more stock or to cover errors within your profit margins/other costs. This is why you are having VAT problems.

If you are using the antique (2nd hand) margin scheme then you should only be declaring the difference between what it cost to buy the antique in and the price at which you sell it (ie, the 7% you refer to). So if you buy in at £100 and sell for £150, the margin for VAT would be £50 so you declare VAT on £50 = £10 paid to HMRC and you get to keep £140 and so in theory you've made £40 (bought for £100 sold for £150 less VAT) but out of that £40 you need to deduct ebay costs, other costs, overheads, etc.

Are you sure you are making money on the sale price and factoring in all your costs to get to the sale stage?

Does sound like you need a relatively decent book-keeper (or accountant). You are selling £360k p/yr so this is quite a decent sized business and you cannot treat like a hobby anymore. Make sure the book-keeper knows how to operate the margin schemes, because the key is the paperwork/record keeping.

When your accountant states there is a better scheme, I presume they mean the Global Accounting Margin Scheme, which is a simplification of the ordinary margin scheme

Google "Notice 718, HMRC" which will produce the guidance on how all these margin schemes work. Paragraph 14 explains all.

In brief, on ordinary margin scheme you have stock books and record each item you buy and each item you sell and work out the margin on a per item basis. Under global accounting method, you don't need the stock book/list of individual items, you can consolidate individual sales into "total purchases cost" vs "total selling price" and apply margin to that difference. You still need to keep your purchase and sales invoices but not analyse out at individual level, just add up all your purchases and all your sales and et voila, the margin. Invoices/paperwork should be stored if HMRC ever want to query anything.

ballisticbrian

Dan, it doesn't sound like your problem is finding the right accountant but doing the maths when you buy something. You are not just in the game of buying and selling. Surely you must be working out your paypal, ebay fees, bank fees, insurance along with petrol and your hourly rate everytime you go to purchase something? The VAT you are having to add on should all be part of this. But this is basic business and I don't mean to try rto teach you to suck eggs.

fred7777

dparker224 wrote: »

all i can find are ones in us dollars

If you can find one that works in US dollars then you could just use that (remembering that you figures are actually in pounds not dollars)

Otherwise this ebay seller seems to have what you need.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Barrys-bookkeeping-spreadsheet-shop/VAT-margin-scheme-/_i.html?_fsub=281728619