more bad news for ebay

Brooker_Dave

"You might want to think twice before you next list something on eBay.
It has been revealed that the online auction giant paid a meagre £620,000 of tax on sales worth over £1.3 billion last year"


http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/28/guess-how-much-tax-ebay-paid-on-1-3-billion-profits-clue-its-620k-4884588/

System

Totally misleading headline. Ebay as a whole (worldwide) had sales of £1.3 billion. Ebay UK were taxed on their £12.4M profit at a rate agreed between Ebay UK & HMRC

Maybe you would be better questioning why HMRC are so lenient with Ebay and giving these tax breaks that they are legally availing themselves of.

RFW

These are always odd stories aren't they? Newspapers throw lots of figures out there and see which stick.
Is £1.3billion the total sales in? In which case most of that will be with the sellers who should also be paying tax.
Then there's Paypal who will be paying tax.
I'm sure Ebay, as all large companies in many nations do, will be shuffling their tax burdens around to minimise what they pay. We know they do it by basing from Luxembourg.
It's one of the downfalls of the EU that they allow member states to technically compete on tax. Luxembourg should be rolling in it, why the UK isn't more competitive is beyond me.

Brooker_Dave

Since ebay holds its paying users to such high standards, is it not right for it to pay it's fair share of tax?

shaun_from_Africa

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Since ebay holds its paying users to such high standards, is it not right for it to pay it's fair share of tax?

Ebay is paying all the tax that it is legally required to pay. They are a business and if they can take advantage of legal ways to avoid paying more and increasing their profits, why shouldn't they?

I know that I pay as little tax as possible and I'm sure that you do as well or do you feel that as the UK is in debt at the moment, you will be happy to give more?

supersaver09

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Since ebay holds its paying users to such high standards, is it not right for it to pay it's fair share of tax?

I do know what you're saying OP.
But as Sellers, i think we've got bigger fish to fry - regarding Ebay.
Who knows, maybe if they're forced to pay more Tax they'll just make the Sellers' lives more difficult and find ways of getting even more money out of us!

RFW

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

Since ebay holds its paying users to such high standards, is it not right for it to pay it's fair share of tax?

I've not heard of any prosecutions, so they must be.
I wonder how much Amazon and Ebay have managed to save the economy with so many new businesses they have helped set up on their sites?
Ebay must be very complicated to manage for tax purposes, I'd guess it was impossible for it to ever be 100% accurate in every country they deal in. For example how does the tax work for a Chinese seller that sells something on Ebay UK to someone in Russia?
The global tax system is much more complicated than the clicky headlines the newspapers tell us about.
As far as the title of this thread goes, it sounds like good news for Ebay, surely paying lower tax means more profits?

FidgitsID

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Ebay is paying all the tax that it is legally required to pay. They are a business and if they can take advantage of legal ways to avoid paying more and increasing their profits, why shouldn't they?

I know that I pay as little tax as possible and I'm sure that you do as well or do you feel that as the UK is in debt at the moment, you will be happy to give more?

ebay tries to take the high ground and expects sellers do to far more than they are legaly bound to do. but yet ebay only do the minimum the law requires in thier business model. sounds like double standards to me lol

RFW

FidgitsID wrote: »

ebay tries to take the high ground and forces sellers do to far more than they are legaly bound to do. but yet ebay only do the minimum the law requires in thier business model. sounds like double standards to me lol

I've never thought of Ebay as having morals, most multi national companies don't. Going beyond the law for seller protection is nothing more than a marketing strategy to keep punters buying. Whether it's a good one or not is another matter.

System

Their ball their rules.

Brooker_Dave

RFW wrote: »

I wonder how much Amazon and Ebay have managed to save the economy with so many new businesses they have helped set up on their sites?

They've put half the high st out of business, proper businesses who employed people and paid tax/business rates.

HTH.