Selling handmade items for cash

angelicmandy

thanks all, i definitely want to do it all correctly - i dont want anything coming back to bite me. Im hoping the HMRC bit & the form filling is pretty easy as im not good at that side of things ?!

asajj

Good luck Angelicmandy - I think their online help tool isn't bad!

angelicmandy

Also, when declaring would I just be responsible for declaring anything to do with this business only & I wouldnt have to tell them anything about my usual full time employment and carry on with my employer doing this ?
thanks

lovinituk

You will need to complete an annual self assessment tax return. That will require you to enter your earnings from your employment, your profits from your self employed business, interest on any bank accounts, dividends from shares and various other income sources if applicable.

Here's some bedtime reading for you - https://www.gov.uk/business-tax/self-employed

iammumtoone

soolin wrote: »

There is no choice in the matter, UK law requires certain things of a business seller, and that includes a geographic address to be displayed and proper returns policies. A seller cannot pick and choose which laws to abide by.

Yes that is true but the address doesn't have to be shown so blatantly as done on ebay. On a private websites it is often on a separate page along with the terms and conditions. On other sites, the address is shown just before a purchase is made where you click to confirm purchase (to abide by the law). On amazon market place sellers is is not shown on every item as ebay, be be honest I am not sure where it is displayed but it most be somewhere possibly on the sellers home page.

At lot of sellers in my opinion would be using business accounts if ebay changed the policy to show the address of the seller when logging into paypal, this would still be before purchase but stop personal home addresses being clearly shown to just general browsers where at the same time sellers need to state if they are holiday :eek:

iammumtoone

soolin wrote: »

You should use a business account , using a private account and masquerading as a private seller would be against eBay rules.

Maybe but as long as you are following HRMC procedures and declaring all earnings it is not against the law to break ebay rules. Business (Home) address could be shown on the about me page so buyers could find it if needed.

soolin

iammumtoone wrote: »

Maybe but as long as you are following HRMC procedures and declaring all earnings it is not against the law to break ebay rules. Business (Home) address could be shown on the about me page so buyers could find it if needed.

I'm not sure how it is actually written, but it is illegal to represent yourself as a private seller when you are in fact a business. Unfortunately the address issue concerns many of us but we have to abide by the rules of wherever we sell. I don't see why it is any different for me to have my address showing and not the OPs?

If displaying an address is really a deal breaker then use another site where they allow the address to be hidden a few pages further in.

iammumtoone

soolin wrote: »

I don't see why it is any different for me to have my address showing and not the OPs?

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply it was.

Like said earlier in the thread there are advantages to having a business account (more listings and cheaper fees) but if people are willing to forfeit these to not have their address showing, then I wondered if there was a way to get around this.

I did look into selling handmade items myself but decided against it, one of the reasons being I was not prepared to sell on ebay as a business seller (due to the address issue). I know sellers moan about it but it does get lots of traffic even with selling on ebay it would be extremely difficult to turn a profit and without it almost impossible for the amount of time I was prepared to dedicate to my hobby (it is a hobby but I understand there is not such thing as a hobby where the HRMC as concerned)

OP i don't think anyone has mentioned you should also get liability insurance to cover the items you sell.

soolin

iammumtoone wrote: »

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply it was.

Like said earlier in the thread there are advantages to having a business account (more listings and cheaper fees) but if people are willing to forfeit these to not have their address showing, then I wondered if there was a way to get around this.

I did look into selling handmade items myself but decided against it, one of the reasons being I was not prepared to sell on ebay as a business seller (due to the address issue). I know sellers moan about it but it does get lots of traffic even with selling on ebay it would be extremely difficult to turn a profit and without it almost impossible for the amount of time I was prepared to dedicate to my hobby (it is a hobby but I understand there is not such thing as a hobby where the HRMC as concerned)

OP i don't think anyone has mentioned you should also get liability insurance to cover the items you sell.

Just as an aside , there seems to be some market for attractive and unusual hand made items on Facebook - it might be worth a look at your local selling pages.

Also etsy is worth a look and if you decide to sign up with etsy check out the referrers board here on MSE as if you sign up through a referral link you get 20 free listings .

angelicmandy

thanks for so much information - theres a lot i hadn't thought about - in particular the insurance issue. i may have to have a long hard think about whether this is worth it if i cannot dedicate full time hours to it.

thank you all - much appreciated