Letter From HMRC Re: Ebay Account

motorguy

Genuinely quite pleased HMRC are clamping down on unregistered traders.

Its been quite tiring in the past not competing on a level playing field with other "traders"

Stuck_1

id be careful of first time letters through the door from HMRC at the moment,

someone told me they'd had a similar letter from HMRC asking them
to contact them by phone or e-mail

surly HMRC wouldn't ask people to email them if it was the first time they had contacted you

Flyonthewall

Stuck_1 wrote: »

id be careful of first time letters through the door from HMRC at the moment,

someone told me they'd had a similar letter from HMRC asking them
to contact them by phone or e-mail

surly HMRC wouldn't ask people to email them if it was the first time they had contacted you

Why? So long as you check it is the genuine email (and phone number) for them, what's wrong with that? Some people prefer email. It's just another way to contact them. Most companies give the option to email too.

If it's a scam they usually email you and it won't have your name or anything personal and it's usually something about a tax refund to try and get you to contact them through a dodgy link and give them details.

Scammers don't tend to bother with sending letters any more, that costs far too much and takes far too much effort. Not worth it when they can send a general letter to hundreds of thousands of people in a few clicks.

Stuck_1

the phone number is genuine & all the address are genuine but they are banking on first time people taking the easy option of e-mailing, i've checked the e-mail & looked at the letter i was asked to check & i cant find no HMRC e-mail that is emarkets.disclosureteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

surly a email address like that would pop up in a google search? + like i said its open to abuse if the first contact/letter you get says you can alternatively reply be e-mail.

HMRC say they would never ask you to disclose personal details in an email so what exactly would you be typing into this first time of contacting them email?

no doubt if it was a scam they'd have you hook line & sinker as you'd be thinking you was contacting HMRC?

powerful_Rogue

Stuck_1 wrote: »

the phone number is genuine & all the address are genuine but they are banking on first time people taking the easy option of e-mailing, i've checked the e-mail & looked at the letter i was asked to check & i cant find no HMRC e-mail that is [EMAIL="emarkets.disclosureteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk"]emarkets.disclosureteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

surly a email address like that would pop up in a google search? + like i said its open to abuse if the first contact/letter you get says you can alternatively reply be e-mail.

HMRC say they would never ask you to disclose personal details in an email so what exactly would you be typing into this first time of contacting them email?

no doubt if it was a scam they'd have you hook line & sinker as you'd be thinking you was contacting HMRC?

If its a .gsi.gov.uk email address its genuine.

Ive got both a hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk yet I dont show up in search results.

Stuck_1

These clowns haven't got a clue what there going after, if you sell an item
on e-bay for £10 you've got - around 13% ebay / paypal = £1.30 + £3.90 recorded to RM + Postage/Petrol costs, say 25p your left with £4.55.
how much of that do these clowns think are profit? 10%.
so were now talking 45p & they want tax you what % on that profit?

Stuck_1

some of the addresses used by the fraudsters include:

• service@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

• taxcredits@hmrc.co.uk

• office.tax@hmrc.taxreturn.co.uk

• refunds@hmrc.gov.uk

unfortunately your wrong

powerful_Rogue

Stuck_1 wrote: »

some of the addresses used by the fraudsters include:

• [EMAIL="service@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk"]service@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

• [EMAIL="taxcredits@hmrc.co.uk"]taxcredits@hmrc.co.uk[/EMAIL]

• [EMAIL="office.tax@hmrc.taxreturn.co.uk"]office.tax@hmrc.taxreturn.co.uk[/EMAIL]

• [EMAIL="refunds@hmrc.gov.uk"]refunds@hmrc.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

unfortunately your wrong

Nope, if its a .gsi.gov.uk address then its genuine as it uses the Government Secure Intranet (thus the .gsi)

soolin

Stuck_1 wrote: »

These clowns haven't got a clue what there going after, if you sell an item
on e-bay for £10 you've got - around 13% ebay / paypal = £1.30 + £3.90 recorded to RM + Postage/Petrol costs, say 25p your left with £4.55.
how much of that do these clowns think are profit? 10%.
so were now talking 45p & they want tax you what % on that profit?

I know it is fashionable to mock HMRC but frankly your reasoning is very faulty.

Who are the clowns here, HMRC for asking sellers to make a full declaration so that tax, if appropriate, can be calculated- or people who assume that HMRC are there and busy working out the postage costs, fees and other costs to calculate taxable profit? HMRC collect tax they don't do accounts, if you want accounts done and can't do them yourself then pay an accountant to do them for you.

The whole point of submitting a self assessment tax return is to give sellers and other businesses the opportunity to prepare accounts that show all these expenses.

Flyonthewall

Stuck_1 wrote: »

the phone number is genuine & all the address are genuine but they are banking on first time people taking the easy option of e-mailing, i've checked the e-mail & looked at the letter i was asked to check & i cant find no HMRC e-mail that is [EMAIL="emarkets.disclosureteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk"]emarkets.disclosureteam@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]

If it is all genuine what difference does it make how people contact them? They're happy for either and people get a choice. Nothing at all wrong with that.

surly a email address like that would pop up in a google search? + like i said its open to abuse if the first contact/letter you get says you can alternatively reply be e-mail.

Not always. I've googled emails before and come up with nothing, but they've been genuine.

How is that open to abuse? It's just a different way to communicate.

HMRC say they would never ask you to disclose personal details in an email so what exactly would you be typing into this first time of contacting them email?

Maybe "I've received a letter about being a business and paying tax. I am a private seller/I only just started up the business and will be registering as self employed/I did not realise I was classed as a business and wish to sort this/will now register right away as self employed. Please contact me/Please call me on xxx)".

Basically outline the reason for contact. I imagine half the time they end up calling the person up/they reply asking them to call anyway and the rest of the time they either state they are a private seller (quite easy to give more details without any personal if needed) or that they will know what to do and will be doing it (so registering self employed and sorting out tax).

Plenty of things you can say without giving your life story and all personal details.

no doubt if it was a scam they'd have you hook line & sinker as you'd be thinking you was contacting HMRC?

Well they tell you not to give personal details and you wouldn't just give payment details over email or phone like that because there's more to it than that (like working out what you actually owe in tax if anything). Sadly people do fall for scams like that, but all it takes is a bit of thought to realise that they're scamming.

Usually though they ask for money right away or tell you you're getting money and it's all by email and a dodgy website, they don't send letters with a genuine concern and genuine email address, phone number and address.

Stuck_1 wrote: »

These clowns haven't got a clue what there going after, if you sell an item
on e-bay for £10 you've got - around 13% ebay / paypal = £1.30 + £3.90 recorded to RM + Postage/Petrol costs, say 25p your left with £4.55.
how much of that do these clowns think are profit? 10%.
so were now talking 45p & they want tax you what % on that profit?

You may get discounts for fees and postage and a lot of people make far more than 10% profit.

It's no longer recorded, it's signed for and many sellers do not send signed for, especially for a £10 item. So that's an extra £1.10 to the seller right there.

A lot of items go as large letter which is far cheaper.

Still even at 45p if you sell massive amounts it adds up.

Regardless, you're missing the point. It doesn't matter whether you're making a loss, breaking even, making a small profit or making a massive profit. It all needs to be declared to HMRC if you're a business.

It also doesn't matter whether you're under the personal allowance threshold, in which case you won't pay any tax but you do still need to declare it.

If you're buying/making to sell you are a business. You must declare it. Simple as, end of. That's how it works.