Letter From HMRC Re: Ebay Account

soolin

listonosz wrote: »

I am just interested why you felt the need to use the term "Ahh so" when referring to China.
Maybe its a generational thing but I can remember when comedians would use this term to be derogatory to Asians.

I find myself unable to detect an 'amusing' or racist accent being used when I see a written word especially when the term is a good old fashioned English one. I also find it interesting why you wish to turn a perfectly interesting debate into an accusation of racism.

This is an interesting discussion and one which might well prove useful to others who haven't realised their obligations re HMRC, please don't spoil it.

listonosz

Flyonthewall wrote: »

As in realisation of what you were talking about. Ahh, so you mean that! Oh right, we're talking about that!

I have never ever heard that term used in any other way and I'm really confused as to what it could possibly mean in any derogatory way.

I did put "ahh, so" not "ahh so" if that makes any difference? I would have thought it obvious from how I wrote it that it was said in realisation of what were talking about anyway. It'd be a weird sentence otherwise if it were to mean anything else wouldn't it?

I've said ah/ahh, so to many things in realisation and no one has ever questioned it...I've used the term for many years. Never once thought anyone could ever take it any other way.

If you are aged under 40 I can give you the benefit of the doubt.
It was when you wrote "lol" after your statement which led me to the conclusion that you thought you had said something humorous.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Flyonthewall

listonosz wrote: »

If you are aged under 40 I can give you the benefit of the doubt.
It was when you wrote "lol" after your statement which led me to the conclusion that you thought you had said something humorous.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I am. Well under. Although I bet there's plenty of people over 40 who use it innocently and have never thought anything of it or know it's had a different meaning at some point.

Although lol is meant to stand for laughing it's not always used in that way. I wrote it as a more 'this conversation feels like it's been a bit of a joke considering you've been talking about Chinese products all along' and that changes things because of laws and standards. It wasn't relating to the sentence being funny.

I tried googling it out of curiosity and came up with nothing other than a Japanese phrase that's pronounced ahso and most people say it means along the lines of ah, ok/oh really?/I see what you mean. Apparently Ah-So is also a line of Asian sauces going by Wiki. Says a lot when even google doesn't have any links on the history of the phrase!

RichardD1970

listonosz wrote: »

If you are aged under 40 I can give you the benefit of the doubt.
It was when you wrote "lol" after your statement which led me to the conclusion that you thought you had said something humorous.
Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Sorry, but I am over 40 and remember the stereotypical China men who would say Ah So. Thinking Kung Fu with David Carradine?

It didn't even occur to me that FotW was being racist with the phrase "Ahh, so ...".

For a start it uses a double hh and the comma and the fact the sentence follows on from the so sort of changes the whole meaning of Ah so, which from what I can find is actually a Japanese phrase.

ahso

Common Japanese expression, short for "ah so desu ka".

"Ah" means "ah" like in English.

"So" means "that kind of thing" or "that way".

"Desu ka" (pronounced "des-ka") means "is it"? Desu is the verb to be, and ka makes it a question.

So the meaning is "oh, that's how it is."

Think your finding offence where there is none.

listonosz

That extra H and comma makes all the difference I stand corrected.

asajj

Marktheshark wrote: »

a 45 k turnover is hardly selling a few items from home.
I would expect a tax bill for 30% of the 45k unless you can start getting some very good water tight accounts and quickly.

You pay tax on profit not turnover.

soolin

asajj wrote: »

You pay tax on profit not turnover.

You are correct, however where accounts have not been supplied HMRC will use worst case scenario and assume gross proceeds to be taxable and issue tax demands on that. It would then be up to seller to provide accounts showing the correct taxable amount to reclaim the overpaid tax.

Without accounts HMRC have nothing else to go on.

the other issue is that the National Insurance threshold is lower than the tax threshold so whilst tax might not be due once accounts have been prepared, NI might well be.

asajj

True! I misunderstood the post actually. Anyway hope this thread would be educational for some!

soolin

asajj wrote: »

True! I misunderstood the post actually. Anyway hope this thread would be educational for some!

I think this has been a very interesting thread, it is a shame though that OP hasn't come back, I think updates would be even more interesting.

I suspect we have been wound up- but perhaps we had the last laugh as this is a very valid subject to discuss.

ovengloves

This is not a wind-up. I've been looking at the replies before contacting HMRC.
My wife is not registered self employed. Perhaps naively, we thought Ebay earnings should be declared only if you exceed the personal earning allowance. I now understand this isn't the case. The last thing we would want to do is fall foul of HMRC.
I guess some of you are saying serves you right. What I'd say to that is we may have been daft but we've been honest. My wife works extremely hard in difficult personal circumstances to make a small earning (less than £5K). She is proud to claim nothing from the government and we're self-sufficient. She earns a small margin on sales (if anyone can earn 35-45% in an overcrowded market like Ebay, please give the magic formula), and sometimes sells at a loss to get rid of old stock. The problem is proving this.
We're just going to have to throw ourselves to the mercy of HMRC. Whatever they say has to be paid we'll pay. I just hope other people don't make the same mistake.