Selling on ebay and self-employment

kiwi_fruit

Hi, I was wondering if anybody can advise. We (me and my partner) sell on ebay quite a lot, all private stuff at the moment. We have one buying and one selling account which we both use, same with paypal, but all of these accounts are in my partner's name. We have joint everything and find it much easier that way, besides it's a long-standing account with excellent feedback etc. I'm thinking of possibly making some things and selling them on ebay, obviously would need to declare it. I am already registered self-employed as I do mystery shopping. I was wondering, would I be able to declare my ebay earnings without a problem or would the fact that the ebay and paypal accounts are in my partner's name be an issue?
p.s. I really did google and tried to find an answer to this but all in vain. Thanks a lot in advance.

Carer

You need a business seller account to sell on Ebay as a business.


Your partner could convert the private one to a business but it's not possible to change it back again. Any sales you make on the account would all be classed as business sales and therefore need to be declared. You'd need to open a new one for personal sales.

It would be cleaner all round to start with fresh accounts.

HMRC are unlikely to care what name the accounts are in - I've never had them check mine in 6 years of trading.

RFW

Above seems about right. As long as you keep things separate and accounted for I doubt anyone will care.

That said, you may be better setting up a separate account and starting a business properly. You can get help and advice from local business support groups and possibly funding too. Contact your local library or job centre to see what business schemes are available in your area. They'll also advise you on how to use accounts correctly. In my experience the worst advice still comes with a free coffee!

martindow

Carer wrote: »

HMRC are unlikely to care what name the accounts are in - I've never had them check mine in 6 years of trading.

I wouldn't be quite so certain. Tax investigations are rare but they can happen.

If your partner is already paying tax, taking income on an account in their name and declaring it as a partner's income could look very dubious.

kiwi_fruit

Thank you for all the answers. I'm just hesitant about starting a new account as I've heard some bad stories about money taking a while to clear in paypal, or having a bad luck and due to the lack of ratings any defect would have much stronger effect, then all of the accounts are suspended etc. It's certainly much easier when you have a "cushion" of many positive transactions etc. The current one is over 17 years old so somewhat precious:)
Indeed, my biggest worry is that <they>, whoever they are, might interpret it as my partner trying to avoid tax and using my personal allowance, which in no way would be the case. So I was wondering if they check that sort of thing. Food for thought.