How many of you earn your living off ebay?

veruccasalt

I have probably sold too many things to be classed as a pocket money ebayer, but have never got round to registering with the tax man.

Have been pushing this aside for too long, and would really like to regularise the whole thing. Any one got any good advice on this, please? Could I start with a blank sheet, or would I need to declare things I have sold in the past? I have to say I probaly dont have very good records of what I have sold and associated costs (hangs head in shame)

Campden

For me ebay selling is a hobby.

If it wasn't for the time it takes to photo, list, pack and post, it might be lucrative.

Can anyone point me to information on how to account for the labour costs when tax return time comes round.

ormus

i used to pay my wife 600 per month for her labour. (wink).
that way she never paid any tax.

7db

Your labour is not tax deductible - only if you pay someone else. Declare your earnings - it's the right thing to do, and yes - eBay frequently get requests for information from the authorities and have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about giving them all the information they ask for.

I'm a big seller on eBay -- probably bigger than most posters here -- and despite what the doom-mongers here say, there is a business to be made of it. I support six employees and a large warehouse.

Campden

That doesn't seem right 7db, to pay tax on gross profits.

Can any one else confirm or shed light.

If the Revenue ask us to register as self employed, they are recognizing that employment is happening and surely should allow for it before taxing turnover.


???

Adrasteia01

I remember someone saying once that where Ebay is concerned you don't pay tax on any items you've already bought and are reselling (i.e. second hand), but you do pay tax on items you've bought with the intent to sell or made yourself. Is that the case? It could be different as I'm not in the UK.

motorguy

7db wrote: »

Your labour is not tax deductible - only if you pay someone else. Declare your earnings - it's the right thing to do, and yes - eBay frequently get requests for information from the authorities and have absolutely no qualms whatsoever about giving them all the information they ask for.

I'm a big seller on eBay -- probably bigger than most posters here -- and despite what the doom-mongers here say, there is a business to be made of it. I support six employees and a large warehouse.

Call us doom mongerers but would you not agree, as several people have said here already, that for every 1 truly successful business being run on ebay there is probably at least 1000 people that are just making a few £ here and there?

powertron

Has anyone ever been stung by the tax office for selling on ebay.

I bet there are millions of sellers who evade paying taxes.

I find it strange that selling 'second hand' items leaves sellers pretty safe from having to pay tax, but if you are buying new items to resell it has to be taxed. What's to stop someone from buying thousands of pounds of second hand stock and reselling it as junk from his attic?

Adrasteia01

That's what I had been told but that doesn't mean it was right, or applicable to the UK. I'm actually wondering if it is.

baffcat

Let me try to clear this up a bit (and hopefully with the correct information).

Whether something you sell on ebay is secondhand or not makes not an iota of difference.

If you're selling personal items, from around your home, which you haven't bought to sell on again, you're fine with the taxman. So if you're fed up sitting on that lumpy settee, and you can put up a good picture or ten, and write a fantabulous description, and sell the pile of cr*p on ebay, good on you, and that lovely feller from your nearest tax office won't think about you at all.

But if you're the person buying that settee, who happened to notice that pile of cr*p being sold by that private seller is actually that rarest of rare things, a genuine Chippendale (what? You didn't know he made settees?) whilst surfing ebay, and realises that the seller doesn't know exactly what sort of a seat they've been plonking their derriere onto for the past few years, with the express intention of taking down to your local Sotherby's (other good auction houses are also available),then you should already have registered with HMRC.

The time taken for you, the buyer, to peruse ebay, to snipe your bid at the last minute, to pay by paypal, to go 300 miles to pick up the pile of cr*p/rarest of rarities, is immaterial, and cannot be claimed as labour as an expense. If, of course, you send your beloved wife/husband (delete as appropriate) to collect it for you, then as well as the petrol used in and wear & tear on your car (which of course you could've claimed for anyway), you can also claim the expense of using them. Be aware though, that HMRC would want to know why they hadn't declared the £100 you paid to them.

Hope I haven't muddied the water. Ok, I'm off to surf for sofas.

HTH

Baff