ebay to request NI numbers from sellers

rose_sparky

I would imagine those claiming benefits would be worried.

Spoonie_Turtle

rose_sparky said:

I would imagine those claiming benefits would be worried.

Why?

Nothing has changed.  If there's income they need to be declaring - reselling items they've bought to sell, or making items to sell - they should already have been doing so.  Otherwise, if they're just selling their own unwanted items for a bit of extra cash, there's nothing to worry about.

2dareis2do

I have just come across this from ebay.

We're getting in touch to let you know about the UK digital sales reporting law. This law requires marketplaces like eBay to collect and report seller information if you meet one of these thresholds: 30 or more sales, or sales exceeding £1740 in a calendar year.

From what I can tell the change was introduced under section 349 of the Finance (No.2) Act 2023.

Speciifically:

This measure introduces regulations which will require certain UK digital platforms to report information to HMRC about the income of sellers of goods and services on their platform. HMRC will then exchange the information with the other participating tax authorities for the jurisdictions where the sellers are tax resident.

it states:

While HMRC already has the power to access information from UK-based platforms on the income of sellers on the platform, implementing the OECD rules will enable HMRC to exchange information with other tax authorities to access data from platforms based outside the UK quickly and efficiently.

Reporting only came into affect this year:

The regulations will apply from 1 January 2024, with reporting due from January 2025.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-goods-or-services-on-a-digital-platform

It also states here:

Digital platform operators will ask you for certain details.
If you’re an individual seller, they’ll ask for your:

• full name

• address where you normally live

• date of birth

• tax identification number (National Insurance number if you live in the UK)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/selling-goods-or-services-on-a-digital-platform

2dareis2do

It's annoying that if  i only sell personal items ebay they still have to report this to HMRC.  

This change  just adds to my digital  footprint and leaves me more vulnerable to being scammed.

soolin

I’ve just been asked to supply my NI number. Strangely after I had added it I got a pop up message saying unless I had other issues on my account my account was now unblocked and could be used again, but it wasn’t blocked at all as far as I can see. 

horsewithnoname

forgotmyname said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Well those are hardly going to be funded by the £1300 gross received in a year from their eBay sales.

Well they could not be bothered with the Dormant Company trading on Ebay with many hundreds of listings and feedback of over 70,000

in just 14 months of having that account.  Probably too much effort chasing them when they can get some pensioner who failed to declare
they bought something and sold it for a profit taking them over their tax limit.

Report it. Also report to Companies House. 

Not everything is connected up, and there are the resources to pursue everyone anyway, so yeah, a lot of tax fraud goes uninvestigated. A sensible govt would increase the number of investigators, but cutting public service is popular so they do that instead, then blame the public servants for not being able to “do more with less”

TimeLord1

soolin said:

I’ve just been asked to supply my NI number. Strangely after I had added it I got a pop up message saying unless I had other issues on my account my account was now unblocked and could be used again, but it wasn’t blocked at all as far as I can see. 

I've seen lots of people deleting accounts and then opening new ones or just giving up.  I think the 30 items sold will trigger the notification that they would be submitting your sales to HMRC and you would need to supply a National insurance number for new accounts I believe it's standard now regardless of private or business.

soolin

TimeLord1 said:

soolin said:

I’ve just been asked to supply my NI number. Strangely after I had added it I got a pop up message saying unless I had other issues on my account my account was now unblocked and could be used again, but it wasn’t blocked at all as far as I can see. 

I've seen lots of people deleting accounts and then opening new ones or just giving up.  I think the 30 items sold will trigger the notification that they would be submitting your sales to HMRC and you would need to supply a National insurance number for new accounts I believe it's standard now regardless of private or business.

Everyone will need to give their NI number so no point in keep opening new accounts. I have no issue with it as I have nothing to hide from HMRC, my business sales are alld declared and my private sales are just that. There are a lot of unregistered businesses out there though who are getting seriously worried about this. MSE tends not to attract people happy to admit they run a dodgy account, but other forums do get threads from people asking how to hide their small business on ebay, Vinted or whatever from the tax man. 

TimeLord1

I know some people say separate business and personal @soolin which I understand but running one is sometimes hard enough.  I know how many sellers I followed and there's about 30+ no longer selling or opened new ones to clean the decks. I can't even remember opening my account but remember when the PayPal went so payment and purchases needed bank details and ID. Proof. I've used QuickBooks and that has always been cheaper than using an accountant. I think there were a few million pound sellers got caught but I think based in Spain drop shipping.

Pollycat

soolin said:

TimeLord1 said:

soolin said:

I’ve just been asked to supply my NI number. Strangely after I had added it I got a pop up message saying unless I had other issues on my account my account was now unblocked and could be used again, but it wasn’t blocked at all as far as I can see. 

I've seen lots of people deleting accounts and then opening new ones or just giving up.  I think the 30 items sold will trigger the notification that they would be submitting your sales to HMRC and you would need to supply a National insurance number for new accounts I believe it's standard now regardless of private or business.

Everyone will need to give their NI number so no point in keep opening new accounts. I have no issue with it as I have nothing to hide from HMRC, my business sales are alld declared and my private sales are just that. There are a lot of unregistered businesses out there though who are getting seriously worried about this. MSE tends not to attract people happy to admit they run a dodgy account, but other forums do get threads from people asking how to hide their small business on ebay, Vinted or whatever from the tax man. 

Private seller here.

Asked to provide my NI number & did so.