CAN I CHOOSE WHAT I DECLARE TO HMRC AS TRADING ON EBAY

RFW

As this comes up a fair bit, there is tax advice available for free from a variety of sources.
This is a helpful reference page from the Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Money Helper is also a useful resource.

Archergirl

Perhaps open a new eBay account just for selling the trainers then everything is separate.

soolin

Technically of course OP needs to be selling the trainers through a business account already , it is a legal requirement that businesses declare themselves as such.

if OP is using a single private account then should they be one that HMRC pick out for investigation (which admittedly is a micro percentage of people being reported automatically) then the fact that the trainers make them a business might make it harder to argue that the rest of the stuff is private. 

Spoonie_Turtle

soolin said:

Technically of course OP needs to be selling the trainers through a business account already , it is a legal requirement that businesses declare themselves as such.

Good point, I totally forgot that in my reply earlier in the thread.

mollyolly

Just worked out my gross and net for last year and it's a minus figure !! So going to quit eBay anyway. Thank you for all your comments 

martindow

mollyolly said:

Just worked out my gross and net for last year and it's a minus figure !! So going to quit eBay anyway. Thank you for all your comments 

I think you are probably in good company.  There must be a lot of people who see the money roll in from sales and have not done the calculations of their costs and expenses. 

soolin

martindow said:

mollyolly said:

Just worked out my gross and net for last year and it's a minus figure !! So going to quit eBay anyway. Thank you for all your comments 

I think you are probably in good company.  There must be a lot of people who see the money roll in from sales and have not done the calculations of their costs and expenses. 

I think it’s surprisingly common to not realise you aren’t making money, and might in fact be losing it.  There was a post on another forum some time ago, someone boasted at how they had a stock of cheap items that they sold in the hundreds, and was shocked when someone showed him the actual profit was 1p per item at best, and that was rounded up. In reality he was almost certainly making a loss after losses and returns. 

RFW

soolin said:

I think it’s surprisingly common to not realise you aren’t making money, and might in fact be losing it.  There was a post on another forum some time ago, someone boasted at how they had a stock of cheap items that they sold in the hundreds, and was shocked when someone showed him the actual profit was 1p per item at best, and that was rounded up. In reality he was almost certainly making a loss after losses and returns. 

Within fulfilled by Amazon there have been some recent price changes, so some stock I've sold in the past have become unprofitable. I recently had a sales rep try and sell me something that I've bought in the past. I worked out that if he gave me them for free I still couldn't turn a profit.
It's probably fairly common. I'd bet that several sellers who dodge declaring tax wouldn't have any to pay if they did.

soolin

RFW said:

soolin said:

I think it’s surprisingly common to not realise you aren’t making money, and might in fact be losing it.  There was a post on another forum some time ago, someone boasted at how they had a stock of cheap items that they sold in the hundreds, and was shocked when someone showed him the actual profit was 1p per item at best, and that was rounded up. In reality he was almost certainly making a loss after losses and returns. 

Within fulfilled by Amazon there have been some recent price changes, so some stock I've sold in the past have become unprofitable. I recently had a sales rep try and sell me something that I've bought in the past. I worked out that if he gave me them for free I still couldn't turn a profit.
It's probably fairly common. I'd bet that several sellers who dodge declaring tax wouldn't have any to pay if they did.

I’ve almost been caught out myself by thinking about things the wrong way. Firstly when I’ve had dead stock and I go to list it priced really cheap just to sell, and then realise I’d be making so little it would actually be cheaper and easier to just donate it to charity. I’ve also been caught up with stock at auction, done a quick look at eBay solds, worked out how many widgets are in the box and set myself a price limit, but then realise I’d have to sell every single widget at the higher end price of past sales to make a profit worth bothering with. Factor in time, inconvenience, losses, returns and it isn’t worth investing in stock that makes just pennies, even if you have an almost unlimited amount.