eBay HMRC Tax Query

OreoLover

I know there are a million threads on this topic already but I've not seen an answer on this specific query.

I am born and raised in the UK with an eBay account for buying for over 10 years. I moved to Ireland several years ago and retain my UK bank account with next to nothing in it. I obviously live and work in Ireland.

Earlier this year I decided to sell some personal things on eBay like some clothes and shoes etc but also some things that could potentially be classed as trading. I had bought a lot of trading cards for some collections and sold some of the swaps off, not really trading in my opinion as they weren't bought for the purpose of selling but who knows how someone else might view it. With everything included it was more than 30 items in total and the cumulative total exceeded £1000

The eBay account was created way back when in the UK and the money went into my UK bank account. I'm not worried about someone chasing me over some old clothes and a few cards but have I sleepwalked into a tax issue here by not updating my eBay account to Ireland? I have no earnings in the UK whatsoever so I don't know what happens at the end of the year when eBay presumably notify HMRC about my sales due to the account being created when I lived there.

Any advice much appreciated!

DullGreyGuy

Why dont you update your address now?

The probability of a few sales generating any investigation is tiny. You've presumably already told HMRC you left the country etc. 

The threshold is actually is in Euros as its not UK originated legislation... I thought it had already gone live in Ireland?

OreoLover

Yes I told them years ago when I left the country.

I could change the address now but I presumed that wouldn't work for sales already made as otherwise everyone would just rack up as many sales as they wanted and then change their address to a tax haven island on 31/12

I don't know if it's live in Ireland, I'm not a seller so I've never needed to know. I'm probably worrying about nothing, I'm not overly worried about what I've sold and I'm just worried about it flagging up in the UK when I live in Ireland now and am worried I've been a numpty.

DullGreyGuy

OreoLover said:

Yes I told them years ago when I left the country.

I could change the address now but I presumed that wouldn't work for sales already made as otherwise everyone would just rack up as many sales as they wanted and then change their address to a tax haven island on 31/12

I don't know if it's live in Ireland, I'm not a seller so I've never needed to know. I'm probably worrying about nothing, I'm not overly worried about what I've sold and I'm just worried about it flagging up in the UK when I live in Ireland now and am worried I've been a numpty.

I've only scan read the rules but it does say if you were a seller for 50% of the year then they should be testing against 50% of the thresholds. You'd imagine something similar will apply if people change jurisdiction. The question will be what address eBay present, the one at point of sale, the current one or both? Their Privacy Policy state its the "primary address"