What is reported?

Lindy52

Can someone please explain what is being submitted to HMRC from ebay? It's unclear and difficult to understand. Many people report on an April to April date. But the report from ebay, if I understand correctly, is January to December. How does this match or make any sense for HMRC? 

I believe I understand the date to be the calendar year of 2024 and will proceed from there each calendar year, is this correct? So is it that after 2024 and 2025 reporting years are added together it will make sense? Please can anyone clear up this confusion because I do not understand what I am reporting and what ebay is reporting, or how these reporting years make sense. 

I am surprised that this isn't a more frequent question and the few times I see someone ask it, on ebay or other locations, there's very little insight. 

soolin

Lindy52 said:

Can someone please explain what is being submitted to HMRC from ebay? It's unclear and difficult to understand. Many people report on an April to April date. But the report from ebay, if I understand correctly, is January to December. How does this match or make any sense for HMRC? 

I believe I understand the date to be the calendar year of 2024 and will proceed from there each calendar year, is this correct? So is it that after 2024 and 2025 reporting years are added together it will make sense? Please can anyone clear up this confusion because I do not understand what I am reporting and what ebay is reporting, or how these reporting years make sense. 

I am surprised that this isn't a more frequent question and the few times I see someone ask it, on ebay or other locations, there's very little insight. 

It isn't clear what reporting dates will be, but it would be logical to suggest that takings are reported on an April - April basis but not necessarily in April each year, but even if not an HMRC bot can easily clarify which dates are involved. Also remember that there is no requirement for any trader to have an April 5th year end anyway nor use a cash accounting basis for their books. With computers an online site can report whenever they want and just send the required data for certain dates. There won't be any adding together though for tax purposes, if you are a sole trader your own records will report the income within the correct year depending on the basis of your accounts (I use cash basis for instance) and year end. This has always been the case , and in fact my other business is the same and it might be that the reported income doesn't entirely match my accounts as I might raise my invoice pre 5th April but not get the money until the new tax year. Good record keeping with dates is essential.

Realistically the reporting dates don't matter. A person selling their own unwanted items will  remain free of any income tax requirements, and a trader will remain liable to income tax based on their accounts. 

I can only foresee issues if a sole trader, for instance, reports a considerably lower figure in each tax year than ebay/Vinted/Amazon etc return for them. In my case I have a business online and also sell my own things through a private account, so I just made sure to keep on top of my accounts this year.

badmemory

All the reports I have seen do say they must report in January.  They are however only reporting those who MAY be required to pay tax.  I suspect this may be more in the nature of HMRC getting a "heads-up" on those who may be liable to pay tax.  If any income you may have is not liable to tax then don't worry.  It has been made very clear who is & who is not liable to pay tax on their sales.  They will not be sending out automatic bills based on the info they receive, it is not like tax on a savings account.

RFW

As I understood it  HMRC are getting a database of sellers with their essential details and a gross annual turnover figure. From what HMRC have said about it they are carrying on as before but when they do checks they will have easier access to data rather than asking the marketplace for that information.
If you sell personal items you have nothing to worry about.
The actual threshold for reporting was the equivalent of 2000 Euros or 30 items "in a calendar year".

The law was across many countries and was said to be to find bigger companies who were avoiding tax. So someone could have hundreds of small accounts across the world and in separate countries and the information provided by the marketplace sellers would be able to gather that information and act accordingly. Presumably via addresses or bank details, but I'm just guessing. I doubt there's someone sat in an office at HMRC trawling through all the Ebay accounts, it's most likely AI tracking data.

Spoonie_Turtle

Lindy52 said:

Can someone please explain what is being submitted to HMRC from ebay? It's unclear and difficult to understand. Many people report on an April to April date. But the report from ebay, if I understand correctly, is January to December. How does this match or make any sense for HMRC? 

… Please can anyone clear up this confusion because I do not understand what I am reporting and what ebay is reporting, or how these reporting years make sense. 

If you're already reporting trading income then it won't matter, because the main purpose is to flag up people who appear to be trading but are not declaring income at all, or perhaps anyone who might very evidently be under-reporting (although whether they can work that out automatically I don't know - one assumes the data matching is initially just, 'do we have records for this person who appears to be trading above the threshold?').

Lindy52

I am declaring income. It's just that this is all clear as mud from any sources. How can they reconcile a January to Dec. Number to an April to April? I just don't understand it and if it doesn't match, then you get checked for something that clearly won't match. I know I'm being a bit snarky there as they will know it won't match so we all know it but then what purpose does it serve to work with two different dates? 

 And so the next question is the idea of working from April to April right? So do they work from April 2024 to April 2025 since this is beginning in 2024 or are they going back to 2023 to cover the April to April but then other countries may not work April to April, and they may not go back to 2023, I'd guess. 

I also saw one mention of two years of data but gosh that seems like a lot of data going to HMRC. And as this is a pilot year, that seems crazy with the amount of work and possible errors (and I imagine there will be errors from eBay, Etsy, vinted and any other source they're working with). So any credibility to this rumour?

soolin

Lindy52 said:

I am declaring income. It's just that this is all clear as mud from any sources. How can they reconcile a January to Dec. Number to an April to April? I just don't understand it and if it doesn't match, then you get checked for something that clearly won't match. I know I'm being a bit snarky there as they will know it won't match so we all know it but then what purpose does it serve to work with two different dates? 

 And so the next question is the idea of working from April to April right? So do they work from April 2024 to April 2025 since this is beginning in 2024 or are they going back to 2023 to cover the April to April but then other countries may not work April to April, and they may not go back to 2023, I'd guess. 

I also saw one mention of two years of data but gosh that seems like a lot of data going to HMRC. And as this is a pilot year, that seems crazy with the amount of work and possible errors (and I imagine there will be errors from eBay, Etsy, vinted and any other source they're working with). So any credibility to this rumour?

It will all be searched by bits, and they can differentiate the income given into the correct years if needed. 

If you’re already keeping books and doing accounts you just carry on , the chances of them bothering you because the amounts don’t match exactly is unlikely. My own accounts for instance encompass more than one source, so what eBay declare for me won’t match at all. 

Langerhan

This is something I've been following closely, and the reporting is done by calendar year. The UK is unusual in having a different financial year, so the OECD made the reporting 1 January-31 December 2024 because that's what makes sense for most of their member countries. The website you're using will sending HMRC a copy of the data and they'll also send you a copy so you'll see it then.

If you're a sole trader I'm guessing you've already got this information in your own records and can firmly ignore what eBay sends you anyway.

Lindy52

Langerhan said:

This is something I've been following closely, and the reporting is done by calendar year. The UK is unusual in having a different financial year, so the OECD made the reporting 1 January-31 December 2024 because that's what makes sense for most of their member countries. The website you're using will sending HMRC a copy of the data and they'll also send you a copy so you'll see it then.

If you're a sole trader I'm guessing you've already got this information in your own records and can firmly ignore what eBay sends you anyway.

Do you know if it will go earlier than 2024? As I said we report for April 23 to April 24, so will they ask for data from April 23? Or do they have to stick with the same dates as done everywhere?

Lindy52

soolin said:

Lindy52 said:

I am declaring income. It's just that this is all clear as mud from any sources. How can they reconcile a January to Dec. Number to an April to April? I just don't understand it and if it doesn't match, then you get checked for something that clearly won't match. I know I'm being a bit snarky there as they will know it won't match so we all know it but then what purpose does it serve to work with two different dates? 

 And so the next question is the idea of working from April to April right? So do they work from April 2024 to April 2025 since this is beginning in 2024 or are they going back to 2023 to cover the April to April but then other countries may not work April to April, and they may not go back to 2023, I'd guess. 

I also saw one mention of two years of data but gosh that seems like a lot of data going to HMRC. And as this is a pilot year, that seems crazy with the amount of work and possible errors (and I imagine there will be errors from eBay, Etsy, vinted and any other source they're working with). So any credibility to this rumour?

It will all be searched by bits, and they can differentiate the income given into the correct years if needed. 

If you’re already keeping books and doing accounts you just carry on , the chances of them bothering you because the amounts don’t match exactly is unlikely. My own accounts for instance encompass more than one source, so what eBay declare for me won’t match at all. 

I do feel mildly concerned. My data is being shared, I'd like to know what that is, and as so far it's been clear as mud, eBay did a stupendous job of informing people so far this year with no emails and everyone is confused, scared, angry or have pitchforks out, I'd say there's a least a half decent reason to say this hasn't exactly been done in ways that fill me with confidence. 

Ebay make mistakes all the time and suddenly we can get hauled in if something is off? It's a first year and things are prone to not work.  We have no idea if they're collecting April 23 to April 24 (which deviates from the rest of the data being collected) or staying with only calendar year 2024 which won't match much for many reporting so what sense does it make collecting it. And all of this leads to confusion about what's sent, why and the fact that it's my data and why shouldn't I ask. And why are they not crystal clear so people know? This should be a very clear point. We are requesting this time frame with this information, month by month, or annual total, gross or net (how we define those). There are so many places for this to be confused, not match, screw up and the sense I get that it has that possibility is the really terrible communication that has so far confused a lot of people on so many levels for the last year. 

soolin

Lindy52 said:

Langerhan said:

This is something I've been following closely, and the reporting is done by calendar year. The UK is unusual in having a different financial year, so the OECD made the reporting 1 January-31 December 2024 because that's what makes sense for most of their member countries. The website you're using will sending HMRC a copy of the data and they'll also send you a copy so you'll see it then.

If you're a sole trader I'm guessing you've already got this information in your own records and can firmly ignore what eBay sends you anyway.

Do you know if it will go earlier than 2024? As I said we report for April 23 to April 24, so will they ask for data from April 23? Or do they have to stick with the same dates as done everywhere?

They have said in several announcements that they are reporting for different people at different times, starting with the newer registered eBay accounts.