Hmrc letter

RFW

Hoenir said:

Barnes107 said:

I can't find too much about this online. There aren't that many threads on ebayers who've actually received a HMRC letter. I can see a dozen threads at most. 

The HMRC have always sent letters to people when they've detected an undeclared source of taxable income.  The fact that it's Ebay is secondary. Easy for the HMRC to target though as the data in this instance is in black and white. Rather than being cash in hand trading and more difficult to assess. 

True. I received one years ago. I was already registered, Ebay had a different address so it wasn't clear to HMRC until I spoke to them. They're not doing anything new or different. The only real change is that they now have easier access to the information.

soolin

Hoenir said:

Barnes107 said:

I can't find too much about this online. There aren't that many threads on ebayers who've actually received a HMRC letter. I can see a dozen threads at most. 

The HMRC have always sent letters to people when they've detected an undeclared source of taxable income.  The fact that it's Ebay is secondary. Easy for the HMRC to target though as the data in this instance is in black and white. Rather than being cash in hand trading and more difficult to assess. 

I used to volunteer many many years ago and my niche was assisting people who had received disclosure letters, although most at that time were from DWP and from friends or family reporting people. This was before online trading became popular, so it was boot fairs, or even regular garage type sales , and even people selling Avon or other schemes like that. 

Hoenir

soolin said:

Hoenir said:

Barnes107 said:

I can't find too much about this online. There aren't that many threads on ebayers who've actually received a HMRC letter. I can see a dozen threads at most. 

The HMRC have always sent letters to people when they've detected an undeclared source of taxable income.  The fact that it's Ebay is secondary. Easy for the HMRC to target though as the data in this instance is in black and white. Rather than being cash in hand trading and more difficult to assess. 

I used to volunteer many many years ago and my niche was assisting people who had received disclosure letters, although most at that time were from DWP and from friends or family reporting people. This was before online trading became popular, so it was boot fairs, or even regular garage type sales , and even people selling Avon or other schemes like that. 

Remember once dealing with a bathroom fitter who had to account for every bathroom suite he had bought. Vowed never again to do cash jobs ever again. Once the investigation was complete. Simply not worth the hassle. 

soolin

Barnes107 said:

I wonder HOW HMRC have got this info ? 

Will they have sent a request to eBay to send reports of all that have met certain parameters between X date and X date ?

I'm not hearing of any vinted/Amazon etc sellers who have had this recent nudge letter..... It all seems to be ebayers 

If you go on the various Vinted forums then a small handful of sellers say they have had the general enquiry standard letter from HMRC.

Again though none of this is new, the direct reporting just makes it easier to see unregistered business sellers who assumed multiple accounts would keep them under the radar. As a volunteer I was dealing with people getting caught for running business and not declaring - as far back as the 1980s - in those days DWP mainly would trawl local car boots and pop up garage shops to find re sellers or small businesses - even just a few years back I am aware of some craft fairs being targeted with stall holders being sent 'the letter' for unregistered craft businesses.

RFW

Hoenir said:

I used to volunteer many many years ago and my niche was assisting people who had received disclosure letters, although most at that time were from DWP and from friends or family reporting people. This was before online trading became popular, so it was boot fairs, or even regular garage type sales , and even people selling Avon or other schemes like that. 

Remember once dealing with a bathroom fitter who had to account for every bathroom suite he had bought. Vowed never again to do cash jobs ever again. Once the investigation was complete. Simply not worth the hassle. 

When I had a routine investigation a couple of years ago, my accountant dealt with them. He informed me that a lot of what they do is just fishing and if you're firm with them they stop digging. As it was everything they asked for was in order so they went away anyway but they do ask a lot of seemingly daft questions, many of which my accountant told them were irrelevant and to move on. They pressed on a couple but he sent them a rather stern email which terrified me but they just went away.
I'm not saying they don't have information on people but from what I can gather it's less likely than we'd think.

justanicegirl

Happy to provide advice through PM for anyone going through a tax investigation. I have just been through a 20 disclosure (eBay) so I know first hand how awful it can be. No one should feel alone in these situations as they can all be sorted if handled correctly.