UC & Ebay Sales Declaration Query

TheChubbyLad

I have recently had my UC suspended for over a year now because I had some personal items I had bought over the years. Each month I declared and was stopped the UC because I was "Self Employed" I never had a business it was household items like PC and parts, and household items. With this declared money that I got from sales I have since purchased other items like a few handheld consoles and a few GPUs, as I do not really need these now I want to sell these back on eBay.
My question is this: Because this money was declared previously do I need to declare these sales again which sounds really really daft but In the UC world could & might be.
If anyone can shed some light on this and advise me i would be really appreciated. 

Newcad

It depends how you word things.

From what you have said above you are buying things and then selling them again.

How often you do that can be indistinguishable from someone buying and selling as a business.

You would have to convince the DWP that you buy a lot of 'personal possessions' and then resell them.

Showing that you lose money on each buy-sell might help.

PS. PC parts, ie. GPU's, consoles, controllers, etc. are not 'household goods' they are 'computer hardware/accessories', - in particular they are computer gaming accessories.

I can understand if you have a gaming tech compulsion that you may do a lot of buying/selling of such parts, - but I'm not the DWP.

elly68

sell on gumtree

HillStreetBlues

TheChubbyLad said:

I have recently had my UC suspended for over a year now because I had some personal items I had bought over the years. Each month I declared and was stopped the UC because I was "Self Employed" I never had a business it was household items like PC and parts, and household items. With this declared money that I got from sales I have since purchased other items like a few handheld consoles and a few GPUs, as I do not really need these now I want to sell these back on eBay.
My question is this: Because this money was declared previously do I need to declare these sales again which sounds really really daft but In the UC world could & might be.
If anyone can shed some light on this and advise me i would be really appreciated. 

Have you looked up "badges of trade" there is a guide here https://www.menzies.co.uk/hmrc-badges-of-trade/

Spoonie_Turtle

I'm confused.  Why did you declare money from selling on eBay, if it was unwanted personal possessions?  Did it take your capital (or increase your capital) above £6,000?  Even if that were the case, it sounds like you reported it as income for them to be saying you were self-employed.

TimeLord1

Buying to sell for profit or exceeding above levels, you will be asked for NI details, and unless you comply, they usually suspend selling on the platform. That applies to all selling platforms.

TimeLord1

I think some job center advisors were telling people who sold or made online content to register as self-employed, and that stopped their claims.

TimeLord1

elly68 said:

sell on Gumtree

Gumtree has to follow the legislation like every other platform; it's no different if the level of sales is passed.

Spoonie_Turtle

TimeLord1 said:

Buying to sell for profit or exceeding above levels, you will be asked for NI details, and unless you comply, they usually suspend selling on the platform. That applies to all selling platforms.

That's nothing to do with UC though.  For UC you only need to declare if you are trading - making or buying items to then sell.

Also platforms passing on information to HMRC does not mean someone is trading.  The rules on tax have indeed not changed; if someone is trading and their gross receipts for a tax year are over £1,000 they have to register with HMRC whether an online platform passes on their details or not.  Equally, if someone is selling unwanted personal possessions then they do not have to register or pay tax regardless of how much they sell or how much they get for thr items (with the fairly rare exception of Capital Gains Tax but that's still not income tax or trading).

TimeLord1 said:

I think some job center advisors were telling people who sold or made online content to register as self-employed, and that stopped their claims.

If that's the case then they're losing claimants money they're entitled to.  Dreadful.  It's bad enough when it's a passive system fault (like reporting total monies instead of actual capital) but much worse when it's individuals actively obstructing people.

sheramber

EBay report  sales to HMRC if they reach 30 sales or £1740 after  any fees. 

TimeLord1

Spoonie_Turtle said:

TimeLord1 said:

Buying to sell for profit or exceeding above levels, you will be asked for NI details, and unless you comply, they usually suspend selling on the platform. That applies to all selling platforms.

That's nothing to do with UC though.  For UC you only need to declare if you are trading—making or buying items to then sell.

Also platforms passing on information to HMRC does not mean someone is trading.  The rules on tax have indeed not changed; if someone is trading and their gross receipts for a tax year are over £1,000 they have to register with HMRC whether an online platform passes on their details or not.  Equally, if someone is selling unwanted personal possessions then they do not have to register or pay tax regardless of how much they sell or how much they get for thr items (with the fairly rare exception of Capital Gains Tax but that's still not income tax or trading).

TimeLord1 said:

I think some job center advisors were telling people who sold or made online content to register as self-employed, and that stopped their claims.

If that's the case then they're losing claimants money they're entitled to.  Dreadful.  It's bad enough when it's a passive system fault (like reporting total monies instead of actual capital) but much worse when it's individuals actively obstructing people.

It has happened when people that became unsure of the rules asked Job centre staff for advice and quite a lot were being told to register as self employed. 

It's just the legal requirements platforms are following what HMRC do and DWP once a bot flags up something from  National Insurance details then they will want to check.