Email From Ebay Asking If Private Or Business Seller

icheekymonkey

I too sell items on ebay - usually clothes that I or my kids have outgrown or have not worn and still have tags on (usually mine from impulse buying) - I am terrible for hoarding receipts for everything I buy and keeping them for years so in effect, if chased up by the tax man I could produce the original receipt, show listing fees, charges for postal bags, FVF charges and PayPal charges - explain how much my loss is and check if I am entitled to any benefits!!!

soolin

MyUserNamesTaken wrote: »

Yep, I don't remember being asked when I registered all those years ago! Just check ed again...I'm in my 10th year now...registered in 1998 on Ebay.com (not 99, as I thought), as ebay.co.uk wasn't about at that time from what I can remember...back in the day when I had to use escrow to pay sellers in the US, as paypal didn't exist either! Yahoo auctions were good back then, too...shame about them

Thing is, people getting this email seem to be saying they are showing as neitgher private or business, hence Ebay asking for clarification. Will wait to see if I get this email.

I wonder if you have explained here why some of us have not yet been asked?

I too registered before ebay uk was around so am registered on ebay.uk for my main account (and until recently got billed in dollars until I worked out how to change it).

..EDIT: No, just thought I have opened other selling accounts since then and I haven't been asked about them yet either.

Contains_Mild_Peril

Some of you have said that there are no grey areas, but I think I have one. What happens when I buy a mixed lot at my local auction house with the intention of keeping some of the items in the lot and selling those I don't want?
If I buy a lot in which there is nothing I want for myself and sell what I can on ebay then give away the rest, that's trading: straightforward enough. If I keep or give away every item in the lot, then sell the odd item a while later when I'm having a clearout, that's personal use: again, straightforward enough.
But what happens when items I want to buy for my personal use and items I want to sell are included in the same lot? Would their taxability status depend on whether or not I anticipated a profit on the items I planned to sell when I bought them, or whether or not I actually make a profit on those items, or whether or not I would have been willing to pay the price I did for the personal items alone if the items I would sell were not included with it (or vice versa), or should I divide the total price by the number of items in the lot and use that to calculate profit/ loss on items I intend to sell, or what?

soolin

I think you would need an accountant to handle that one mildperil. Part of the stock would obviously be considered private, but whether it would be considered acceptable to still show the complete item cost as outgoings or not I'm not sure, maybe if it was just one small item from a large batch it would be OK, but if the lot was split say 50/50 then maybe the costs would be equally split.

I have a business advisor that HMRC assigned me to..do you have one of those as if so that is likely to be one of the things he/she can help with. I'm sure it is not an isolated problem.

I have been told that when I buy a crate of mixed books and remove say 35% of them for charity as they are unsaleable for my business model then I can still claim the full box costs. The way they explained it is that I had to buy the lot to get the books I wanted and I had no option other than to take the books I did not want, therefore they did not in fact affect the price paid.

dotchas

I read this thread last night,and thought I hadn't had a email.
But I checked my "my messages" for something else today and found my request to select business or private seller from the 22nd.
So anyone who thinks they should have had an email,check your "My messages"

soolin

I checked all mine this morning and not one of my accounts has yet had an email..they don't love me....

Time2Go_25

dotchas wrote: »

I read this thread last night,and thought I hadn't had a email.
But I checked my "my messages" for something else today and found my request to select business or private seller from the 22nd.
So anyone who thinks they should have had an email,check your "My messages"

Oh yes, so was mine.

rosekitten

if there are so many millions of
sellers/buyers on ebay how long do
you think it will take them to
look into everyones details
to check everyones dealings
on the site.Will they look through
everyones account ?
Wont that take a long time ?

soolin

I have finally got an email in my messages on one of my minor aco!!!!s. Havign seen the message it does make it extremely clear what the difference between a private and business account is, there is no room for any misunderstanding.

Also to reassure someone else on the thread earlier, although contact details are required these are not shown anywhere on the listing, so there is no difference to the info already held by ebay.

soolin

Also, I have added to my business requirements that I require all buyers to have a paypal confirmed address and if this is not the case I reserve the right to return their payment until their acocutn can be confirmed or they choose to use a different payment method.

Useless I know, but I will not have all my rights and safety taken away from me.