Ebaying on behalf of someone

soolin

One other thing are you currently selling from a private or a business account?

Once you sell anything bought for resale you must change your ebay account to a business one and offer full protection under the Distance selling regs, you will also need to show your name and address on the about me page which of course may be a problem if your account is picked for investigation by HMRC (as per my original post).

Once you have that business account you are rather stuck if you then go back to selling your own private bits and bobs.

Premier_2

So what you really are planning on doing is running a profitable business, whilst at the same claiming the current benefits you receive.

To try to overcome the £10 you are legally allowed to earn before affecting your entitlement to the benefits the rest of us are paying for, you think you could pass all the profits to someone else in return for the work/errands/assistance they will give you.

So you're employing them either on a self employed basis (hope they will register with hmrc about their status and income, but I doubt it based on their approach to ebay), or you are employing them illegally without registering for PAYE or paying employers NICS.

Either way you still plan to run a profitable business, yet not declare the actual earnings to the relevent benefit agencies.

My advice: Please go ahead with the profitable business plan (probably without the trouble and smokescreen of your bother's involvement which will no doubt only cause problems) and declare any earnings (even if you do decide to then give them away), hopefully reducing the tax burden on the rest of us hardworking taxpayers.

DGJsaver

at last , someone had the balls to come out and say it

well done you

broclo

Premier wrote: »

So what you really are planning on doing is running a profitable business, whilst at the same claiming the current benefits you receive.

No I am trying to help out my brother. Do you seriously think if I was up to something dodgy I would post it on a forum considering I know a dozen memers in person?!

premier wrote: »

To try to overcome the £10 you are legally allowed to earn before affecting your entitlement to the benefits the rest of us are paying for, you think you could pass all the profits to someone else in return for the work/errands/assistance they will give you.

I am not trying to overcome any £10 threshold as I will not make a penny. What I may do on ebay is in no way connected to any help he will give me! He does it anyway! The point I was making was that I am happy to do it for him as he helps out, not the reverse!

premier wrote: »

So you're employing them either on a self employed basis (hope they will register with hmrc about their status and income, but I doubt it based on their approach to ebay), or you are employing them illegally without registering for PAYE or paying employers NICS.

Either way you still plan to run a profitable business, yet not declare the actual earnings to the relevent benefit agencies.

Their approach to ebay you talk of was when they were 18 and they were very different then. The deal would be that I would not touch one piece of stock nor list a thing until I had seen proof of registration with my own eyes.

premier wrote: »

My advice: Please go ahead with the profitable business plan (probably without the trouble and smokescreen of your bother's involvement which will no doubt only cause problems) and declare any earnings (even if you do decide to then give them away), hopefully reducing the tax burden on the rest of us hardworking taxpayers.

There is no smokescreen as I would not be profiting one single penny or gain anything whatosever for an hour or two 'work' a week. I therefore can not declare anything I do not earn! As I said previously I intend to return to work within 6 months or earlier if possible. I have paid my tax and been a 'hardworking taxpayer' that you talk of ...and alot at that, since I was 16, so I do not view myself as a burden as I had no choice other than to recieve benefits at this time in my life. I feel like I am being thrown in with the work idle, benefit grabbing sector of society(I apologise if I have this wrong) or those who abuse the system(again I apologise if wrong) which is not what I am. Do you really think if there was any form of intended smokescreen anyone who could manage to string a sentance together would actually post anything in this forum relating to it?

broclo

DGJsaver wrote: »

at last , someone had the balls to come out and say it

well done you

Does not mean they were right :rolleyes:

Premier_2

However you want wrap it up, you would still be running a business and making a profit.

Even if it is accepted that your brother is not going to be employed by you, because, as you claim, the work to be done in the future by him is exactly what he does for you now without payment, you giving away the profits to him from the business recorded to you does not affect the fact that you would still be running a profitable business.

Which would beg the question, why are you giving him the money?
Where did the money come from if not from a profitable business you are running?

Your only way out of this is if your brother creates the account so that the business is recorded as his. This may not be possible as he has already been kicked off eBay previously. If that is the case, he would need to look elsewhere to set up business. Obviously any profits made would then be attributable to your brother.

If it is possible for your brother to create an eBay account, there is nothing affecting your right to work for him on a purely voluntary basis - but you should still advise the benefits agencies of this fact as it could affect your right to such benefits as you clearly would be able to (a) undertake work, even if only home based and (b) not be in a position to accept suitable alternative paid work during the time you spend voluntarily working for your brother.

broclo

Premier wrote: »

If it is possible for your brother to create an eBay account, there is nothing affecting your right to work for him on a purely voluntary basis - but you should still advise the benefits agencies of this fact as it could affect your right to such benefits as you clearly would be able to (a) undertake work, even if only home based and (b) not be in a position to accept alternative paid work during the time you spend voluntarily working for your brother.

Actually the benefits office has agreed that I can do voluntary work. At the moment I go help two pensioners locally as I am able to take my baby. I do not have to make myself availible for work nor attend work focused interviews as they are not applicable in my situation. Infact I still do not need to look for work for another couple of years, although I hope to return as soon as possible, due to my work ethics!

Premier_2

broclo wrote: »

...I do not view myself as a burden as I had no choice other than to recieve benefits at this time in my life...

broclo wrote:

...the benefits office has agreed that I can do voluntary work...

broclo wrote:

...I do not have to make myself availible for work ...

broclo wrote:

...Infact I still do not need to look for work for another couple of years...

Sorry, but in my book, if you are able to secure paid work, you should be taking it rather than taking benefits.

I can understand that if you cannot secure suitable paid work at this time, you should be able to do some voluntary work in the meantime whilst seeking/securing paid employment if only to keep in the work routine, and if it is on behalf of a charity, so much the better.

But if you don't plan on seeking/taking suitable paid employment currently, you shouldn't be taking state benefits either (whatever your rights are), when you clearly are able and available to work.
This is especially so if you decide to work for a profitable business, and even more so a profitable business owned by a family member, without pay.

If you decide to work for your brother's profitable business, get him to pay you the going rate for such employment, not forgetting the NMW for any paid employment. Remember, he's clearly proven he can't do it himself so requires to employ someone to do it. I can't see any other mug accepting to do the work for no gain. Such pay will be tax deductable from any profits made and should and either get you off, or at least reduce, the dependance on benefits that you claim you "had no choice other than to recieve benefits at this time in my life".

broclo

You are quoting me as if I am contradicting myself. I am not.

Whilst I am able to not work for a long period of time due to my current situation if I chose to do so, I am hoping to work rather soon if I can get my son to stop breastfeeding. I can not currently take on any form of paid work at the moment as what you can do with a baby is very limited. I can hardly go and take my baby to the place I used to manage! And if a child refuses a bottle, there is not alot you can do. Therefore as I am not work shy I choose to help out two local people. The various benefits agencies support me in doing voluntary as they fully understand that I am unable to currently work and believe that by doing voluntary work it not only helps others and keeps me from becoming bored, but will help me greatly as soon as I am able to look for employment.

Spending an initial time of say a few hrs a day for 5 days, then about an hr a week after that, simply to press the 'relist' button and chuck a few bits in jiffies, whilst my baby is asleep at night, for the next few months until he is weaned is hardly availible for work.

We are not talking about selling vast amounts of stuff here and so it would hardly pay for a thing, if I were to be employed!

And yes I had NO CHOICE. You seem to have an issue with me claiming benefits. However you have no understanding of what caused that situation and whether or not I could have prevented it, so I think you should keep any judgements on my situation to yourself

Premier_2

But you do appear to be contradicting yourself.

I agree the options are limited regarding employment when there is a young baby to be cared for, but the employment opportunities do exist. e.g. you could work from home.

Some types of work that may be suitable for you.
1. Addressing and/or Stuffing envelopes
2. Data entry - ok, may be difficult to find this one but I know someone doing this from home for a company
3. Typing - you seem quite competent at that
4. Basic book-keeping - if you think you have these skills to successfully run a business yourself, offer to sell them to someone else.

5. Get paid to work for your brothers profitable company!

I'm not so sure working for a your brother's company just 1 hour per week will be suitable to ensure it remains profitable. Many eBay customers are not happy to wait up to 7 days after payment is received before items are dispatched which could seriously begin to affect the feedback, and so potential profit.

If you really do think you could contain this work within 1 hour per week, that would leave lots of hours you could do paid work for others.

You say 1 hours paid employment "would hardly pay for a thing", but this is not about you gaining extra income, but about reducing your dependancy on benefits that the rest of us tax payers are payiing for.

Indeed, you would only need to secure 2 hours paid work at the NMW before reducing your dependency on those benefits.

Or better still, as you will be essentially running your brother's company and creating a considerable profit, why not negotiate payment significantly higher than the NMW that reflects the profits being generated by your vital involvement.

Or even better,

6. set up and run the business yourself and declare the actual profits.

... oh yeah, I nearly forgot, because that would involve you giving up some of those benefits you currently claim that the rest of us hardwoking taxpayers are paying for. :rolleyes: