Plans to tax us for selling on eBay. What do you think?

Will it include people selling items on Facebook market place too. There are lots of small businesses selling item on there as well.

Good that Airbnb are having to comply.

Of course people shouldn't break the law. I wasn't advocating anything like that.

Germanshepherdsmum
I was thinking about people selling a few of their own items. The newspaper article made it sound as though those selling a few ornaments were going to be investigated. That did sound over the top when there are wealthy businesses not paying anything, or finding loopholes to avoid paying.

It’s not ‘stingy’ or ‘controlling’, OP. A lot of people make a lot of money selling on sites such as eBay and don’t declare it. If everyone paid the correct tax we would be much better off. Not declaring all your income, from whatever source, is tax evasion - a criminal offence.

i don't see how whether the item is second-hand should make any difference.
however i freely admit my ignorance of most things financial, let alone fiscal !
as for concentrating on the doms, what about the subs ?

Any business is taxed on the profit or earnings ie selling price minus the cost of producing or buying the product.

You will need to be operating at a very high level as a private seller to reach the limits, probably having to put something on ebay every day to breech the limits.

If you have the income, you should pay the tax, Why shouldn't you?

I have a friend who has made selling on Ebay a business and makes a good living from it. She buys from charity shops and car boot sales and then resells. I admire her entrepreneurship, however as it is a business, she should be paying tax, but I know that she doesn't.

I thought it meant that a seller would be taxed on their earnings from selling on eBay. However if the items sold are secondhand, how would the earnings be calculated?

If you earn over the tax limit, yes you should.
Many small companies use eBay as a selling platform.

RosiesMaw

Sure you can only be taxed on profit and if selling ones own clothes/ belongings these would most likely be for less than the price paid..
OK I know there may be (lucky) exceptions like Granny's Clarice Cliff teapot, but can you pay tax on a loss ?

No.

Sure you can only be taxed on profit and if selling ones own clothes/ belongings these would most likely be for less than the price paid..
OK I know there may be (lucky) exceptions like Granny's Clarice Cliff teapot, but can you pay tax on a loss ?

The platforms don't distinguish whether the sellers are selling personal items or are online traders. This means that you may have to provide proof that what you are selling is personal.

There are thousands of people doing online trading who don't declare their profits.

In the past HMRC have visited car boot sales to check on traders and may still do so.

Every body should pay the correct amount of but HMRC should be concentrating on doms and tax evasion schemes.

Current rules allow people to earn £1000 from eBay sales tax free so most sellers will not be affected.
I think the idea is to ensure that people who make a living out of eBay selling will pay tax appropriately.

30+ sales may trigger an investigation, but my sales wouldn't reach £1,735 p.a. (unwanted possessions, ornaments, clothes, etc).
I hope any investigations by hmrc would take into account that folk were private sellers - selling unwanted possessions V business sellers 🤔.

Under the rules set out by the OECD, firms will not be asked to share data about sellers who make fewer than 30 transactions or €2,000 (£1,735) a year.