30 items a year

[gillrecords]

Is any one else stopping selling because they've reached their 30 item a year limit and don't want to disclose their national insurance number, personally I think ebay should pull the platform from the UK if the Government don't lift or remove this stupid bit of legislation, See you all in 12 months. 

[tonyfisher]

So you want to stop me using ebay because YOU don't like it??? There's a word for that and it starts with an "f".

[wyntersemporium]

All other online places do the same as eBay 

[williamson2049]

you are lucky to sell anything on ebay

[ali402363]

as if ebay, google, apple, amazon and other big name corporations etc pay there tax???  so yes your helping the crooks.  MPs and councillors etc are worse than benefit cheats.

[ali402363]

thats not the point.  they then will ask for passport, or to have you finger prints, eye scan, dna were do you draw the line.  HMRC should do its own job not expect others to do it for them.  if they truely want to tackle fraud start from the top with banks, goverment, big corps, big parma, the rich etc

[ali402363]

your right as ebay could have reported years ago.  but only do it now as there forced to comply were as before it was a option.

[ali402363]

hate it when people say this "If you're honest you've nothing to worry about."  that makes it ok for them to trample all over you freedoms and rights.  and being spied on by banks and sites you sell on. 

[ali402363]

OECD like IMF another secret society club

[little-rascal-77]

If i sell 33 items instead of 30 do i pay tax on just the 3 items or the 33 items, im selling part of a collection.

[sml192]

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@little-rascal-77 wrote:

If i sell 33 items instead of 30 do i pay tax on just the 3 items or the 33 items, im selling part of a collection.

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30 sales transactions (not items) is one of the thresholds for when eBay is required to report your sales to HMRC.  It has nothing to do with your tax liability as an individual.  Providing you are only selling unwanted personal possessions, and not buying/making items to sell, then you won't need to pay any tax (assuming none of the items are worth £6,000 or more).

[patay-9714]

i didnt even sell any item for a year and ebay still demanded i send them my passport etc , shocking platform

I have a lot of items i wish to sell ( low value ) but i really hate being bullied into a course of action that is unreasonable 

at the moment i am only using ebay to buy a few items , its very dated but its the only real auction site 

[patay-9714]

its safe until it gets hacked , people are far too blase about the internet , hacking, data theft and outages are routine and i would be very interested to know who exactly is storing the giant quantities of personal data that ebay demand if you want to sell some old socks 

[patay-9714]

really wish i could mark your comment down but no function , to accuse those of us who value privacy and are concerned aboiut data theft etc of being criminals is not acceptable and yet amazingly your comment has received 9 upvotes , shocking

[kh-urvashi]

Hi everyone,

This discussion has gotten a bit off topic. Please bring the discussion back to subject established in the original post.

Thank you.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"I've been thinking it through and have decided that only HMRC and your employer are the only people that should have your NI Number not Ebay."

You would have to give your NI number to a bank or building society if you wanted to open an ISA.  Pension providers also require it.   

[theelench]

When these new reporting rules were first announced (over a year ago?) there were some lengthy conversations about them and unless HMRC has made the situation any clearer in the interim, the same doubts are still in play.  (Try searching the Forum Content for them)

No-one here knows with any certainty how HMRC will react to those reported by ebay or any other sales platform.  (Unless they are undercover HMRC agents that some alarmists have suggested are already covertly watching selling activities.)

There will probably be thousands of private sellers who have breached one or other of the thresholds.

IMO most will be entirely innocently selling a few 'no longer required' second-hand items.

Others will be Traders, businesses trying to evade tax,  ebay fees or both.  Some blatantly selling multiples of 'Brand New' items.

Then there are those who can't be easily identified as in either group.

Those selling huge or, in some cases, not so huge collections of slow to sell items

Those who have had the misfortune to have several relatives die in quick succession, all leaving houses full of saleable 'stuff'.

There are probably other groups in similar 'difficult to define' circumstances.

This is why you should not rely on, or take as Gospel, the 'if you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to fear' advice.

HMRC might do nothing.

HMRC might send a letter asking you to confirm that you are selling your own, or inherited, possessions, then ignore you.  Or they might decide to investigate further.

You should consider how many years it might take to sell your collection on ebay.

Selling the same sort of item over years could look like trading to those of a suspicious nature (and there are plenty of them on here and in HMRC).

Are you going to sell on several sites?  The MAIN reason for HMRC wanting your NINO is so they can easily identify those selling on multiple sites so the can add the sales together and include them in your total taxable income, if you are a tax payer.

Can what you are selling be looked on, in any way, as some sort of 'Side Hustle'  i.e Trading without declaring the income to HMRC.  If so can you PROVE that you have owned what you're selling for at least 5 years?

It is certainly something you should think carefully about before making any decision. 

[tranceenthusiast]

You don’t get it do you? 

It’s about the principles of it. 30 low valued items for a private seller does not warrant handing over national insurance details… This should only be triggered by value of items sold and the amount is really low?  1700? Lol..

 So if someone sell’s a single high value item that’s it, they are legally obliged to hand this data over. 

[tranceenthusiast]

I hope my comments do not cause offence. It’s just my opinion. Clearly if someone is blatantly running a business and pretending they are a private seller that is another matter. 

[jonatjonatjonat]

EBay seem incapable of identifying that. 

See if HMRC are any better (though those businesses  on private accounts may well be declaring what they owe to HMRC already)

[kath3735_wxmjn]

It is a worldwide agreement with i believe 30+ other countries and they set the figures not the government (and it was the previous government as well).  I have many issues with this government but this is not one of them.  What figure do you suggest then?   Would 5000 items do it for you, most of us private sellers will never sell anything like that figure in a year, only collecters and pseudo businesses.  I sell more than 30, am a private seller (not on e bay now thanks to SD and my principles) and could well fall foul of HMRC because i sell for my family including nephews/nieces and sister and that is not direct family.    Doubt if i will ever fall foul of the amount though!!!    Will deal with that if and when anything happens.  However giving my NI number does not bother me, as someone else said they have my bank details/credit card details etc and that would be just as dangerous.