Business accounts

[abea_collectables]

I have beenh selling off my private collection but I am enjoying the experience. I have received very positive feedback. I am planning to devote more time to this when I retire. What are the advantages of being a business seller and do you still receive the promotional discounts?

[plpmr]

Being a business seller is not a matter of choice but a matter of law.

If you buy and, or make to sell you have to be a registered business seller.

[4_bathrooms]

Just to add; you should not mix private and business sales on one account (your bio implies that you are doing this). Private sales should be conducted via a private account whilst business sales should be conducted via a separate business account.

From January 1st eBay became obliged to report the details of sellers who sell 30 or more items and/or ~£1,700 per year to HMRC. You therefore should not conduct any private sales via a business account as eBay will likely report such sales as having been made by the business. Conversely; business sales should only be conducted via the business account. It's always best to keep private and business sales completely separate.

[simplyessential_uk]

apart from the legal requirements as mentioned you will lose the selling fee discounts and you will have to adhere to distance selling regulations (google this just basically means you have accept returns and refund original postage for change of mind)  Regardless of whether you earn over the £12k (or around that) you will have to complete a self assessment online yearly (basically your tax returns) and declare your income and outgoings and pay tax on the difference if there is any due.    You can register as self employed online HMRC and you are sent a UTR (Unique Tax reference) and you then go online with that and declare your earning 

[rjwilmsi]

eBay business accounts don't get 50% or 80% off fees offers like private accounts sometimes do. However you can qualify for eBay Premium Service and get 10% discount all the time. Business sellers (in general) have to accept returns, but have (limited) rights to issue only partial refunds for returns.

So overall there is no clear benefit to private versus business in my view. Therefore you should register for a business account if your activity is/will become trading for profit, otherwise stay as a private seller.

[simplyessential_uk]

Ill also add you may want to consider PL insurance - if you send anything to anyone and it causes injury (ppl will claim for anything these days) then thats about £150-200 a year. 

[litp*records]

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@rjwilmsi wrote:

eBay business accounts don't get 50% or 80% off fees offers like private accounts sometimes do. However you can qualify for eBay Premium Service and get 10% discount all the time. Business sellers (in general) have to accept returns, but have (limited) rights to issue only partial refunds for returns.

So overall there is no clear benefit to private versus business in my view. Therefore you should register for a business account if your activity is/will become trading for profit, otherwise stay as a private seller.

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It does not actually matter if you are making a profit or not. You are a business if you buy or make to sell, regardless of whether you make a profit or loss on your activities.