Buyer protection fee

[cartermk]

TBH I was surprised to discover that ebay haven't been charging me a final value fee as a private seller for a while now. When I first started I think it was 10% FVF + no listing fee. I am not sure though that the new Buyer Protection Fee of 75p+4% is such great idea. The 10% effective FVF cut-off is at £12.50 listing price which excludes quite a few of my listings i.e if I sell an item for less than £12.50 I am effectively paying a FVF of greater than 10%.

It is not clear to me if paying £20/mth to be a shopless Business seller is the way to go. I think that would mean paying a 30p+~10% FVF which only comes out cheaper for items selling for less than £7.50.

The pricing and volume of the items you are selling determines whether the Business seller option is a good idea. For me, the best option is not to bother selling items below £10 and accept the effective 10% FVF ebay are charging.

Interestingly, it is, I believe, only in the Uk that ebay have zero FVF and BPF for private sellers.

[*vyolla*]

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@cartermk wrote:

Interestingly, it is, I believe, only in the Uk that ebay have zero FVF and BPF for private sellers.

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Yes, that's correct.

The items you're selling determine whether or not you need to trade on an eBay business account. 

A private seller is one who is just selling off their own personal items such as clothes from their wardrobe, bits from their loft/garage etc.

A Business seller is someone who buys or makes items to sell on.  They need to be registered as a business to meet the requirements of UK law. They need to declare income to HMRC once they reach £1,000 worth of sales (eBay will be providing HMRC with your details anyway so it's vital to keep correct accounts for your tax return). You can obviously offset more expenses as a business seller, but can't offset any at all as a private one.

[cartermk]

I am not sure that you are entirely correct though that may be the De Facto way things operate. As I  understand it, the HMRC rules are that once you sell more than £1000 worth of goods you should register for HMRC self-assessment - nothing to do with where you sell then : ebay or other platforms or where you got them from. You can then claim the cost as expenses against your income so for most private sellers selling there own stuff that will be greater than the income they get - though they do need to be able to prove that in terms of original receipts etc  or take the other HMRC option of up to £1000 worth of expenses. Ebay and other platforms are starting to allow HMRC to check that - though HMRC are only interested in the total i.e selling more than £1000 across all platforms.

My guess is that a lot of sellers start off selling their own stuff and gradually move to buying things to sell and at some point have  sufficient volume or value that ebay designate them as business sellers.

[*vyolla*]

That's all pretty much incorrect.

The £1,000 turnover figure is the Trading Allowance for small business sellers - it's the yardstick by which anyone who is a business seller must complete a self assessment tax return. They need to declare income to HMRC once they reach £1,000 worth of sales. They may not be taxed on £1,000 if that's not profit, but they have to complete a tax return. 

[cartermk]

Isn't that what I said? My point really was that the HMRC self-assessment criterion and the ebay business criterion are different things.

[cartermk]

Before September 2024 used to pay 25p+11.02% FVF.

[*vyolla*]

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@cartermk wrote:

Isn't that what I said? My point really was that the HMRC self-assessment criterion and the ebay business criterion are different things.

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No, it isn't.

[cartermk]

They need to declare income to HMRC once they reach £1,000 worth of sales

once you sell more than £1000 worth of goods you should register for HMRC self-assessment

They may not be taxed on £1,000 if that's not profit,

can then claim the cost as expenses against your income so for most private sellers selling there own stuff that will be greater than the income they get