Changes to your Multi-buy discount tool access - Private sellers can't offer multi-buy

[aksluk]

If adding one more fee wasn't enough they are now taking away multi-buy features from private sellers. 

"We’re writing to let you know about a change to our Multi-buy discount tool, which you’ve used in the last 6 months. As a reminder, the tool allows you to offer discounts based on the number of items a buyer selects from your listing. From 20 Jan 2025, Multi-buy will become exclusive to business sellers, and no longer be available to private sellers."

[myriad*seller]

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@goodibags wrote:

Yes, but the reports ARE net of Ebay fees (when we had them), so Ebay is not being consistent in removing some fees but not others.

Like seller fees, postage costs are NOT income, so should absolutely not be reported as if they were. I sell a lot of low value items sent as small parcels, so I'm aware that the totals are plain wrong.

I was hoping Simple Delivery would finally address this problem but if it isn't then I can't think of ANY benefit to it. ☹️

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"The Allowance is £1,000 of GROSS income. That is income before any expenses. The exemption is automatic and if your self employed income is £1,000 or less you do not need to tell HMRC or file a tax return. " 

https://taxaid.org.uk/guides/information/a-starting-point-for-the-self-employed/self-employed/tradin...1%2C000,or%20file%20a%20tax%20return.

Postage costs are Expenses 

So the total gross income is what you need to calculate BEFORE any postage costs are deducted.

If you claim the £1000 trading allowance you cannot deduct any expenses.

If you want to claim expenses then there is no £1000 trading allowance

[ett1954]

Beat me to it.

@goodibags  I am afraid you are mistaken but not alone.  Many believe it is profit.  It is explained in the government links below:

Tax-free allowances on property and trading income - GOV.UK

"If your annual gross income from these is £1,000 or less, you do not need to tell HMRC"

You must tell HMRC if you have:

• gross trading income over £1,000 - register for Self Assessment
• other gross income over £1,000 up to £2,500 - contact HMRC
• other income over £2,500 - register for Self Assessment

This allowance does not apply to trading income from a partnership.

[goodibags]

My point is that IF expenses MUST be included then why does Ebay reporting specifically EXCLUDE (before Oct) seller fees? Either the costs of selling are deemed income or they're not. 

I understand that some sellers use freepost, so it's not possible to establish postage costs, but a report that includes some fees and not others is, by definition, pretty useless.

Obviously HMRC will take into account that Ebay's totals are artificially inflated, but the threshold for reporting is clearly being applied incorrectly.

Most low volume private sellers on Ebay are not trading. For some reason Ebay appears to be actively discouraging this.

[goodibags]

Please see my reply above. Many private sellers may be selling their personal possessions and are not trading.

And yet everyone has a £1000 tax allowance for doing just that.

[ett1954]

"Most low volume private sellers on Ebay are not trading. For some reason Ebay appears to be actively discouraging this." - I certainly agree with you there and it does appear that eBay is coming down heavy on some obvious private sellers whilst at the same time they are actively encouraging obvious businesses registered as private sellers to carry on as they have been doing for years.

I suspect eBay don't want to lose those 'private' business sellers due to all the advertising space they generate with their thousands of listings.  Unfortunately this is, and has been for some time, a fact of life when trading or selling privately on eBay and I don't see anything changing unless one of the government agencies puts eBay's practices under scrutiny for the way they ensure compliance with UK trading laws.

[goodibags]

Yes, Ebay appears to be falling over itself just to keep a few people happy. It's not just coming down heavy on a few private sellers either. Like I said above it's pretty blatant.

To us at the thin end of the wedge it almost looks like it's deliberately winding down. 

I'd have thought More sales = More revenue but what do I know?

[lucy_farmer]

'I suspect eBay don't want to lose those 'private' business sellers due to all the advertising space they generate with their thousands of listings. '

Yes .... Advertising space! (one of the great drivers of ensh**ification is paying more attention to the advertisers on your site than your customers and users)

I also have ebay down for not wanting to lose those 'private' sellers because of the difficulty of doing 'off ebay' trading when private traders can't have contact details available..

[goodibags]

Maybe Ebay should get rid of business selling accounts and go back to charging everyone a flat fee (say 5%) to sell?

Keep it simple, like in them olden days?

The statutory reporting will pick up anyone abusing the system. And genuine 'private' sellers/buyers are not deliberately scared away.

[ett1954]

That wouldn't be possible as Business sellers have other legal obligations other than HMRC.  It would mean everyone having their contact details available and no-one would be allowed a no returns policy for remorse returns; something a private seller has the right to do to protect themselves and something a Business seller cannot have in order to protect the consumer from unfair trading breaches.

I can't see either eBay or private sellers wanting those conditions for a number of reasons.

[theelench]

A nice idea for buyers and sellers, but one that wouldn't work for ebay.  Years ago, with buyers, sales and GMV all in decline, ebay decided to increase its revenue by increasing fees rather than increasing sales.  Taking the payment processing fees from paypal was a big step in that direction, followed by Sponsored Listing Fees.

Only then did ebay see the advantages of Payment Holds and cutting every listing to pieces with other sellers ads..  This revenue is now ebays life-blood, too many good long-term private sellers have already gone and I can't see many of the new ones drawn-in by "Free to Sell" staying once they discover the reality that they won't sell much without paying Sponsorship fees.  Free to sell sounds simple until they try finding a path through the various types of sponsorship, have their funds held or are told to send their sales by a company they don't like the reputation of.

The only way that ebay can go back to a flat listing fee and smaller FVF for all would be to drastically reduce  dividend payments and share buy-backs which cost millions every quarter and billions every year.  Doing that would be fatal to the board and quite likely also for ebay inc..  The only thing that counts now is that those two numbers keep going upwards.

It seems to me that ebay took a wrong turn years ago and has now shut itself inside a gated cul-de-sac and thrown away the key.  Sales have declined so far they can't replace the fees that now maintain profits.  Reducing fees will only make the situation worse, unless private sellers flock back to ebay despite it being a worse place than ever before to try and sell anything.  So the only way forward is more of the same, more fees, more hidden fees and more fee increases to keep the ball rolling.