EBay asking for national insurance number

[raik1performance]

Hi everyone, I recently joined for like 1 month and I start selling as a private seller , and now eBay is asking me to provide national insurance number.

"New UK digital sales reporting legislation requires sellers with 30 or more sales, or who have sales exceeding £1740 in a calendar year, to register this information"

[ett1954]

"another thing that crept in under the radar without the public being aware!" - This happened in January 2011 and was publicly announced at the time around November 2010.  It hit the newspapers at the time as it was an EU directive through the European Court of Justice after TNT brought a case to them complaining that they and other mail delivery companies had to add VAT to their charges whilst Royal Mail didn't .  The judgement by the ECJ exempted those services that were subject to price control such as 1st and 2nd class, etc.

The public, certainly those affected, were very much aware of this at the time.  If you want to blame anyone for VAT on Royal Mail services then blame TNT.

[sml192]

This is the information provided on the Gov.uk site regarding VAT on postage:

Postage

Goods or services VAT rate More information

Direct-mail postal services meeting all the conditions of VAT Notice 700/24 3.2 and 3.3	Outside the scope of VAT	VAT Notice 700/24
Postage, packing and delivery within the UK included in the sales contract but charged for separately, for example, mail order	The same rate as the goods being delivered or posted	Postage, packing and delivery within the UK charged as an optional extra is always standard-rated — VAT Notice 700/24
Public postal services provided by the Royal Mail under a universal service obligation	Exempt	Standard Royal Mail first and second class services for example
Other postal services that are not subject to a universal service obligation	Standard-rated	Supplies that are not subject to regulation

[susaturne47]

Passed me by, I m afraid and if you asked the general public if there was VAT on postage, most wouldn’t have a clue. TNT, Evri etc etc that’s free enterprise for you and another example of progress where Jo bloggs pays for it.
Kind Regards,
Sue

[susaturne47]

Yeah, I looked and what was supposed to be a simple tax on its introduction has become anything but. There’s nothing like government intervention to throw a spanner in the works.
Kind Regards,
Sue

[papso22]

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@susaturne47 wrote:
VAT on postage is not so simple as it used to be, there wasn’t any and it was exempt. However rules changed and VAT is now charged on many postage costs, not stamps for letters, but it has been added to others. In effect if you are a business you can claim that VAT back as an expense, indeed your postage costs will also be a cost to the business (cost of goods sold) and a direct expense in pursuit of your business and so affect your profit as purchases are netted off sales to arrive at your profit. Clearly non of this applies to private sellers, like me, we re not a business and not VAT registered, so postage to is is just a necessary hindrance and a partial cost to a seller as eBay charge us a percentage of this as fees on the value of sales and an postage is ultimately an expense to the buyer.
Kind Regards,
Sue

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By the way, as there are no longer private final value selling fees, there are no longer 'fees on postage'.