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"

[jonat_broad]

Yes they have to report to HMRC your earnings on the platform to ensure you are paying relevant taxes.

looking at your listings you would appear to be a business though.

[raik1performance]

Just trying to side hustle abit, but now I got this email, do you know what will happen if I don't give them my insurance number ? Any advise is very much appreciated 

[ile136yz]

eBay will put the Seller's account on temporary hold until the information they asked for is provided.

I'm sure you are aware that any funds of a New or Infrequent Seller will be put a hold for up to 28 days to assess how the Seller runs the account.  (see eBay's Sellers Guidelines).

[howmuchtobid]

A side hustle is a business!

Ebay are massively to blame for this, they gave the impression for years that a side hustle isn't a business, it is and you should be registered as such.

[jonat_broad]

you won't be able to argue it's a side hustle to HMRC unfortunately.

you should be registered as a business seller would be my advice.

[ett1954]

You should also be aware that those coloured daytime running lights are not road legal in the UK , or most other European countries for that matter.  In the red, blue or dark green phase they would result in a major failure for a vehicle at an MOT test.  Even the yellow could arguably fail as they could only be used if the headlight was fitted with yellow bulbs.

Your listing's should carry a warning to that effect.

As has been mentioned a 'side hustle' is a business and should you take over £1,000 in income (not just profit) you will need to register with HMRC for self assessment completion.

[equinox-electronics]

Come January this will be the most asked question on the seller board 

[*vyolla*]

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.  

To correctly register as a business seller simply go to your Personal Information in your account and to the right of Account Type, which will be showing as 'Individual'  you'll see an Edit option.

https://accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/profile

This doesn't affect your feedback profile or any current listings, it merely upgrades your account so that you're compliant with current consumer and eBay policy.

[bojangled]

Just as a side note and I'm not trying to poke the bear here, but are we now allowed text on images? 
Jo

[jonat_broad]

No, you aren't - but seriously - that floodgate broke decades ago.
Amazon/google/facebook employ algorithms to identify text in images (often causing issues on things that do genuinely have text on them (ie birthday cards).

I imagine thats the problem - you need to review manually, or its bot driven and then you get everyone complaining when their listings are hit inadvertently.

[jimpowney]

Hi all

This may have been asked but I haven't found it

So, the value that Ebay provide to HMRC as "profit" I guess(?) for any individual

Is that "Profit" the same value that Ebay tell you you have "Earnt" from any individual sale?

SO, I sell a toy for £5 and pay £3 post - total £8 (But Ebay now charge the extra 75p+3% for "Buyer protection - which means Ebay hold MY money for a few more dats to grab a few extra pennies in interest cos they are hard up! - just say its another money making scam we have obliged you to use and stop lying to us!!)

EBay charge me 13.9% fees on that £8 INC the £3 post even htough this is NOT Profit

They also quickly forget that the "profit" they tell me in fact has NOT YET had the postal costs removed
so, for this example, Ebay say I earned £11 minus 13.9% which I think is about £1.59 so my profit is calculated as £9.41 - is THIS the value they send to HMRC?

In fact, I paid £3 post so my PROFIT  is actually £6.41 less whatever the original cost was for the item
Who is going to sort all this mess out?

[vintique*violet]

My understanding it is income not profit on sales. 

Total sales reporting of £1700 or 30 items per annum. 

[ett1954]

Nobody knows for certain what eBay will report but it will not be profit; it will most likely the total income paid into your bank account by eBay.

I note you are a private seller so it shouldn't affect you other than you may receive communication from HMRC asking you to confirm you are not meeting any of their 'badges of trade' (buying to resell, etc.).

Just to add:  "EBay charge me 13.9% fees on that £8 INC the £3 post even htough this is NOT Profit" - eBay don't charge you this fee; they charge it to the buyer.

[jckl1957]

Ebay will pass on your total sales.

They don't know what profit you have made - they just pass on figures.

Ebay no longer charge selling fees.

I believe the figure they will be passing on to HMRC is from last year, January to December 2024, so before BPF was introduced.

You can see more details from the link, but this is what Ebay will pass on:

Total number of transactions and total amount paid or credited to the seller during each quarter of the calendar year, excluding*:

• Shipping amounts paid to eBay
• VAT collected and remitted by eBay
• VAT charged on fees
• Amounts deducted by eBay for fees, coupons, cancelled or deleted orders
• Returns 

* Consequently, the amount eBay reports may differ from the total amount of payments you actually received from eBay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/uk-digital-sales-reporting?id=5454

[jimpowney]

Hi

Thanks for response

Always going to be difficult with items sold and proving they are old but still sealed as that's how I collect things to maintain the condition should the need arise to sell

However, the 13.9% is charged against the SELLER unless those charges are added to the selling price

I dont have issues with this as the platform has to make money However, telling HMRC that the post costs are Profit are lies
Ebay told us that "some" sellers back in the day added ridiculous post costs to a small item cost to evade post charges

To correct that small issue that impacted EBAY ONLY, Ebay charges EVERYONE on EVERY PENNEY of post 13.9%
Please explain to me where i can find Free post services as that is what Ebay are telling me, its profit as your post is free

I replied to this issue when it was released but as always, the faceless 

Bureaucracy wins again and you can only talk to an Ebay assistant who MUST tell you what Ebay told them to say or they will lose their jobs so you cannot talk to anyone truthfully
What I suggested was to use the Royal Mail bas charges as the FE EFREE post costs and anything above that can be considered profit - even though that means envelopes and packing are paid by the seller and not recovered - Obviously nothing changed as Ebay would lose 10's of thousands of $$$$$

So, we have the option to leave which is getting more and more tempting

[ett1954]

You are getting hung-up on the word profit - it is irrelevant in your case as you are a private seller.  Only a business has to identify profit from a trading income.

As I mentioned the worst you can expect is having to make a declaration on a statement that you are not meeting the definitions of being a trader.

[ghostbay-killah-420]

You don't have 2 give ebay your national insurance number that is your choice, if ebay asked me 4 my national insurance number the only answer they would get is NO.

[jckl1957]

They will be asking for yours at some time in the future.

If you refuse to provide it, they will still forward your other details to HMRC, probably adding that you refused to provide your NI number.

Although you have not bothered to register as a business seller with Ebay, and your 'no returns' policy breaks consumer law, i assume you are already completing a tax return and paying tax on your sales.

[sml192]

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@ghostbay-killah-420 wrote:

You don't have 2 give ebay your national insurance number that is your choice, if ebay asked me 4 my national insurance number the only answer they would get is NO.

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Yes, it is your choice but if you exceed the reporting thresholds and choose not to provide your NI number then you won't be able to continue selling on eBay.