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"

[specialk1937]

There was a time when I used to enjoy selling on ebay! Then there was
Buyers Protection Free which crippled my sales, followed by so called
simple postage and now we want your NI Number, which is something I have
only ever given to my employer, so I am not handing it over!
So, with nothing left for sale, no outstanding orders or fees 'Boy am I
glad to be free from all this now' It's like a weight has been lifted off
my shoulders!

[sml192]

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

A potential spanner in the works for your proposal is the thresholds are proportionally reduced if the user is only registered with the platform for part of the "reportable period" (a calendar year). Apparently, the thresholds for a seller who registers on 1st December are (30 * 0.082) = 3 items or (£1,680 * 0.082) = £137.76. However, eBay has made no mention of this potential caveat. 

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Yes, I spotted that bit in the Regulations a while back but I have seen no mention of it in any of the published guidance and strangely can't even find any mention of it in HMRC's 'International Exchange of Information Manual'.

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@4_bathrooms wrote:

Another spanner is returns are not included when calculating the thresholds. eBay has no idea whether an item (or a previous sale) will result in a return or not when a listing is being created.

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EBay's help page does state that 'Returns' are excluded from the calculation but obviously that would only apply to any returns that have already taken place prior to the report being made and likewise when determining whether either of the thresholds has been reached. 

[probi9246]

Who's bright idea in the government was it to make the threshold 30 items before you're reported to HMRC?

It just seems like another excuse for big brother to delve into people's personal finances.

There are tens of thousands of people in the same boat as myself, a parent or relative passes away and they had quite a substantial amount of items that I have no need for, and are now in the process of selling them.

There are also tens of thousands of collectors of various items that get to a stage when they want to start selling off all or some of their collection. Either for their own benefit, or to leave/give money to relatives or friends.

The thresholds they've given seem kind of ridiculous, every person I know could easily sell 30 unwanted items online in a calender year. It doesn't mean they are trading as a business, which makes me believe there are ulterior motives for the thresholds given.

[steve.hrs]

Like all governments tend to do,  the UK always spends more than it takes in through taxation and therefore continually seeks new ways to increase tax on anything they can think of. More and more people in PAYE jobs get caught by fiscal drag each year, where pay rises take them into a higher tax bracket. So, if you sell a few items that total say £2k, then this could be subject to the higher tax level,  as HMRC will simply add the £2k as additional income to your  PAYE salary.  The result could be a tax bill of 40% or more on your eBay sales. The next step will likely be that HMRC instructs eBay to deduct an estimated % up front from payouts,  and to send that directly to HMRC and Sellers then need to reclaim in the next tax year. This system already happens in other industries for self-employed people where the employer has to deduct tax and pay it to HMRC.  It’s a cruel world so best that you withdraw and become inactive. I predict it’ll be the demise of online markets and we’ll go back to cards in shop windows and supermarket walls as we did not so very long ago!

[lucy_farmer]

'Who's bright idea in the government was it to make the threshold 30 items before you're reported to HMRC'

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This whole 'reporting to HMRC' thing is not the idea of the UK govt, or indeed *any* single govt, country or company.

It's been thought up by an organisation called the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) this is comprised of about 38(?) countries ; most of the western 'civilised' world.

The basic reason for the reporting is to 'crack down on online money laundering' . It's becoming more possible now, because financial officialdom's computers are starting to catch up with global businesses' computers.

(Money laundering is the overt reason, but I'm pretty sure financial institutions aren't too unhappy about getting a look inside some previously opaque bank accounts....)

Every online money making business has to adhere to these new rules, not just ebay: eb*d, etsy, Vint*d, Uber, AirB+B.... all of them.

The odd looking limits of sales before you have to pass over your details are because, financially, most of the countries in the OECD use the Euro, and the money limit is 2000 Euros (currency conversion make that about the £1750 figure we keep seeing...)

The *item* limit being a paltry 30 items is because there are a few countries involved who aren't quite as financially 'sophisticated' as the others and things can sometimes be as important as money. (I don't want to say 'the barter economy' , they're not  quite *that* basic!)

An awful lot of people seem to think that everything that is wrong with their lives, their finances or their prospects can be laid at the feet of the UK govt (left *or* right wing)..... well the world's not like that anymore. So much of everything that affects us is global now, for better or worse....

[specialk1937]

As someone who is 88 and has been collecting records for 65 years and
having limited storage space in a small home, I can very much empathise
with what you say. I have always found it necessary to periodically prune
out things before I run out of shelves and reach saturation point. So I
very much resent anyone thinking that I am running a business by selling my
own personal possessions that I have acquired over the years!

[edwardian-dreams]

I thought part of the reason for all this was to tackle money laundering 

selling 30 items a year is every crooks modus operandi I guess 

haha I too never understood the 30 items bit 

unless they think you can make a killing like a washing powder ….30 washes is all you need 

sorry I’m being silly now but had a long stupid day I don’t care 

[*devils.advocate*]

It’s all online selling sites - not just the restricted worlds of eBay or etsy or eBid, whatever.

Take Airbnb as just one example.

Some rentals are maybe £150 per night - so, take 12 nights = £1800.

That’s above the €2000 reporting level already.

And the other 353 nights?

So, many on eBay etc, they’re considered just chicken feed.

[edwardian-dreams]

That makes sense to me now thank you 

In that case they’re looking for the bigger money business wise 

not Tom *bleep* and Harry flogging their personal stuff  and occasional flips shall we say 

[*devils.advocate*]

The worry would be that HMRC employs the services of AI to cope with the sheer colossal volume of information received from all sides.

We’ve all seen how well AI works!

[edwardian-dreams]

Well yes I guess

if I want to avoid being reported for some reason I might split my selling between five sites and make sure I don’t sell more than 29 on each or 1700 £ or whatever 

the different sites wouldn’t be talking to each other so ok there

but if I have the same email addy and other personal information on all sites yes Ai can link them I imagine 

this is only a problem for people if you’re hiding something though 

To hide it you’d have to be guilty of something 

if you’re flipping stuff you can do it up to 1k before you have to declare it 

and even then you don’t pay tax on it until you earn more than your personal tax allowance 

thing is a lot of people make hundreds or thousands from selling personal items from hoarding collecting or whatever 

Why should they have to answer to hmrc 

[probi9246]

The UK government presumably had a say in the new legislation and agreed to it.

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

An awful lot of people seem to think that everything that is wrong with their lives, their finances or their prospects can be laid at the feet of the UK govt (left *or* right wing)..... well the world's not like that anymore. So much of everything that affects us is global now, for better or worse....

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The UK government presumably had a say in the new legislation and agreed to implement it.  It now gives it greater powers to snoop on people's private finances. At the moment selling personal goods are exempt from taxes, there is some exceptions like selling a personal item or a group of items in a set for £6000 or more which can be liable to tax.

What's to say in a few years time after delving into HMRC's new analytics regarding people's sales of personal items they decide to levy some kind of new tax on the sale of said items, that aren't currently liable to tax. They already cracked down on taxes being paid on personal items being sold from the UK into the EU and vice versa.

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[kath3735_wxmjn]

that is why they need the NINO, it is the one thing that is only relevant to one individual and can be easily collated by HMRC.  Pity so many on here cannot understand that.   Some seem to think it is all about HMRC money grabbing or E Bay but it is not. (not that they will not be profiting from it!). As has been stated previously it comes from the OECD (look it up yourselves if you have no knowledge of it) and is in the main about financial laundering.  

[ett1954]

"They already cracked down on taxes being paid on personal items being sold from the UK into the EU and vice versa." - In case you hadn't noticed we are no longer in the EU and are therefore subject to the same rules as any other country selling into the EU.   These are EU rules, nothing to do with the British government.

[strangelysane]

Clearly this didn't happen then:
jckl1957

In response to strangelysane

‎29-04-2025 10:49 AM

"We could go back and forth forever - sometimes adults have to simply agree to differ.

Every seller has a choice: either, accept that Ebay has a legitimate reason for handing over your NINO and do so, or, refuse to hand it over and stop selling on the site. ..."

[strangelysane]

If it's of any help, vinyl records enjoy a number of bulk buyers that do all the hard work for you.

A few years back, I sold my 80s collection of Heavy Metal LPs and singles in this manner.
I contacted them via their website.  Gave them a list of what I had, and they sent pre-paid postage boxes for me to fill. They arranged collection.  They valued them.  I haggled the price up a bit.  They paid.  It was really simple and fuss free.  Exactly the opposite of eBay.

[strangelysane]

And to be honest, what are the consequences?  HMRC already have our NI numbers, so they will contact private sellers directly, if they have the manpower, whereupon it's an easy matter to prove they were selling personal items not liable to tax.

eBay may withhold payments due at some point, however, their bogus 'Buyer's Protection Fee' has killed the sales of private sellers trying to declutter and had the knock-on effect of putting them off of buying on eBay too.
In my case, I've left a few items up for sale as a forlorn hope.  If some items sell, I'm immediately banking the money.  If at some point, eBay freeze my assets until I hand over my NI (never happening) they'll be hanging onto a tenner at most.  I've just lost interest in eBay.  It's just as effective to put things up for sale in shop windows now.

[probi9246]

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@ett1954 wrote:

In case you hadn't noticed we are no longer in the EU and are therefore subject to the same rules as any other country selling into the EU.   These are EU rules, nothing to do with the British government.

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Yes I'm aware of that, but now eBay collect the relevant taxes at the point of sale for many countries, not just those within the EU. Before it was left up to each government to collect the relevant taxes when those items arrived in their country. Many people rightly or wrongly used to mark the items sold to those countries as a, 'gift,' so that the person receiving the item(s) wouldn't be taxed for it/them. That is what I meant about governments cracking down on taxes being paid on personal items arriving in their countries from online market places.

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[*maetrix*]

If we're selling under  £1,700 worth of stuff  a year they don't need our NI number.

[steve.hrs]

Not so, the OECD is all about global control and their dictats are adopted by each of the EU member states. Although the UK is no longer a member state, our weak government has adopted this particular section into the Finance Act 2. And so a Europe based quango is allowed to dictate to the UK.  
My main point in all of this though, is that tax has already been paid on the goods when they were new in the form of VAT.  I only sell used goods ( mostly musical equipment and instruments) which can range from £100 to £1,000 in value for each item and I'd usually reach the €2000 value quickly.  
This is nothing more than a tax grab, starting with a low value that many people will see as insignificant and nothing to worry about, but it'll without a doubt creep to the point tax will be levied on every sale regardless of the item's condition or value. eBay themselves have already conned everyone by charging Buyers a % for Buyer Protection (that doesn't give then anything more protection than they previously had). They say this doesn't affect Sellers, but that's a lie as I've had to lower my asking prices so that the price is still attractive to Buyers.  They call it Buyer Protection, but it's nothing more than a fee to counter their 'sell for free' con.