Got the dreaded letter from HMRC

[jilly1910]

Have received a letter from HMRC about online selling and money earned and they’ve asked me to contact them to disclose my earnings .  The thing is my whole family use my EBay account , daughter sells her unwanted clothes , my son his toys , I sell my own stuff BUT I do also sell items which Ive found cheap and know I can get abit more cash for.

My question is will HMRC differentiate between the two and how do I prove to them what was mine/my children’s in the first place  and what I had found and bought.  I suppose the split is 50/50 

[plhubbs]

I was gonna say, HMRC must be getting a tonne of eBay referrals since these changes because I'm sure LOADS of people are reaching the 30 item limit.

[jckl1957]

Even after you give Ebay your NI number, your details will not be reported straightaway - I assume (but don't know) the information will be put together and sent at the end of this year.

When Ebay do send your information, you will be able to check it here:

 

  https://www.ebay.co.uk/mes/transaction-reports?q=tax

I sent them my NI number several weeks ago and plan to just carry on selling.

30 items and £1740 are thresholds, rather than limits.

There is not a limit on the number of sales a private seller can make or the amount they can get paid for those items.  As long as you are selling your own personal items and not buying or making items with the intention of selling them, you are not, generally, taxed on the money you make.

[vinylscot]

Although eBay will be providing HMRC with your selling statistics, there will be no human involvement at this stage. As long as you have provided your NINO, everything will just be added automatically to your file.

If any trigger points are reached, where HMRC (automatically) decides an assessment may be necessary, a totally standard communication will be issued.

Only in cases where the figures suggest some obvious issues will there be any human involvement at this point (and this will be flagged up by their automated processes). Later, depending on responses to the standard communications, and whether the seller has engaged with HMRC on the matter, cases will involve some level of human intervention.

Everything will be as automated as possible, and cases will only be dealt with individually if either  party feels there is any need to do so. 

One of the best ways to ensure you DO get individual attention is to refuse to provide eBay or any other platform with your NINO. Your figures will still be reported, but with a note added, referring to your non-cooperation. Such cases will require human involvement to tie them to the NI number, and you can be pretty sure HMRC will take a closer look at these, than they will over the millions who willingly cooperate.

[thriftyfe_mail]

HMRC will clearly be after the big fish ....not the little tiddlers. 

Now that eBay have thrown those under the bus that previously escaped under the premise that they chose to operate as private sellers , but obvious to all by the number of sales and type of goods sold that they should have registered as business sellers, will find it hard to avoid the scrutiny of the tax inspector.

Ebay have their ‘get out of jail card’ that individuals operating on their site are responsible for their own finances including self assessment tax. Those that refuse to provide their NI number and suddenly cease operations will be a red flag to the tax inspector who will have had historic data information passed on by eBay already. They do hold all those personal details  and only have to join the.dots by cross referencing names, address, bank accounts details etc.  In this technological age it isn’t rocket science. 

Pleas of ignorance of the tax laws that are in existence or those that wish to plead their case regarding their levels of business trading and yet to pay tax on - good luck.  

The tax inspector knows every trick in the book .......and heard many excuses and  porky pies along the way so it will certainly fall on deaf ears. Any excess income generated from eBay trading will be added to a main job income or to those on working Universal Credit that includes all the side ‘hustlers’  with an estimated computer generated tax bill coming through the letter box. There Is no point closing the door once the horse has bolted and will probably result in a fine to boot. 

In any conversation that may arise with HMRC is to  come clean and be honest and remains the best route to take. However there will be a financial cost. 

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing - Socrates Greek Philosopher