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 

[dch2112011]

The following article explains it very well - the ony change is that the earnings between £1000 to '£3000 will not require a self assesment form to be filled in - any tax can be paid without the need to fill in a self assesment form via the HMRC portal - bit of a damp squid really - I guess the reporting thresholds remain the same - tax assesment letters will be the same - just if you earn less than 3k and more than 1k - HMRC don't need you to register for self assesment and fill in a return just to pay the amount they asses you at via the portal - cynically I feel this just saves HMRC the time and effort to look at your self assesment return !

HMRC makes £3,000 limit change as households face £600 tax bill 

[ett1954]

"cynically I feel this just saves HMRC the time and effort to look at your self assesment return !" - I doubt HMRC will look at self assessment returns.  The HMRC Connect software can now do that automatically by matching declarations against income submitted against your NINO from any digital platforms you receive an income from over the reportable limits.  Only if a disparity between the income reported by the digital platforms and that submitted on your self assessment (or if you haven't submitted one) would there likely to be any human involvement.

[dch2112011]

Whilst connect triggers certain areas of concern, around 1 in 100 tax returns spark some sort of investigation including the random investigations which are par for the course, connect is not the only trigger for investigation although it is being expanded as more onboarding of information sources takes place 

If HMRC are waiving the need to register and submit a return for  individuals who they anticipate having income between 1 to £3,000  they will not fall into the realms of investigation .

I suspect that the information gathering from all sources shows an income between 1 to 3k above allowances  then a tax bill will be raised and a tax code issued, the individual will then be required to pay the calculated tax via the  portal without the need to submit a return or register for self assesment thus saving HMRC man hours on the estimated 300,000 returns which will no longer be needed  which in turn means that 3000 investigations will not be started.

You may well see adjustments to tax codes for those who fall behind the thresholds.

The question is if the gathering of information by HMRC is to continue in the same manner , What if any opportunity will be given by HMRC to appeal the calculated tax bill if this is the way they intend to recover tax from 1k to 3k earners ?