HMRC tax on £1000 sales

[Anonymous]

Does the £1000 p.a. sales figure include postage? I sell low value items & the postage is usually higher than the value of the item.  On £1000 sales i'd be lucky to make £200 profit.  Seems the end of Ebay for sellers like me.

[sagr2519]

@houseroom1

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[sedg_35]

Hi do you know if the £1700 or 30 eBay sales per year runs / resets from April or January 

[papso22]

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@sedg_35 wrote:

Hi do you know if the £1700 or 30 eBay sales per year runs / resets from April or January 

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The report covers a calendar year.  Presumably HMRC will adjust for the tax year.

[houseroom1]

Thank you!

[richie-5435]

Not quite correct!

I have had clarification from HMRC -   "Starting from January 2025, the prior calendar year's(NOT TAX YEAR) information will be reported to HMRC each January and a copy of the reported data will be provided to sellers"

Martin Lewis's website also says - "From the first of January, they started collecting data and they will have to share that by January next year which means they are sharing data for the calendar year 2024."

So the first lot of data shared is from 1st Jan 2024. They can of course go back a number of years if they think there has been any wrongdoing.

[rainbowtrax]

It won't cover the whole of the 2023/24 tax year but it will include three months of sales that fall into that tax year so the data will cover sales from that assessment period.

[richie-5435]

That's exactly what I said!

It will include 3 months of the 2023/2024 tax year...starting from 1st Jan 2024. No data from 2023 will be shared.

[pillarboxred]

The postage consumers pay to take possession of the goods is part of the price, legally, and is included in your revenue figure. However, you only pay tax on your profit and the postage you pay is usually the same as the postage you charge so there is zero tax liability as the two payments cancel each other out.

Making £200 profit  on £1000 of sales after all costs are taken into account is quite a good return on capital employed but are you taking all your costs into account and are you keeping a record of them?

My feeling is a lot of knickers are in twists about something that is not going to materialise. In the current economy, a lot of traders are treading water, keeping busy but not earning much profit so not liable for much tax. HMRC will discover this and be disappointed.

[vinylscot]

@richie-5435   Again, not quite correct. eBay (and other platforms) will be compelled to supply data from 1st January 2024.

However, eBay (not sure about other platforms) have already been supplying the data voluntarily for a number of years.

[richie-5435]

And once again..... not quite correct!

Previously, Ebay only supplied this data to HMRC if they asked for it , and the same for other platforms.

[vinylscot]

Your post stated "No data from 2023 will be shared." Your later post contradicts that (as is should, as it was inaccurate). 

Let's just agree to disagree. You'll find out soon enough, if you need to.

[richie-5435]

Sure. No arguement from me.

I do have a relative that works for Ebay, so I have to go with what they've told me!

If what you say was true though, why would so many be asking "for how many previous years will the data be shared"? Obviously they would of been caught by now if Ebay shared it voluntarily every year.

No doubt there will be others that will have different views than we both have.

[richie-5435]

You posted "Your later post contradicts that (as is should, as it was inaccurate)"

It is not inaccurate. I said data will be shared in the 2023/2024 tax year, BUT WILL START FROM Jan 2024

[vinylscot]

@richie-5435  Now you're sounding a little desperate, handily discovering a relative who works for eBay (who wouldn't be an expert in HMRC's workings, anyway). It is also crystal clear, from dozens of other well-sourced posts, that at least some data has been shared well before January 2024, even if it may not have been acted upon. 

The truth is, we don't know what will happen. We do know that eBay has been providing some of our transaction information for some years. It is immaterial that HMRC may not (yet) have acted upon it. They may still do so, particularly if they are now devoting more resources to it.

We don't know if HMRC will target the bigger amounts, which may prove more time-consuming, or if they will go after the low-hanging fruit - lower individual returns, but much easier to do in bulk. We don't know how aggressively HMRC will approach this, or how amenable to sensible reasoning they may be. 

The mega-thread which ran to over 900 posts on this subject was recently locked, as it contained so much misinformation, and had degenrated into a silly squabble. Let's not do that with this one too.

.

[cornish_girl_1]

I see, so you can see number of sales.  This number is over a period of over 20 years.

[ett1954]

@cornish_girl_1     "I see, so you can see number of sales.  This number is over a period of over 20 years."

You need to clarify this with eBay.  Your account is showing registration in August 2017 - less than six and a half years with sales on feedback alone of 296 items in the last year.

You don't want eBay giving HMRC incorrect figures; it could give you problems.

[*vyolla*]

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@richie-5435 wrote:

Not quite correct!

I have had clarification from HMRC -   "Starting from January 2025, the prior calendar year's(NOT TAX YEAR) information will be reported to HMRC each January and a copy of the reported data will be provided to sellers"

Martin Lewis's website also says - "From the first of January, they started collecting data and they will have to share that by January next year which means they are sharing data for the calendar year 2024."

So the first lot of data shared is from 1st Jan 2024. They can of course go back a number of years if they think there has been any wrongdoing.

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What's not correct?

[papso22]

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@ett1954 wrote:

@cornish_girl_1     "I see, so you can see number of sales.  This number is over a period of over 20 years."

You need to clarify this with eBay.  Your account is showing registration in August 2017 - less than six and a half years with sales on feedback alone of 296 items in the last year.

You don't want eBay giving HMRC incorrect figures; it could give you problems.

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I am not sure where you are seeing that start date, I see 2004.  But I agree almost 300 feedback, so more sales than that, in the last 12 months alone.

[cornish_girl_1]

Thanks for replying. Strange as on my profile it says ‘member since 2004’.

[ett1954]

My apologies, I inadvertently took the date from your community data instead of your feedback data.