I think you may have misunderstood me. I am simply saying that a great many peole are not as secure as they thought.

Your NI number goes to HMRC and they rake the data on eBay and make an assessment of what they think is going on. Personally I think that is something that should have been done years ago, but they can go back 7 years. If they cant find your self assessment, and they decide your feedback / trading history looks like a business, I think it would be very natural to send out an initial assessment based on that data. No rocket science there. Then it comes down to you providing the evidence that they are wrong. That is the absolutely normal process. My own father in law lost his business as he was (correctly) assessed for a vast sum of back tax as he had been paying casual labourers cash. 

The topic of this thread, is eBay is dead. I am simply pointing out what I think will be a very natural and easy evolution. 

If people have been filing self assessments, or like you they are very secure in their paper trail. and they think that their eBay activities doi not look like a business, then they will be absolutely fine. But I personally think eBay is going to get a major shake up in the coming months and years. I dont think it is dead, but I think the UK site will need to go through some very dark nights of the soul. 

I feel very sure that we will all agree that the Private Seller will bear the brunt on those dark nights and eBay, in order to keep its sizeable presence, will need to evolve towards offering something more for small and medium sized enterprises.

Personally, I think it should be heading over to Amazon HQ and asking how eBay can integrate into the fulfilment network better so that business sellers can fulfil eBay orders at the same cost as Amazon orders from their Amazon stock.  At the same time I think they really need to sharpen their pencil in terms of the eBay labels experience in connection to the Royal Mail - for example, a simple tweek to allow sellers to put weights and dimensions against variations would mean they would get a lot of sellers back to posting through eBay. 

I dont think eBay is dead, nor do I think the genuine private seller is, but if it looks like a business I suspect it is and I think HMRC might be reasonably expected to take the same initial stance. So I am simply advising people they may not be as secure as they think and now would be a good time to ensure that everything is declared and above board. The self assessment is not a difficult thing and a great many people wouldnt be paying tax anyway, but the idea of saying I inherited this stuff that I am now selling in vast tranches or honest this is my private collection when it very clearly is a business online, will not cut it I dont think.

Sorry if I scared you, but I do think it is time a lot of people had a reality check. My humble opinion is that as a country we are on our uppers and I am sure you know many people that don't seem to be paying the appropriate amount of tax. The net is closing in on them and people are only just beginning to squirm.