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Ebay shops and declaring income
I met a client today who runs an ebay shop, she says she does not view it as a business but runs as a shop rather than as a regular seller as its a more affordable way of selling on the site
She is a regular seller in that she selling from the shop at least once a week and admitted she does it to make a regular income, she says she doesn’t make much money about £1000 a year (I haven’t seen any evidence to confirm or refute this) She was vague about where the stuff she sells comes from, only would say sells thing she has found or the odd things she owns.
She has being running the shop for years and has never considered informing HMRC or DWP/LA.
It does sound like she could be considered as trading as a business, possibly I would need more information about where her stock is coming from but just wanted to see what other thought in terms of need to declare income for benefit purposes as it does sound like regular income.
if someone holds themselves out as running a shop = whether online or otherwise - then it is reasonable for people to assume she is, in fact, running a shop.
she should be keeping accounts etc etc
she should be able to print off a list of all her transactions since she started from her EBay accoun
so get her to do exactly that and assess where she stands from there (but if she’s doing that, what else is she doing elsewhere?)
and really, I’m surprised the DWP haven’t noticed already…...
HMRC has a useful “badges of trade” tool. The more of the boxes are ticked, the more likely it’s a business rather disposal of personal items. “Badges” include where the stuff comes from, whether you can derive any pleasure/use from owning it, how long you have it before it is sold, is it systematic and repeated or sporadic/infrequent etc.
Dobbs: “If you’re the police, where are your badges?”
Gold Hat: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ badges!”
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
HMRC & the 9 badges of trade
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205
HMRC has a useful “badges of trade” tool. The more of the boxes are ticked, the more likely it’s a business rather disposal of personal items. “Badges” include where the stuff comes from, whether you can derive any pleasure/use from owning it, how long you have it before it is sold, is it systematic and repeated or sporadic/infrequent etc.
snap