Selling on eBay
Monday, June 6, 2011 at 9:00AM 
Q: I own a shoe shop but due to cashflow problems, I have been selling some of my personal belongings and old stock on Ebay recently. Should I include my income from Ebay on my tax return?
Joel, Pinner.
A: All your trading sales (whether you sold through the internet, at car boot sales, through the small advertisements or any other means) should be included in your total sales figure. If you are VAT registered, you should also charge VAT on sales to your customers where applicable. Remember to include any sales to friends and family and don’t forget to include cash sales too.
As for the sales of your personal belongings, it is unlikely you will need to declare the proceeds on your tax return, unless you can answer yes to at least one of these points:
- buy goods to then sell online
- sells items that you have made, and you made them with a view to profit
- sell goods for others, on commission
- sell a service and get paid for it
And a word of warning- HMRC has a tax evasion hot line for people to ‘tip-off’ plus it uses computer programmes to scan internet sites like Ebay and look for people making multiple transactions.
If you are unsure or would like to discuss this further, please feel free to contact your local TaxAssist Accountant.
We provide tax accountancy services in Pinner and throughout the UK. http://www.taxassist.co.uk
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