Forum

ATO investigating ebay sales?!
 

Hi everyone...

Did anybody receive the email saying:

ATO Requested Information

In response to the request to provide you with the data eBay has
provided please see below the data that has been given to the ATO:

Member ID ******
ID ******

FIRST NAME ****

LAST NAME *****

ADDRESS ****

EMAIL ****

PSTL CODE ****

ITEMS SOLD **
$GMV AUD **
Year 07-08

ITEMS SOLD **
$GMV AUD **
Year 08-09

The data provided to date comprised:
• Contact name and user ID
• Email Address
• Address
• Sales for the period 1 July 2007 – 30 June 2009

In addition the ATO has requested banking account details. We are
continuing to work with the ATO to confirm what banking account details
can, and are required to, be provided and will then provide these.

What is the legislation that says you can provide my details to the ATO?

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) issued a notice on eBay pursuant to
section 264 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) and section
353-10 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (Cth). For
more information about tax laws, please visit the ATO website at:
Australian Taxation Office Homepage


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I was really worried at first due to the amount of sales I made however I am wondering how many people will actually get called up?!

Does anyone have any real ideas about this? And also, are eBay ALLOWED TO INVESTIGATE SALES THAT WENT THROUGH YOUR PAYPAL into your bank account?!

I would like to know more about this as it has been several months since receiving this email and nothing has happened as of yet and I am unsure what could happened, or whether or not it is a generated email used to scare off potential tax avoiders (in the eyes of the ATO)....

Peace.

hey ;)
 

hey there was this email revieved thru your EBAY email inbox or your hotmail/yahoo/or what ever account... To me that sounds like a fishing scam to get your banking info and everything else, I guess because you are on this web forum you are most likely a stealth acc holder.. Soo just ignore it, forget about it and act like you just never recieved this email LoL :spy::lol::bounce:

Wow, Hope KGP is right. And yeah, would be a hint if you let us know if you received it in your ebay messages or your normal mailing a/c.

Cheers

No it wasn't a scam or anything like that. The message came from eBay and was in my messages so I was very worried when I got it.


I called them up and requested the same information that they passed on to the ATO. At first they were hesitant to pass on anything but they eventually emailed me that message stating exactly how much I earned and that they were working with the ATO to investigate all sellers making over $20,000.

Here is the original message:

eBay has received a request from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for information relating to members of www.ebay.com.au who had sales greater than AU $20,000 in any given year during the period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2009.

Our records reflect that you had sales greater than AU $20,000 in at least one of these financial years. As a result, the ATO has requested the following information:

?Contact name and user ID
?Email Address and IP Address
?Company /Business Number and ABN
?Address
?Telephone numbers
?Date of Birth
?Registration Date
?Banking Account Details
?Monthly sales for the period 1 July 2007 ? 30 June 2009

We can confirm that eBay has and will continue to work with the ATO to provide them with the information we are legally required to provide. Disclosure of this information is permitted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.



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I am just concerned now that after so many months I am wondering whether or not they will actually investigate all sellers or not?!

I made almost $70,000 in sales in one of the years so I was a little concerned however I am just curious as to how many people actually get audited?!

Hmmmm your thoughts anyone?!

The ATO is a regulatory government body. eBay is required by law to provide details to the ATO if requested. I received a similar email sometime ago. But was then advised by email that the information was not provided to the ATO as sales did not exceed XXXX amount. I would just wait to see what happens.

How would you get on if investigated if your bank account name (the real name on the bank account) differs with the details used op the Paypal account. I opened a few accounts to do business with eBay/Paypal gave my tax file number and when I went to my account to do the tax return he asked me about these new accounts. This is not really a problem for me at the moment as my accounts usually do not last long enough to have that much money go through them..

I have heard about the ATO cracking down on eBay sellers and their income. It maybe a good idea to place like 15% aside in a high yield savings account or similar, that way you if you have to pay back tax, at least you will be able to.

Maybe a good way around this problem would be to open several stealth accounts?

I have not received any emails from the ATO personally just heard that it does happen.
And congrats on a nice little earner, $70K on one account, NICE!!!

The news said the ato would start ivestgating the online seller like ebayer who doesn't pay his tax at last year, it scared me as well, then i immediately applied a ABN, GST and found a accountant, sorted out my sales report, they took me more than 2 months.
After everything was done, my ebay account got suspended definitely....****...

I'm not from Australia, but I just wanted to still advise caution here.

The ATO is the Australian equivalent of the IRS in the US, correct?

If so, be VERY CAREFUL and pay your taxes.I don't know anything about the ATO, but if they are anything like the IRS, you don't want to be on the business end of a fraud investigation.

Be appreciative of jeff's advice.

If you earn money, you pay taxes. That's the law. Professional help should be sort to work out the best methods.

Google ATO & find out whatever info you can. Find a tax accountant. Be responsible