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Employer wants to use eBay account
 

Hi,

I work for a UK company where its sole income source is reselling products online through their eBay account. From what I am aware, eBay encourages businesses to open multiple accounts to help their sales. His plan is to create a new business on eBay using my account, selling off the same products, so he can run two businesses selling the same product type.

Ebay allows you to fully change the details on your account, however it will still be traceable back to me if anything happens as eBay keeps record of this. He has said that the threshold for sales would not go above the £85k limit for this account. He has a VAT ID for his main business and makes quite a large turnover from the sales.

Can anyone advise me on to why he would want to use my account? I ask here because you guys are more than likely experts on this sort of thing.

If anyone can advise me who has experience with eBay businesses I would greatly appreciate it.

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

your employer can have 6 email addresses for his Paypal account,one being primary.
So he can set up 6 Ebay IDs and each use a different Paypal emails,the payment will all go to one Paypal account,unless he is trying to avoid hitting a limit.
but I would not like the idea of him using your account,if things go bad,your account would be limited,then you cant sell your own items using Paypal.
worse,if he drains your account and then disputes/returns/chargebacks come in,you are liable.
how is he going to transfer fund from yours to his Paypal account ?

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

HMRC are pretty sharp on people trying to avoid the VAT limits by doing exactly what he is trying to do

I wouldn't let him do that with your account personally

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

Tell him to open up a new eBay account. He can carry on using the same PayPal account.

Do not give your account to anyone else.

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

It’s not perfectly legal start a second business selling the same services and items in order to avoid VAT....

It is legal start up a second company selling a separate service or separate set of products in order to have a going over the threshold on the first company.

You have to demonstrate that they are two totally separate and non related businesses. HMRC are very strict on incorrect company disaggregation which this would be

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

If details are being changed we can assume it wont be kept in OPs details and would be changed to the directors details with a new company.

If it was being kept in OPs details then its maybe possible if done correctly, but would still be a very bad idea as it would put a lot of liability on OP.

Overall highly advise against letting them use your eBay. Could cause a lot of issues for you

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

But let’s be honest this is all relivent if you get investigated which is very rare

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

Yes you can. They can be changed from personal to business and in doing so you can also change the ownership details. Can you change the original name the account is registered under? Yes you can also do that. Not as easily as you used to be able to, but its still possible.

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

Welcome to the forum OP - all the best as master stealth :thumb:

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

One key thing to remember is half the eBay & PayPal reps have no idea what they are talking about ;)

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

Sure - but you still can

Personal accounts - No (used to be able to change the name on this until about a year ago)
Business accounts - Still easily done

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

His point is, you " can't" technically, but " can" in practice. Just as you can't make an ebay account under a fictitious name, yet, you can. I mean, people do legally change their own names after all.... " sorry sir, you can't change your real name, to your new real name on ebay" lol

Re: Employer wants to use eBay account
 

eBay dont want you to transfer the account. But again that doesn't mean it cannot be done

A very simple example - Ltd companies do get sold, and Ltd companies do sometimes have eBay accounts. When the company gets sold, the eBay account gets sold with it and is transferred to the new owner.

That is the most basic example but far from the only one.

Your just incorrect on this one, but if you wish to stick to thinking what an eBay rep has told you that is your choice and really not worth getting into a back and forth over.