Taxes, bank account names & family members - odd case

[FlaccidSneke]

Hi ladies n gents, got a very weird case on my hands here. Apologies if there's a consensus or meta I'm missing with this as I've been away from the forums for a few years.

Shortly put I was banned during COVID, bought an aged stealth acc on here and it got popped following every instruction I could so I gave up. About a year after I realised a family member in my house had an aged account from years before I was banned, and it survived my account getting banned (I thought they all go down). This family member even sold on there throughout the whole thing.

After a while I basically took control of the account and have used it since to continue my sales after being banned, and survived completely fine. This is on the same internet & address my old acc was banned on, but on a new phone only.

Now comes the trouble though, It's under my family members name & bank and I get the money transferred over. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to have to start declaring this as an income & won't want it messing with my family members income declarations either under any investigations or proofing with bank statements etc.. I'd just chuck my own banks on but they're of course under the name of the account I got whacked on in the first place. I'm seeing under MP eBay now require bank accounts to match name on the account and I'm not quite sure the method these days to circumvent this, things changed a lot.

My goal is to basically get those bank deposits coming into a bank under me to keep things legal, anything else like names on the eBay are fine to stay as they are. What's the go to method here? Any help appreciated, especially regarding how this reflects in taxes and income. sorry if this is a repeated question but this isn't a usual stealth acc situation

[agent006140]

With Etsy,the bank you linked to your seller account must agree with the seller .
I would think MP /Ebay would be the same,someone else would come and have more to say

You are in UK,would a UK bank refuse to accept the incoming deposits as it is meant for someone else?or they cant tell if it were electronic transaction versus someone going to a physical bank and present it to a teller?
If you are in USA,one problem I see is if either one of you gets a tax audit.

These days,US banks would not accept any deposits payable to a third party and endorsed by the account holder if the account holder walks in and hand it over to the teller or drop the physical check in night deposit.
so why should they allow it when it is processed electronically?

You are in UK,would a UK bank refuse to accept the incoming deposits if it is meant for someone else?or they cant tell if it were electronic transaction versus someone going to a physical bank and present it to a teller?
If you are in USA,one problem I see is if either one of you gets a tax audit.

Originally Posted by rsot

electronic processing is quite a bit different than the physical process agent...

They should be the same.

Originally Posted by FlaccidSneke

Had a search and everyone on the ebay forums is saying they can't add banks with mismatched details. Would that be those that added banks that don't like mismatch details rather than ebay being able to check it somehow

It could be both,some banks do not accept deposits not payable to the account holder,some would accept any thing,
ebay could find out afterwards,Etsy has said the names must agree,so did Etsy check when you sign up or find out after making a deposit?
I know in early days of Paypal,when you try to add a bank account with just slightly misspelled name,it wont take,like john smith or Johnnie Smith,but then it changes to making small deposits and have you come back and verify them.

[degsey69]

You can change your bank account in eBay with mismatched name and bank details. You can use the original name on the account with your bank details. If your bank is one of the high street ones they do not question the deposits and eBay can not check with the bank that the details are correct.

[FlaccidSneke]

If I'm interpreting this right this means setting up the new MP on the eBay account with my bank but my family members name on it, I've got Nationwide so then one of them would basically receive the payments and not question it?

Is there any risk of eBay asking for a verification after this?

I also don't really ever get more than 100 quid a time deposited

thanks for the info anyhow!

[JamesNorth101]

You can add in your own bank account that is fine

The name on the bank and the eBay they dont need to match

I would avoid any virtual banks though (Monzo, Wise etc) and stick to regular high street banks. They wont cause any issues

[FlaccidSneke]

Had a search and everyone on the ebay forums is saying they can't add banks with mismatched details. Would that be those that added banks that don't like mismatch details rather than ebay being able to check it somehow

[degsey69]

It seems that you have made the wrong search as the majority decision is that it can be done in the UK and USA. I personally have a UK account with different account name to the actual bank account,

So both JamesNorth101 and I are saying you can do this and have years of experience with this. As advised do not do it with virtual banks like Monzo or Wise, your Nationwide should be OK. The only verification eBay MP will ask for is either log in access which you say can not be done and then they will do micro deposits to verify the account excepts money transfers.

[Hank]

Originally Posted by FlaccidSneke

I'm getting to the point where I'm going to have to start declaring this as an income & won't want it messing with my family members income declarations either under any investigations or proofing with bank statements etc.

My goal is to basically get those bank deposits coming into a bank under me to keep things legal,

When ebay start sending all sales figures to HMRC it will inevitable throw up cases, like yours, where the account holder is depositing the disbursements into someone elses bank account.

I do not know the answer but I'll almost guarantee if the account holder was , for example, claiming benefits they'd deem the income to be theirs and the fact it was going into someone elses account was an attempt to commit benefit fraud. You know how it works.

In your shoes I'd be taking some legal advice, I simply don't buy in to the argument that because you own the bank account that you own the seller account.

I'm taking it that it's not a business account. IMO that's the only way you could argue your proposal, a personal account denying buyers their statutory rights with no UTR attached is just that...the personal account of the seller, regardless of where they're disbursing the proceeds of their sales.

So what happens if your turnover trigger a mandatory conversion to a business? Who's UTR are you putting in?

Just my opinion of course...

[JamesNorth101]

Originally Posted by FlaccidSneke

Had a search and everyone on the ebay forums is saying they can't add banks with mismatched details. Would that be those that added banks that don't like mismatch details rather than ebay being able to check it somehow

They are saying that because eBay has told them that not because they have tried to add it

[FlaccidSneke]

It seems those forum posts were people attempting to set up the managed payments with completely different names at the first point of entering on eBay, so the system just throwing an error that they don't match from the form. Not eBay actually somehow verifying - I thought there was some sort of verification they could manage to do. That clears up that.. my previous account that was banned was pre-MP so I didn't know about this

As far as what you're saying Hank, that makes sense. I'm just trying to find the way now to do it fully legally now that the account is fully managed under me, without eBay linking who I am and banning me over again. I wonder how that HMRC change affects everyone here with accounts under names of people that don't exist or their family members like me. Even if they weren't on benefits I'd suppose it counts toward some self assessment they'd deem as undeclared earnings & would need to be taxed against their bracket anyway which would set off red flags. When it comes to that point what do we do? Wouldn't we end up having to give over our blacklisted identities ultimately?

[degsey69]

It also depends on what type of an account you have, if it’s a personal one and the sales are low HMRC will probably not be interested in you, obviously if your sales climb eBay will expect you to convert the account to a business one at a certain point when the accumulative amount is reached.
To make it fully legit you could open a LTD company with your relative and you as directors and convert the account to a business one. You can then deal with the tax liabilities from within the company.

[Hank]

I agree with degsey, if the turnover was reasonable you could consider the Limited Company route. But you need to understand that is a very formal way of managing the account and you need to be very disciplined with all the regulatory requirements.

You also need to summit a set of accounts Companies House, have an electronic payroll (the days of paying yourself a lump sum at the end of the year are effectively gone) and use them as the basis of your tax declaration to HMRC. Who's doing this? You or an accountant?

Like I said above, a valid option if you have a reasonable turnover and can justify the cost of an accountant to keep everything above board. What do I consider 'reasonable' to do it properly...50K minimum, any less and you may as well sign up for benefits.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by agent006140

These days,US banks would not accept any deposits payable to a third party and endorsed by the account holder if the account holder walks in and hand it over to the teller or drop the physical check in night deposit.
so why should they allow it when it is processed electronically?

electronic processing is quite a bit different than the physical process agent...

[prankin75]

James knows his stuff, he got me back after a ban.. follow his advice

Originally Posted by FlaccidSneke

Had a search and everyone on the ebay forums is saying they can't add banks with mismatched details. Would that be those that added banks that don't like mismatch details rather than ebay being able to check it somehow

[rsot]

Originally Posted by prankin75

James knows his stuff, he got me back after a ban.. follow his advice

nice to see the positive experience