HMRC letter - options?

[durden666]

just got this letter from HMRC -

I'm assuming my best bet is to call them and say i just sold a bunch of personal items before at a loss when clearing or moving house and make some waffle story up?

and its better than ignoring it?

Started on ebay maybe 7/8 years ago and first few accounts where on all my legit details

Probably did 10/20/30k in sales - honestly cant even remember.

Those accounts got banned quickly, since then the last 5/6 years I have just been on fully stealth accounts. Only bank account on the eBay was my personal ones. So mismatched name obviously. Most of the banks where online banks like wise - stuff that doesnt show on credit report.

However multiple times i did have high st bank attached to the ebay - ebay was always full stealth so mismatched name for the bank.

Past year or so I have not been selling as have moved onto other things - the few accounts i have left are full stealth - inc NI and ID.

anyone been in this predicament ? what did you do?




since image not loading, here is the letter:

Dear Sir or Madam
You may owe tax on income from online marketplace sales
We're writing to you because you've made sales through an online marketplace. You may have to pay Income Tax on these sales.
We receive information about online marketplace sales, and compare it with what people have told us about their income. We want to give you the chance to bring your tax affairs up to date
What you need to do
1 Please check if you need to disclose any income you've made from online marketplaces. For help with this, go to GOV.UK and search 'check if you need to tell HMRC about your income from online platforms'.
2 If you do, please use our Digital Disclosure Service (DDS) to tell us. Go to GOV.UK and search 'tell HMRC about underpaid tax from previous years', then follow the instructions. You need to do this by 27 June 2026.
3 You'll then have 90 days to:
-
disclose any income you haven't told us about or correct previous amounts.
pay anything you owe.
We'll treat any disclosure you make as 'prompted'. This may affect the penalty you'll have to pay.
If you don't need to use the Digital Disclosure Service
Please tell us if you have a valid reason for not using the DDS. For example:
⚫ you've never been an online marketplace seller
⚫ you have no profit to pay tax on, as your expenses are more than your income
⚫ you only recently started making profits, and you'll include them on your next tax return you already include the income on your tax return.
You can either call us on 0300 123 0998, or email us at
cso.onshoredisclosures@hmrc.gov.uk
If you don't respond
If we later find you haven't declared the right amount of income or paid the right amount of tax, you may have to pay a higher penalty or face criminal investigation.
If you have an agent acting for you, you may want to show them this letter.
If you need to contact us, we may ask you for our reference number. Please have this ready.
Join the millions of taxpayers already using their Personal Tax Account to access a range of services. It takes just a few minutes to get started, go to www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account Or you can use the HMRC app.
To find out about the service and standard of behaviour you can expect from us, go to GOV.UK and search 'HMRC Charter'.

[durden666]

[murdered_by_ebay]

how much turnover did you make on how many accounts?

[durden666]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

how much turnover did you make on how many accounts?

easily done 100 - 200k or so - honestly not sure

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by durden666

easily done 100 - 200k or so - honestly not sure

within which period? only on ebay? which tax years does the letter state?

[durden666]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

within which period? only on ebay? which tax years does the letter state?

all the text that is on the letter is above in my post... its extremely vague
it does not state any tax years at all. Nothing unusual in my gov.uk tax account either.

It feels like a generic fishing expedition letter that I got?
potentially because i did have a ebay in my name 5+ years ago, i may have done 20/30k on it in one tax year before mc011.

all my following ebays were stealth, and only the linked bank accounts where in my name. But still had stealth name on ebay so it was mismatched. I dont think they can see this?


I probably did 200k + turnover in 5 years or so. Maybe more. And this is all from like 20+accounts. Some got banned after 3k. Some got banned after 20k. All stealth though.

[murdered_by_ebay]

I would ignore the letter , if you do not owe VAT you are likely not worth the effort , especially on these amounts. could be a letter sent to everyone whose sales look commercial and who does not file tax returns

[james_112233]

How long have you been submitting a self assessment ?

If only in recent years and not when you started 5+ years ago it may be regarding that income when your real details were attached to eBay.

Start declaring now because with Ai and everything else it's not worth the headache. The golden days are over.

[Nimble]

Worth slowing down on this before you decide anything, because the "ignore it / make up a story" framing is the riskiest read of the situation.

A couple of things that matter factually. These marketplace letters from 2024 onward aren't really blind fishing — they're driven by data the platforms now report directly to HMRC under the digital reporting rules. The "we receive information about online marketplace sales and compare it" line in your letter is them telling you they already hold data on the seller side. So the premise that it's generic and they've got nothing is shakier than it feels.

The bigger issue is the volume. At 200k+ turnover, "I was clearing out personal items at a loss" isn't a story that survives contact — that level of sales is unambiguously trading, and HMRC sees that pattern constantly. Putting a fabricated explanation into a prompted disclosure is the thing that can turn a tax problem into a fraud problem, which is a completely different and much worse category of outcome.

On ignoring it: the letter itself spells out that non-response leads to higher penalties or criminal investigation if they later find undeclared income. Ignoring also removes the one mitigation you currently have — the disclosure window is what keeps the penalties civil and lower. Once that's gone, you're in discovery-assessment territory with worse terms.

Honestly this is past the point where forum advice is the right tool. A disclosure of this size and complexity — multiple years, multiple accounts, mismatched details — is exactly what a tax adviser or accountant who handles voluntary disclosures deals with routinely. Worth speaking to one before the 17 June date on the letter, because that deadline is what preserves your options. Costs a fee, but it's a rounding error against the difference between a managed civil disclosure and a fraud investigation.

Not telling you what to do — your call entirely — but make it an informed one rather than off a forum "just ignore it."

Please keep us updated on what decision you make and how it goes.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by Nimble

Worth slowing down on this before you decide anything, because the "ignore it / make up a story" framing is the riskiest read of the situation.

A couple of things that matter factually. These marketplace letters from 2024 onward aren't really blind fishing — they're driven by data the platforms now report directly to HMRC under the digital reporting rules. The "we receive information about online marketplace sales and compare it" line in your letter is them telling you they already hold data on the seller side. So the premise that it's generic and they've got nothing is shakier than it feels.

The bigger issue is the volume. At 200k+ turnover, "I was clearing out personal items at a loss" isn't a story that survives contact — that level of sales is unambiguously trading, and HMRC sees that pattern constantly. Putting a fabricated explanation into a prompted disclosure is the thing that can turn a tax problem into a fraud problem, which is a completely different and much worse category of outcome.

On ignoring it: the letter itself spells out that non-response leads to higher penalties or criminal investigation if they later find undeclared income. Ignoring also removes the one mitigation you currently have — the disclosure window is what keeps the penalties civil and lower. Once that's gone, you're in discovery-assessment territory with worse terms.

Honestly this is past the point where forum advice is the right tool. A disclosure of this size and complexity — multiple years, multiple accounts, mismatched details — is exactly what a tax adviser or accountant who handles voluntary disclosures deals with routinely. Worth speaking to one before the 17 June date on the letter, because that deadline is what preserves your options. Costs a fee, but it's a rounding error against the difference between a managed civil disclosure and a fraud investigation.

Not telling you what to do — your call entirely — but make it an informed one rather than off a forum "just ignore it."

Please keep us updated on what decision you make and how it goes.

assuming he is telling the whole truth , the letter says zero about tax year and any details on what the problem is. he would not know what to disclose. in such a situation the best course of action would be to wait for any more details if they ever get back at all. if he starts moving now disclosing what may not be required it is going to become very expensive and once the process starts he won't be able to get off the hook anymore. it is always the same game , those that cooperate are the easiest targets

it is a much more promising solution to let them start an enquiry , this way he will see if they start anything at all and ever get back and if they do he will have exact information on hand. for example such an enquiry would likely cover a specific period of time so that anything else would not need to be dealt with at all. jumping the gun now would certainly lead to very high expenses , potentially tens of thousands of pounds plus legal fees because a voluntary disclosure can not be taken back , there will be no way to fix anything after that. just like a confession at police , it is often the case that people that confess get convicted regardless of whether they are even guilty while those that block off just go free

there is a golden rule , never confess anything before getting access to evidence against you. it does not matter who tells you how guilty you are , there is often zero evidence so that a confession itself becomes evidence. there is a reason why authorities give so much attention to interviews aka interrogations as they often don't have a case and/or don't have resources to investigate. once confession has been made it is game over , nothing else needed

[durden666]

Originally Posted by james_112233

How long have you been submitting a self assessment ?

If only in recent years and not when you started 5+ years ago it may be regarding that income when your real details were attached to eBay.

Start declaring now because with Ai and everything else it's not worth the headache. The golden days are over.

I never have, I have been on PAYE my whole life

I get what you guys are saying RE it not being a "fishing" letter, and yes obviously they got my name and address from somewhere, obviously some eBay database - but given that there is zero info on the letter whatsoever - it feels like my name was in the "someone who has used eBay before" pile as opposed to "someone who made a lot of money off eBay and didn't pay any tax" pile

Otherwise it would probably have dates and numbers at a minimum?

Also, guaranteed there are lots of people out there that used ebay and sold personal belongings not for profit etc.


To be completely transparent, everything I sold came off "the back of a truck". I have absolutely zero way to prove where everything I sold came from, never mind even having receipts. So its a can of worms I don't particularly want to open unless i absolutely have to.

I think my best bet currently is to ignore it until the 27th June date, and see what happens after. As I actually have been registered at a completely different property on all my banks /council tax /bills, anything on a credit report, but still living at the one the letter arrived to. Obviously a bit risky but could always claim i never got the letter and see what happens after.

if they do send me letters with figures and dates then I will take it on a case by case basis.

But then I have the issue of, I'm permanently leaving the UK by the end of the year MAX, So I don't want to leave, and have letters be sent, which I don't receive at all, and end up with a backlog of bull****. Primarily as I own a property here, and I'm assuming they will have powers to **** with said property if they are unhappy.

[durden666]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

there is a golden rule , never confess anything before getting access to evidence against you. it does not matter who tells you how guilty you are , there is often zero evidence so that a confession itself becomes evidence. there is a reason why authorities give so much attention to interviews aka interrogations as they often don't have a case and/or don't have resources to investigate. once confession has been made it is game over , nothing else needed

completely agree and think this is my best way forward. Basically a No comment situation.

If I ring them and start saying "I only sold at a loss, it was personal items, etc etc" I'm already lying and that already in itself can probably count as a charge of "conspiracy"

Another persppective I have is; what would a normal person do that sold his unwanted 3k camera he owned from new, and sold it on ebay for 2k, passing the 1700£ threshold?

its clearly at a loss. This could realistically prompt a HMRC letter to arrive at his residency.

Would he start panicking and ringing up HMRC when he knows he has lost £1000 on this camera just because he owned it for a year? Highly unlikely.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by durden666

completely agree and think this is my best way forward. Basically a No comment situation.

If I ring them and start saying "I only sold at a loss, it was personal items, etc etc" I'm already lying and that already in itself can probably count as a charge of "conspiracy"

Another persppective I have is; what would a normal person do that sold his unwanted 3k camera he owned from new, and sold it on ebay for 2k, passing the 1700£ threshold?

its clearly at a loss. This could realistically prompt a HMRC letter to arrive at his residency.

Would he start panicking and ringing up HMRC when he knows he has lost £1000 on this camera just because he owned it for a year? Highly unlikely.

a ring would not matter here , they want a written confession from you where you deliver the numbers yourself without even knowing what exactly is going on. I could not even advice you to hire a lawyer because a lawyer would most certainly try to scare you into a disclosure as there is a conflict of interest here , they are interested in getting a case as complicated and expensive as possible. if you tell them you want to wait until they come after you they will be telling you that it is better to make contact now and negotiate a settlement causing more and more expenses

if you remain silent you have nothing to lose. it is actually a solid advice often provided by criminal defense lawyers - you can always confess later upon getting access to evidence and will lose nothing while confessing too early you may lose everything

[durden666]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

a ring would not matter here , they want a written confession from you where you deliver the numbers yourself without even knowing what exactly is going on. I could not even advice you to hire a lawyer because a lawyer would most certainly try to scare you into a disclosure as there is a conflict of interest here , they are interested in getting a case as complicated and expensive as possible. if you tell them you want to wait until they come after you they will be telling you that it is better to make contact now and negotiate a settlement causing more and more expenses

if you remain silent you have nothing to lose. it is actually a solid advice often provided by criminal defense lawyers - you can always confess later upon getting access to evidence and will lose nothing while confessing too early you may lose everything

Thanks,

I know you said the numbers are nowhere near big enough for them to actually bother.

have you heard of or seen any similar stories as i would be curious to see the outcomes other people had from not replying

I also don't think I am anywhere near big enough for them to actually bother with. That's probably the reason for these kinds of letters, scare people into making an easy case for HMRC.

Also the 200k was spread over easily 20+ ebays, all on totally different stealth IDs, and most linked to online bank in my name. A few high st banks. That seems like an unreasonable amount of effort to go through to trace all the money, for not much return. Realistically they will expect how much of that 200k to be "profitable" and "taxable"? maybe 40k max? which is even less in tax money they would be looking to claw back.

[james_112233]

You own a property in the UK and you dont submit self assessment that's why they've sent the letter. Some ones grassed you up. Might even be the banks.

[durden666]

Originally Posted by james_112233

You own a property in the UK and you dont submit self assessment that's why they've sent the letter. Some ones grassed you up. Might even be the banks.

Highly doubt it - and its never been rented out, officially im living there.

still staying elsewhere because of renovation works in it since I purchased

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by durden666

Thanks,

I know you said the numbers are nowhere near big enough for them to actually bother.

have you heard of or seen any similar stories as i would be curious to see the outcomes other people had from not replying

I also don't think I am anywhere near big enough for them to actually bother with. That's probably the reason for these kinds of letters, scare people into making an easy case for HMRC.

Also the 200k was spread over easily 20+ ebays, all on totally different stealth IDs, and most linked to online bank in my name. A few high st banks. That seems like an unreasonable amount of effort to go through to trace all the money, for not much return. Realistically they will expect how much of that 200k to be "profitable" and "taxable"? maybe 40k max? which is even less in tax money they would be looking to claw back.

if someone had gone through the effort of investigating 20 ebays spread over time , all your bank accounts , linking everything to you they would not be sending a generic nudge letter but you would have gotten a tax enquiry

[Nimble]

I get the appeal of the “never confess without seeing the evidence” approach — murdered_by_ebay is spot on that it’s normally the smart play in a proper investigation. But these marketplace nudge letters are a bit different now because of how HMRC’s Connect system actually works.

Since the digital platform reporting rules started in 2024, eBay is legally required to send HMRC your sales data plus the bank account details linked to the account (whenever you hit 30 sales or roughly £1,700+ in a year). Connect doesn’t rely on the eBay username matching your real name. It matches on the bank account as the main anchor — then cross-checks with your NI number, address history, and payment flows.

Even with fully stealth IDs and mismatched names on eBay, your real personal banks (Wise, high-street, whatever) create a very straightforward link across all those 20+ accounts.

That’s why the letter isn’t pure random fishing for higher-volume sellers. They already hold the data.

Fair play for laying it all out — especially the “back of a truck” bit, this makes it a lot trickier to get meaningful numbers, and like you said a can of worms best kept closed.

Also, although a government collection authority, HMRC do have a budget they need to stick to when allocating resources, so they might not see you as big enough fish to start an investigation.

Please keep us posted on how it goes as I think you are the first member to receive such a communication.

[durden666]

Originally Posted by Nimble

I get the appeal of the “never confess without seeing the evidence” approach — murdered_by_ebay is spot on that it’s normally the smart play in a proper investigation. But these marketplace nudge letters are a bit different now because of how HMRC’s Connect system actually works.

Since the digital platform reporting rules started in 2024, eBay is legally required to send HMRC your sales data plus the bank account details linked to the account (whenever you hit 30 sales or roughly £1,700+ in a year). Connect doesn’t rely on the eBay username matching your real name. It matches on the bank account as the main anchor — then cross-checks with your NI number, address history, and payment flows.

Even with fully stealth IDs and mismatched names on eBay, your real personal banks (Wise, high-street, whatever) create a very straightforward link across all those 20+ accounts.

That’s why the letter isn’t pure random fishing for higher-volume sellers. They already hold the data.

Fair play for laying it all out — especially the “back of a truck” bit, this makes it a lot trickier to get meaningful numbers, and like you said a can of worms best kept closed.

Also, although a government collection authority, HMRC do have a budget they need to stick to when allocating resources, so they might not see you as big enough fish to start an investigation.

Please keep us posted on how it goes as I think you are the first member to receive such a communication.

Will do.

You think they can even see accounts with virtual banks like Wise etc?

Think my last payouts from most of 2024 and 2025 where into santander and starling which do show on credit file, but dont think it was that substantial of figures anyway.


Anyway I have stealth banks now so lol

[murdered_by_ebay]

on such letters I am sure they will be dealing with people who reply and the rest will be let off the hook unless they had very significant sales , especially VAT requiring sales

VAT is the sugar baby of the state , people liable for this are certainly the main target

[Automasters]

Good to know us sellers in the USA aren't the only ones f'd over by the IRS...

[durden666]

Originally Posted by murdered_by_ebay

on such letters I am sure they will be dealing with people who reply and the rest will be let off the hook unless they had very significant sales , especially VAT requiring sales

VAT is the sugar baby of the state , people liable for this are certainly the main target

This vat nonsense is hilarious

I had a stealth personal bank and a ltd in the same details - never even even managed to get a business bank opened for the ltd, but signed up for vat, never made a single transaction. Didnt file the vat returns or whatever they are called, and the stealth details now has debt collectors going after them for 2k lmao.

Back to my hmrc letter, i think i know what has happened.

A few weeks ago i listed a vehicle i had for sale on copart. I had to put my legit ID, name, address and NI number there.

And they have this on their website
https://www.copart.co.uk/content/uk/...gislation-2025

Im now 99% sure this is why i got the letter. As officially im registered living elsewhere, so any letters should have went there. Not the address supplied to copart. Also a few “colleagues” also have stealth ebays with mismatched banks and never had this. Fingers crossed this is the case.

Vehicle didnt even sell in the end, so i guess they just send out the letters anyway.