Ebay is going to give HMRC business sellers names and addresses!

[ukebayer]

Hi all

This is a little complicated so bear with me!

I was suspended from ebay a while back and a friend said i could use their acc because they didnt use it, which is what i have been doing with no problems as yet!

Now my friend has actually moved in with me but still has their old address set up on the ebay and paypal account i use to sell on. Fortunately, we know the people who have moved into the address that is registered on ebay and they dont use ebay at all so are happy enough for us to have the account registered there.

Now with all the tightening up on ebay i have had to register as a business seller and i think i should register asap with HMRC. I think this because of the changes they have made to ebay in France where they are checking that business sellers on their site are registered as official business sellers with the state (read it on tamebay) Basically I think very soon ebay are going to give HMRC the names and addresses of all ebay business sellers.

And here is where the problem lies! HMRC already know that my friend lives with me now (child tax credit) so i cant register the business at the address thats on the ebay account! But if i dont register that address then when the names of business sellers are given to HMRC it will show me as not registered with them! And im pretty sure with all the distance selling regulations etc that i am breaking an awful lot of rules by misrepresenting my address!!! Not to mention the differences in addresses will probably get my friends account suspended too!

Oh the tangled web of lies!!!

Not sure what to do! I have no problem registering as i dont make enough to have to pay very much tax anyway but dont know what to do about the address differences.

Any advice would be welcomed.

[digitaliz]

If ebay ever did start giving out sellers personal details to HMRC, then getting suspended from ebay would be the least of your problems, as you probably already know, tax evasion could get you into hot water, so if you are doing serious business on ebay, then registering with HMRC and declaring your income would be the smart thing to do.