eBay is forcing me to upgrade to a Business Account

[dyfz16]

The email I received form eBay is below, and now my account which has over 1000 feedbacks and 100% rating with good selling history in many categories is unusable, I have few other accounts which are nowhere near as good and now I am wondering what to do.

I do not want to attract attention to myself and register as a business, so my question is:

Does registering as a Business account arract unnecessary attention from Taxman or other goverment official companies?

I only sell used items and do not particularly want to officially open a company and register as a business to start paying income tax.

Or does registering as a business only lifts some selling quantity restrictions and just gives you a business status.

Or would it be better just to use other smaller feedback accounts and just build them up and keep all the accounts private.

As part of an ongoing review of the eBay trading activities of our top sellers, we are requesting that you upgrade your account from a private account to a business account. There is no charge for this upgrade, and it will only take a few minutes of your time.

Please follow the steps below to upgrade your account to a business account by 25 June 2011.

If you do not upgrade your account by 08 June 2011, please note that you will be unable to list items on eBay until you complete the upgrade.

Why are we asking you to upgrade your account?

Ecommerce is governed by laws which lay down the obligations of sellers and rights of buyers. These laws apply to all internet trading including activity on eBay, but the details vary depending on whether the seller is operating as an individual or as a business.

Legally, you are considered to be operating as a business if you do any of the following:
-sell items that you have bought to resell
-make items yourself and sell them, intending to make a profit
-are a trading assistant
-buy items for your business

eBay offers two different kinds of user accounts: private and business. Both are free to open, but business accounts offer tailored site functionality specifically designed to help you meet your legal obligations as a business seller.

[smellybelly]

have you spoken to them on live chat?

[Imakemoney]

Your clearly operating as a business therefore ebay has to do this.

If your operating as one also you shouldnt be looking to avoid taxes.

However if this is your goal spreading sales over multiple accounts is key.

[dyfz16]

I have spoken to them on eBay Live Chat and wrote multiple emails to customer support

basically the bottom line is that they are not concerned with the fact that I had small sale volumes all year around and then in spring I listed over 60 items in a month.

This 60 items in 1 month in same category clearly raises some sort of automated alarm and flags up ones account like it did to mine, then it is locked from selling unless upgraded to business.

I would upgrade to business account but do not want to raise any suspicion from the tax grabbing man so I need to know if upgrading to a business account increases the risk of being caught.

[Stigger]

Just open another stealth account = Spead sales.

[NotAHappyBunny]

i think some things pp and eb are doing are relatively new, so time will tell us how much info they share with the gov. However, there are gov workers who scour eb looking for sellers who trade over a certain amount - the trigger figure is unknown (and probably changes).

[KingRay]

You ARE a business so the only good advise is to pay your taxes and get legit.

You can spread the sales but you still sold the stuff and made a profit. why are you guys always trying to avoid taxes?

Not sure about the UK but the US gov knows that people do this and I can almost assure you that they will figure out a way to get you on this. it may take some time but there are billions of dollars involved and this will be taken care of.

This forum is so full of people wanting to avoid taxes and no one wants to say it. Just pay up. If you knew of the benefits of different deductions you would be surprised at how low you could make your tax liability.

I dont feel sorry for any of you that avoid this. Good luck when they audit you and have to go back so many years. stealth accounts dont protect you from your tax liability in any way, just from paypal.

[smellybelly]

just make it a business account then, theres no big deal

ive had many a business accounts... have never received no letters from official bodies

(apart from fees when accounts get suspended -_-)

[GrannyT]

Originally Posted by smellybelly

just make it a business account then, theres no big deal

ive had many a business accounts... have never received no letters from official bodies

(apart from fees when accounts get suspended -_-)

I concur with that - business account is no problem apart from your contact details being on the listing