eBay

[dave_c]

How many people in the UK make a living solely by selling items on eBay? Is it quite common?

[Oneeyedvic]

actually, it has now increased to 53 ( the aforementioned 47 are July figures).

[Doggri]

The police are clamping down on it because it's illegal.  I heard that one guy had made about $250 million just by buying and selling on eBay...quite a sad life if you ask me!

[Oneeyedvic]

Illegal? of course its not. How can it be illegal to sell something - or are the police going to arrest all the shopkeepers / mailorder companies as well.

 

Customs & Excise will probably have something to say as (a) they may be losing money in VAT - if someone has a turnover of more than (around) �60,000 a year, they should be VAT registered.

Threre is also the issue of paying tax on any income that you earn. Self employed people (or even employed if they are earning a supplementary income) should be filling out a self assessment form.

Unfortunately, it is the equivalent of a car boot sale - very difficult to monitor.

 

AS to how many people are living solely of ebay - I would guess at not very many. Certainly there are a lot of traders on tehre, but most seem to have a unit which is open to the public and / or mail order business.

 

Personally, I go to car boots and buy things that I can think will sell on ebay - proabbly make around �100 a month on it (and yes I do fill in a self assessment)