eBay Australia to Hand sales Data to Tax Man

If you’re in Australia, and have sold more then $20,000 AUD on eBay, then be prepared for a call from the tax man.

Australian Taxation Office have notified eBay that they intend to issue formal requests for information relating to sales by Australian eBay sellers. The data eBay will supply includes: Contact name; Address; Telephone number; Email and IP address; User ID; Date of birth; Date of registration on eBay; Monthly and annual sales volumes and value; Power seller status and eBay store status.

There will be no getting away from paying the correct tax in Australia so if you’re unsure if your affairs are in order then the best advice is to make sure they are before you get the call. eBay will hand the data over by the 1st of August.

It would be very interesting to see what would happen if the same occurred in the UK. Doubtless there are some smaller sellers who are unsure if they’re a business or a private individual, but would anyone selling more than £20,000 per year be in any doubt? eBay would probably already have insisted you register as a business seller, but that doesn’t ensure that you register with the tax man.

Ebay hikes seller fees for technology items

As of July 21st, eBay will change the final value fee for fixed price listings. This means selling technology items will become hugely more expensive if you want to offer the option to Buy It Now.

Instead of the current tiered system, all Buy It Now listings will change to a final value fee of 10 per cent. This has already caused outrage among eBay sellers, many of whom are threatening to quit the site and use rivals, such as the FOLK trading section on www.hotukdeals.com.

The price rises mean that selling a TV - or other technology item - for £300 will result in a final value fee of £30. The current fee is just £8.17. The final value fee is capped at £40, but this is of little consolation, since it's only a small proportion of sales that exceed £400.

The email sent to eBay users claimed that the change to the 10 per cent flat rate was to "make it simpler and easier for you to calculate up-front the fees you'll pay. As before, you won't pay any final value fee if your items don't sell. The new calculations only apply to items listed or scheduled to start on or after the 21 July 2011."

We think that sellers will see straight through this and realise that eBay simply wants to increase its cut, and we're sure users would far rather be in the dark about exactly how much they'll pay in fees than pay a 10 per cent flat rate and end up far worse off.

Our advice is that if you have valuable items to sell, make sure the listing starts before 21st July.

A Quagmire of FEES - Ebay and Paypal will Tag Team you!

I will go through an example of the fees charged for the sale of one item on ebay through paypal.

I list an item for .99c (.20c)

I add two images (25c fee for second image)

I upgrade to a gallery listing (50c)

After the 7 days (more fees to make it decide when the auction finishes)

So i sold my item for $27.66 and ebay takes there cut out at $2.19

The buyer paid through paypal (lucky me... now i get to give ebay another 3% out of my already plundered final ebay price).. - 77c

In the best interests of myself and the buyer i decided to only charge $2 to get more bidders and keep the cost down. Of course the item supposedly never made it to its final destination... so despite me stating clearly in the auction terms and conditions that i would send standard post "at buyers risk" or they could upgrade to registered.. Paypal just took the money out of my account including postage etc.

So in one transaction im Down:

the original item - $26.01 + ebay fees $3.04 + paypal .77c = - $29.82

Assuming the buyer was honest and did receive the total % of fees for this trade would be:

$3.81 in fees vs $26.01 final value = 11.8% (this may be acceptable depending on how happy you are with the final bidding price).

Now that is a top quality way of losing money in a very slow timely manner. I can only really by sure that both eBay and PayPal stand to gain regardless of which way the transaction goes.

Moral of the story... always send registered (even if it makes the auction final price ridiculously high). Don't list low price auctions as registered post will be more than the final price and the fees will make you a financial loser.

How to lose heaps of money selling on ebay... thats how it works!

WARNING: Before listing on ebay, and if you are trying to make money then you must take into account the various fees and laws these two entites make you adhere to when you list on the online auction site: ebay.

In order to sell and recieve $10 through paypal you would need:

1. Pay a listing fee (depending on your item), more money for a reserve as they try to get you to list at .99c so that the item will sell and ebay will further profit through sucess fees and paypal fees.

2. Success fees - when/if your item sells ebay takes another greedy % (percentage) of the total amount of the winning bid

3. Paypal fee - Ebay purposely has a payment monopoly so they are in full control of all sales made through this channel. Once ebay has fleeced you for the above fees, paypal gauges any remaining funds/credit you may have made.

4. Lost/Missing items... if for ANY reason the item never makes it to there final desitination the seller is 100% accountable.. dont worry you dont have a say.. paypal will just draw the funds from your nominated account that you have attached to paypal. (very convenient).

Obviously the buyer could claim they never receved and like so many sellers LOSE all the above fees, lose you sold product, and then paypal takes the TOTAL including postage costs from your bank account OR paypal balance.

If you do not supply a tracking number then you straight out have no say.. if you can prove you shipped via EXPENSIVE tracking method then the despute may result in you not losing but bacially you still lose and just get whatever insurance policy was on the shipping from your end.

So assumming you have listed your item well including great images, good description, paid extra for more images, a gallery or feature,

In my next post i will examine how much over the final sale price youd need to make to actually break even in a sale showing all ebays costs as per sighted on there own sight.