Another ebay issue re selling and the ATO.

[Nathan S]

eBay will be the ones to provide this information to the ATO.

This kinda rules it out as a phishing exercise - unless its a sophisticated one that will try to reel you in later.

On face value, the email is a courtesy, nothing more or less. It also makes sense that the ATO wants stuff like IP address, because that makes multiple accounts harder to hide. I'll bet that if you lived with someone else who was selling lots of similar items on Epay, that you'd both get a 'please explain' from the ATO.

Like it or not, income is income and its all taxable. There's obviously enough people making decent money on Epay for the ATO to pay attention to it. The flip side is, as I said earlier, that I reckon it will also make the costs incurred in earning that income deductable, and most of us will come out in front.

[LWC82PE]

Tony T is on the ball!. I get fake Paypal and ebay emails all the time, but theres usually one thing that makes them easy to spot. I Guess if you dont sell much at all on ebay you will be right if it is true. Any email asking for you IP addess is pretty dodgy to me. If it was that important/serious i reckon ebay would phone you.

[paul]

there was a artical in the melbourne ,herald sun news paper that ebay accounts  was a target for the ato this year

[paul]

http://search.news.com.au/search?us=ndmheraldsun&as=HWT&q=ebay+ato

[All Things 414]

It's been on the news.....

[TT]

I could well still be wrong, but I'm not convinced. 
I know it's a minor thing, but nearly every scam email I get starts with 'Hello' or 'Greetings'.
I've looked back and every one of my eBay email start with 'Hi' then my first name or user name only. Never my user name and email address.
You can right-click and take a look at the properties of the email which should give you some clue as to whether this is genuine or not.
Or hover your mouse over any links on the page and see if they are correct as well.
Apologies if I'm putting you off course.
Better safe than sorry, though.

[vmx42]

Brad if you are truly concerned about it, then contact the ATO and ask them.

They are just trying to catch out businesses who are avoiding tax via their eBay transactions. As an individual you don't have to worry about GST on your eBay transactions. I am not aware that they have changed the rules and inserted a $ limit on transactions, but again the ATO will answer your questions.

Find out the facts, and then share them with the rest of the forum.
VMX42

[Turtle.Inc]

Unless you get an official letter in writing from the ATO addressed to you or your authorised representative, forget about it and do not in any circumstances respond.

You have to make the decision if you are carrying on a business or soley carrying on a hobby, one question asked is will you carry on the enterprise for a view to profit

Not likely

It should be noted that a whole new ball game is opened up under the capital gains tax regime

[TonyB]

How the f&#k can the ruptured arseholes claim tax on dollars which have been spent after you already paid tax. Surely this is friggin unlawful? If it is the case then I am sure many invoices can be raised for the cost to get those bikes ready for sale and then the f*&^ers might have to pay you tax, wouldnt that piss them off...

[shorelinemc]

i do a bit on ebay yes it dosnt take much to put you over 20000.00.i got one of these letters a couple of yrs ago i just ignored it.nothing happened.but here is an interesting one for you.in qld any way sell any vehicle/2nd hand parts for profit and you need a dealers lic.a friend of mine just got done cost him 6000.00,plus court costs plus the cost of a very exspensive lawyer,could have been upto 150000.00.office of fair trading is currently going thru the auctions for all buyer details so if you do a bit of buying and selling be aware

[Stan S]

Some years ago I had been selling old earth moving equipment for a mate on ebay when I received a message from ebay through their message system telling me that the ATO were investigating any member who exceeds $50,000 sales in a year. They advised me that I was getting close to this figure and to be aware of a possible contact from the ATO if I continued that year. I stopped at about $46,000 and haven't heard anything from them. This was about 6 or 7 years ago.

Stan.

[bigk]

I got one too, my response goes something like this: Well ATO man, I'm 48 years old and been collecting bikes since I was 15, now due to the ever increasing cost of living, I'm forced to sell some of my collection to help keep you and some of the other wolves away from the door, so F&*K off!
K

[SAABCOMBI]

I am stopping too. l also have been selling friends and family bikes, so that is added to my list.

[motomaniac]

I got one too, my response goes something like this: Well ATO man, I'm 48 years old and been collecting bikes since I was 15, now due to the ever increasing cost of living, I'm forced to sell some of my collection to help keep you and some of the other wolves away from the door, so F&*K off!
K

Thats it K , same here.

[firko]

Did you send the email to [email protected] Brad? It's imperative you work out whether the email is phishing before you go any further. Like most, I think it's right but you never know. I've got two separate eBay accounts, one for selling stuff separate to my VMX hobby, the other one using my Firko nom de plume that I buy with and for selling bike and car stuff. I wonder if the ATO bases their 20k limit on the one account or the sum of all accounts?