Another ebay issue re selling and the ATO.

[090]

Seems the ATO wants my details as I have supposedly sold more than $20000 over a financial year. If you sell four decent bikes over a year period then look out. I started a second ebay name as I was worried about that, but it seems I am too late. Beware!

[LWC82PE]

Wow, ive never heard of this before. How does the ATO find out how much youve sold on ebay?

[Nathan S]

Interesting. I'm no tax expert (Turtle, are you there?), but it seems likely that if selling bikes is considered income by the ATO, then the cost of rebuilding them is a tax deduction.

I'm sure that this would work out well for us, not the ATO....

[2 shocks]

Turds, thats all I can say. I note that in last weeks news they are going to crack down on companies selling products on Ebay & making sure they are paying the right tax, there is no escape. Isnt there more important people to target than the Mr Nice Guy  

Good luck mate

Mrs Maico #54

[090]

   
   
Hello 090brad ([email protected]),

eBay has received a request from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for information relating to members of www.ebay.com.au who had sales greater than AU $20,000 in any given year during the period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2009.

Our records reflect that you had sales greater than AU $20,000 in at least one of these financial years. As a result, the ATO has requested the following information:

• Contact name and user ID
• Email Address and IP Address
• Company /Business Number and ABN
• Address
• Telephone numbers
• Date of Birth
• Registration Date
• Banking Account Details
• Monthly sales for the period 1 July 2007 – 30 June 2009

We can confirm that eBay has and will continue to work with the ATO to provide them with the information we are legally required to provide. Disclosure of this information is permitted in accordance with our Privacy Policy. eBay will be the ones to provide this information to the ATO.

[firko]

Wow, this could get very interesting. My accountant forecast this a year ago but I thought she was full of shit. There are ways of covering your trail but like Brad says, he was a bit late for this audit.
 Hang in there mate and keep us up to speed. I do a lot of eBay trade myself so I'm very interested to see where this is headed. Good luck Brad.

[TT]

I think Nathan's on the ball here.
I've always kept documentation on everything I've spent on my bikes and cars, but that's just cos I've got some obsessive-compulsive thing.... 
It seems that might be a good thing if Brad's experience is a trend.

btw Are you 100% sure that this is a genuine email??
"Hello" isn't a standard greeting from eBay. Just another thought before you hand over all your details.

Edit: upon reading again, it looks suspect. Why would they ask for your eBay user name?

And bank details?? I could be wrong, but be careful!

[VMX247]

   
   
Hello 090brad ([email protected]),

eBay has received a request from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) for information relating to members of www.ebay.com.au who had sales greater than AU $20,000 in any given year during the period 1 July 2007 to 30 June 2009.

Our records reflect that you had sales greater than AU $20,000 in at least one of these financial years. As a result, the ATO has requested the following information:

• Contact name and user ID
• Email Address and IP Address
• Company /Business Number and ABN
• Address
• Telephone numbers
• Date of Birth
• Registration Date
• Banking Account Details
• Monthly sales for the period 1 July 2007 – 30 June 2009

We can confirm that eBay has and will continue to work with the ATO to provide them with the information we are legally required to provide. Disclosure of this information is permitted in accordance with our Privacy Policy. eBay will be the ones to provide this information to the ATO.

be stuffed with that- I'm with TonyT I'd delete it and wait for the hard copy to come in the mail from ATO.
Too suss for us Steven and Alison WA

[GMC]

btw Are you 100% sure that this is a genuine email??

Yes, ask them for their Mothers maiden name and their first school name before you hand over any details.
I did recently when they wanted some details for something else, it stumped them when they had to prove who they were

[frostype400]

genuine ones should be green usually and they don't say hello and the say do not reply to this email when you register for ebay you need to use a landline so ebay knows that if the ATO wanted to ring you they can very suss.

[firko]

Brad, forward the email to [email protected] and they'll tell you if it's phishing or not. I hope it's a phony but I suspect it could well be real. My cousin told me a few minutes ago that she read in the paper that the ATO was going to crack down on eBay tax dodges. http://pages.ebay.com/education/spooftutorial/

[SAABCOMBI]

Give it time ATO they will want tax when your having a garage sale. I rang ebay, they are sending documentation to ATO, it wrong, bloody wrong, ebay told me to see your accountant. we all pay taxes every bloody week, so the rest of you money you have earnt is yours to freely do what you like with it.

[frostype400]

You pay tax on money you earn then spend it and you are hit up again for more.

[motomaniac]

a genuine Ebay message will show on your ebay page.Dont respond to any email about Ebay or Paypal without checking your Ebay or Paypal page first .If its not there its a hox .Get me all the time.
But actually some friends in the US have had to deal with this issue already so I guess in time it will be here as well.

[matcho mick]

ATO was sniffing around swapmeets a few years back,mainly the registered dealers i guess,be different making a living from selling on e bay to just normall culling of the collection??,