Senin, 14 Mei 2012

Ebay and Amazon ordered to hand over names of biggest traders in HMRC tax crackdown

Ebay and Amazon ordered to hand over names of biggest traders in HMRC tax crackdown

By Colin Fernandez

PUBLISHED: 01:57 EST, 14 May 2012 | UPDATED: 01:58 EST, 14 May 2012

Ebay and Amazon have been ordered to surrender tens of thousands of members’ details to the taxman as part of a crackdown on online trading.

HM Revenue and Customs has issued legal notices asking for the data, including names and email addresses.

Companies that do not comply promptly could be fined £300, with an additional £60 per day if they fail to respond by the end of the month.

Nowhere to hide: HMRC has issued legal notices asking for the details of thousands of Amazon and Ebay sellers (posed by model)

Nowhere to hide: HMRC has issued legal notices asking for the details of thousands of Amazon and Ebay sellers (posed by model)

HMRC has already written to thousands of people who may not have declared all the tax they owe relating to internet sales. It hopes to raise millions of pounds by targeting online traders, who have until June 14 to come forward and benefit from a reduced penalty of 20 per cent of the tax owed. The penalty will then rise to 100 per cent, but in the worst cases traders could face prosecution.

Last year Greg Allnutt, 40, an eBay user from Croydon, was jailed for 20 months for evading £430,000 of tax while selling electrical goods on eBay between 2007 and 2010.

Guy Smith of accountants Abbey Tax said HMRC’s campaign would be ‘a hammer blow to those who have traded without detection so far’. Previous targets of HMRC crackdowns include Avon ladies, Ann Summers party hosts, doctors, dentists, plumbers and those with off-shore bank accounts.

The initiatives are said to have helped the taxman claw back £500million so far.

Ebay


A spokesman for HMRC said: ‘If you are an online seller with undeclared income, you should come forward and put your tax affairs in order before HMRC catches up with you.’

They stressed that the focus would be the sites’ 32,500 biggest traders.

Ebay said it works ‘hard to ensure that businesses that trade on the platform are aware of their tax obligations’.

It added: ‘We do not hesitate to share information with government agencies should there be evidence of wrongdoing. We require all sellers trading as a business on eBay to register for a business account.’

Launched in the UK in October 1999, eBay is the country’s largest online marketplace, with more than 14million active users â€" although only around 178,000 of these run a business or use eBay as their primary or secondary source of income.

Its rival Amazon Marketplace was launched in 2000, and allows individuals and other businesses to sell items through the main Amazon website. Amazon did not respond for comment.

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