Accountants for eBay sellers

Your Unique Taxpayer Reference — the 10-digit number HMRC issues when you register for Self Assessment. Lifelong, and needed for every return.

Advance payments toward next year's tax, due 31 January and 31 July, triggered once your bill passes £1,000. The first year they apply effectively bills 150% at once.

The main Self Assessment return form. Supplementary pages bolt on for employment, self-employment, property, capital gains and foreign income.

The difference between what your payments on account covered and what the year's tax actually was — settled each 31 January.

HMRC's regime requiring digital records and software-filed returns — long mandatory for VAT, arriving for Income Tax from April 2026.

Pay HMRC a fixed percentage of turnover instead of tracking every input. Simpler, but the 16.5% limited-cost-trader rate killed the old easy win for many.

Output VAT is what you charge customers; input VAT is what you pay suppliers. You hand HMRC the difference — which is why missed input claims are pure loss.

Each late VAT return earns a point; at your threshold (4 for quarterly filers) every late return costs £200. Points expire after sustained good behaviour.

Genuinely personal possessions: no, with rare exceptions for single items over £6,000. Buying things to resell: yes, that's trading, and past £1,000 gross a year you must register and file. The intent test is honest but evidenced — sourcing patterns, volumes, listings style. We'll give you a straight answer on your facts.

Platform reporting rules mean HMRC sees your sales volumes annually. If you're filing correctly, nothing changes. If you've been trading unreported, expect the nudge letter eventually — and know that a voluntary disclosure before it arrives is materially cheaper in penalties than a response after. We handle both, without judgement.

A simple purchases log — date, item, cost, source — plus photos of receipts where they exist. Cash sourcing without records is the classic reseller weakness; HMRC doesn't disallow cash purchases, it disallows unevidenced ones. A phone-based habit we'll set up makes the difference at year end.

Marketplaces collect VAT in specific cases (like overseas sellers' UK sales), but UK-established sellers still account for VAT on most sales, reclaim input VAT, and must report everything correctly. Mixing up 'marketplace-collected' and 'seller-collected' revenue is the most common e-commerce VAT error we fix.

Because marketplaces deposit net settlements — sales minus fees, refunds, reserves and adjustments, across date boundaries. Proper e-commerce bookkeeping reconciles the settlement reports, not the bank line. That's exactly what we do monthly.

Preparation and online filing of your full SA100 return, including the supplementary pages your situation needs. If your return is more complex — rental income, capital gains — the packages above show the fixed price, and we confirm it in writing before starting.

Yes. Late returns are common and fixable: we prepare and file the outstanding return quickly, and where there's a reasonable excuse we help you appeal penalties. The sooner it's filed, the sooner the penalties stop growing.

When your taxable turnover in any rolling 12-month period passes £90,000 — a rolling test, not your accounting year, and the most common way businesses get caught out. We monitor it for bookkeeping clients automatically.

It depends on your margins and customers. The flat-rate scheme suits some service businesses; cash accounting helps if customers pay slowly; standard suits most. We'll compare them for your numbers before registering you.

Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent — whichever suits your business (or whichever you already use). Software subscription can be included in your monthly fee, and we handle all the setup and migration.

Each line on your bank statement — a payment in or out. Most one-person businesses sit comfortably under 50 a month. If you drift over your band we'll tell you before the fee changes, never after.