{"id":5963,"date":"2024-01-23T21:13:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T21:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=5963"},"modified":"2024-11-22T15:53:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T15:53:52","slug":"much-ado-about-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/","title":{"rendered":"Much Ado About Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.<\/p>\n<p>Within days, there were online postings by people saying it was unfair that they would now be taxed on selling their children\u2019s clothes whilst fighting the cost of living.<\/p>\n<p>As ever with tax in the press, an analysis of the facts provides a different answer.<\/p>\n<p>What has changed is a new statutory provision requiring trading sites to report each year to HMRC, details of how much the users have taken in receipts, where the total exceeds \u00a3300.\u00a0 They are also required to inform the user that they have made such a disclosure.<\/p>\n<p>There has been no change to the taxability of these receipts. Somebody selling second-hand clothes or used furniture, old phones etc previously used by family members, will not suddenly find they have a tax bill.<\/p>\n<p>The key question is what are known as the Badges of Trade.\u00a0\u00a0 These are a variety of subjective texts to indicate the existence of a trade.\u00a0 These include:-<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is there an intention of achieving a profit?<\/li>\n<li>What are the frequencies of transactions (in some cases, one transaction can be a trade).<\/li>\n<li>Nature of asset being sold.<\/li>\n<li>How was the asset being sold obtained?<\/li>\n<li>Was funding used on acquisition?<\/li>\n<li>How long was the asset around before sale?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All of the above factors have to be looked out.\u00a0 There is not a correct answer or a two out of six pass mark, it is taking all answers in the round.<\/p>\n<p>Then in simple terms, if it is a trade, it is taxable, if it is not a trade, it probably isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p>This is the position which has existed since the dawn of Income Tax, the obligation of the platform providers to report to HMRC does not change the taxable status of the receipt.<\/p>\n<p>The only change is that those people who have been trading on such sites have a high chance of being investigated if the income has not been declared.<\/p>\n<p>We have seen many individuals who have already been investigated who have come to us and we have negotiated a settlement with HMRC.\u00a0 Apart from the tax due, this settlement always includes interest and penalties.<\/p>\n<p>The level of penalties can vary from 0% to 70% of the tax due, with most cases finishing between 10% and 30%.\u00a0 To achieve the lower penalty, it is necessary for you to come clean to HMRC before they ask questions, something we always recommend.<\/p>\n<p>So don\u2019t panic about the new rules, unless you have not been declaring what you should \u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To talk to us about our range of tax services,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/contact-us\/\"><strong>contact us<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at one of our three offices. You can also\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/news-events\/gh-highlight\/#highlights-form\">subscribe to our monthly emails<\/a><\/strong>, to ensure you don\u2019t miss out on the outcome of the Chancellor\u2019s statement, and lots of other interesting insights.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay. Within days, there were online postings by people saying it was unfair that they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[808,747,301],"tags":[422,26],"class_list":["post-5963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-news","category-self-assessment","category-self-employed","tag-online","tag-tax"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"George Hay Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Barry Jefferd\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Barry Jefferd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Barry Jefferd\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789\"},\"headline\":\"Much Ado About Nothing\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":490,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Much-Ado.png\",\"keywords\":[\"online\",\"Tax\"],\"articleSection\":[\"In the News\",\"Self-Assessment\",\"Self-employed\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/\",\"name\":\"Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Much-Ado.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789\"},\"description\":\"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Much-Ado.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/Much-Ado.png\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":768},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/2024\\\/01\\\/much-ado-about-nothing\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Much Ado About Nothing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/\",\"name\":\"George Hay Blog\",\"description\":\"Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789\",\"name\":\"Barry Jefferd\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/02\\\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Barry Jefferd\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.georgehay.co.uk\\\/blogs\\\/author\\\/barry_jefferd\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog","description":"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog","og_description":"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/","og_site_name":"George Hay Blog","article_published_time":"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Barry Jefferd","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Barry Jefferd","Estimated reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/"},"author":{"name":"Barry Jefferd","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789"},"headline":"Much Ado About Nothing","datePublished":"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/"},"wordCount":490,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png","keywords":["online","Tax"],"articleSection":["In the News","Self-Assessment","Self-employed"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/","name":"Much Ado About Nothing - George Hay Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png","datePublished":"2024-01-23T21:13:54+00:00","dateModified":"2024-11-22T15:53:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789"},"description":"The start of the month saw a frenzy in the media and online about HMRC using new powers to target traders on sites such as Ebay.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Much-Ado.png","width":1024,"height":768},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/2024\/01\/much-ado-about-nothing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Much Ado About Nothing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/","name":"George Hay Blog","description":"Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/#\/schema\/person\/c6ead19f08150ddd7b01394f37810789","name":"Barry Jefferd","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/barry-jefferd-96x96.jpg","caption":"Barry Jefferd"},"url":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/author\/barry_jefferd\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5963"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5967,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5963\/revisions\/5967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgehay.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}