Starting January 2025, Ebay Canada to require SIN number for all sellers with more than 30 sales?

[joycroe_0]

I was reading this article on Ebay and it states that as of January 2025, anyone with over 30 sales will have to provide a SIN number. 
https://www.ebay.ca/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/canada-digital-sales-reporting?id=5476#s...

It seems like quite a drastic update and I'm surprised more people haven't been talking about it.

[alpinestars91]

I guess where I am being hung up is some of what feels like conflicting info. On one hand eBay is going to  send my sales info to the CRA once I cross that $2800 threshold and they will send it with no other context from what I can see. It appears to me (I could be wrong) that that in effect forces me to now report all of this as income.

On the other hand both eBay and the CRA's website both say that personal items that do not yield a capital gain (everything I buy and sell is under $1000) does not need to be reported.

So it seems like if I go with route 1 it would appear like I am conceding this this is business income because I do not see anywhere on the forms where I would caveat that this is a personal collection with no capital gain.

And if I go route 2 and don't report CRA will find a discrepancy between the income I reported and this report eBay is sending off. Would I have to wait for CRA to actually send me a letter before I clarify that I am not running a reselling business but rather buy too much personal stuff that I need to unload later?

[flipistics]

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@alpinestars91 wrote:

I guess where I am being hung up is some of what feels like conflicting info. On one hand eBay is going to  send my sales info to the CRA once I cross that $2800 threshold and they will send it with no other context from what I can see. It appears to me (I could be wrong) that that in effect forces me to now report all of this as income.

On the other hand both eBay and the CRA's website both say that personal items that do not yield a capital gain (everything I buy and sell is under $1000) does not need to be reported.

So it seems like if I go with route 1 it would appear like I am conceding this this is business income because I do not see anywhere on the forms where I would caveat that this is a personal collection with no capital gain.

And if I go route 2 and don't report CRA will find a discrepancy between the income I reported and this report eBay is sending off. Would I have to wait for CRA to actually send me a letter before I clarify that I am not running a reselling business but rather buy too much personal stuff that I need to unload later?

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Why don't you phone the CRA and ask them?

[recped]

eBay reports Gross Revenue, you deduct all expenses and the Net amount is what is potentially taxable.

One thing, it's a bad idea to combine personal sales and business sales, it will cause the confusion you have and the issues you may have when reporting income on your tax return.

That said, the reporting that eBay does is not the same as the T4 or T5 you get for employment or investment income. Those are hard numbers that report exact income, the reporting eBay does is different.

If you want clarification then contact CRA.

[alpinestars91]

So I gave CRA a call (long wait times though) and managed to clarify some things... kind of.

Long story short....  quite a bit of grey area.

Long story long... I had to be transferred to the business wing of CRA in regards to my eBay questions. First off they seemed oblivious to this 30 transactions/$2800 threshold. The agent and I agreed these are fairly low thresholds and she kept returning to $30K+ in yearly sales where I will need to register and submit taxes. Advised her I never approach that figure and that eBay handles all remittence of sales tax for me.

I explained that after reviewing all of their articles and even listening their podcast episode I was still unclear on where I stand as a collector or hobbyist. Selling my comic books, video games, blu-rays etc is not something I do from a profit motive - these are things I buy for myself and either change my mind or if I need to pay bills/life events/next hobby purchase I sell parts of my collection. Sometimes I manage to make more if the item had become more scare or in demand between the time I bought it and when I sold it, sometimes it is worth less. 

She readily understood this and also acknowledged the sale of personal properity under $1000 (which all of my buying and selling on eBay would be in the range of) is not a capital gain either and is not taxable income. But she couldn't give clear cut and definitive answer on what I should do either way, which is understandable. 

Our conversation came down to volume of sales and dollar amounts. I estimated that on the low end maybe $3000-4000 a year and at the high end up to $6000-7000 depending on what I sold. I explained what I did and she likened it to how people with large clothing collections (shopoholics in other words, which I am guilty of) sell their personal clothing on poshmark. I agreed that it was like that. I do not view my listings as inventory as I have often paid well in excess of retail prices based on scarcity for some of these things - it's more along the lines of what I would put on kijiji but to a wider audience on eBay.

In effect she told me not to lose sleep over the amounts I was describing. When I returned to the eBay communication and read to her what it said she seemed to kind of get what they are doing and said that they are increasing their visibility but that this seems to be more about to identifying high volume professional sellers who are not reporting sales or income at all. 

So obviously still in a grey area but beginning to think I am over thinking this. 

[marnotom!]

@alpinestars91and others, I've done some poking around online and I've found some interesting information on the CRA website.  It appears that CRA is now referring to eBay as part of what it terms the "platform economy," where one is involved in peer to peer sales using technology and an intermediary to facilitate the transactions.

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/compliance/platform...

Once again, I’m no accountant or tax expert, but I think it’s important to keep in mind the wording of the declaration we sign at the end of a tax return.  We are declaring that our return contains information on “income from all sources”.  My interpretation of this when it comes to income derived from the platform economy is that we declare this income, then do the paperwork within (or outside) the return to show why this income isn't subject to taxation.  We create paper trails for ourselves, basically.

It's like those word problems we used to have to do in math class at school.  We weren't supposed to just put down the answer to the question, but we had to "show our thinking" and demonstrate how we arrived at that answer.

I agree that for smaller amounts, this hardly seems necessary, but if you don't declare your eBay income on your return and something gets triggered to prompt an audit sometime down the line, you're going to be scrambling to get this information together, so to me it makes more sense to do it right the first time.

More information here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/compliance/platform...

[alpinestars91]

thanks  @marnotom!, I read many of those same articles and still not quite sure how to square personal items being sold (not taxable income if buying/selling under $1000) vs. "report all sources of income".

I would assume they mean all sources of "taxable income", and so selling an a personal item for $200 that you paid $170 for does not yield any capital gain and therefore is not taxable.

The wrench in this is eBay now reporting based on these blanket thresholds and trying to understand what sellers who sell personal items need to do about it. What does that reporting even look like and what does it mean? Still no clarity.

[33nhl]

So 3 big questions.

What items woud be considered personal as its stated on Ebay guide line and wht items would be considerd as sold as business or investments

Plus if one sell just one item for $5k on ebay for the entire year , it will be reported cause its over $2800.00 but does it mean it capital gains income thus would have to pay tax pending your yearly income??

Many use monthly subscription to list more then the 250 free monthly listings instaed of paying 40 cents per extra listing after the 250, so will they say cause you have store subscription you are a business?? 

Ebay no RCA have straight forward answers regarding those type questions.

This all bs cause if  EBAY RCA say only personal items will be exmpt then why the hell are they collecting sales tax on personl used items sold currently on ebay.

Maybe time has come to say good bye to Ebay

[recped]

I'll try to answer but it seems you are ignoring the replies you have been receiving in your other post started recently. One thing you need to understand, eBay is not involved in any way on YOUR tax reporting, CRA is requiring eBay (and any similar companies) to report your gross revenue, that is the totality of their involvement.

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@33nhl wrote:

So 3 big questions.

What items woud be considered personal as its stated on Ebay guide line and wht items would be considerd as sold as business or investments

As you have been told before, if you purchase items with the intent to resell then you are operating a business. It doesn't matter if it's one item or 1000 items. If you bought an item for your personal use and then later sold that item, if sold for less than the original cost then you have a capital loss and incur no taxation, if you sold it for more than you paid for it then you could have a Capital Gain and it might be taxable.

Plus if one sell just one item for $5k on ebay for the entire year , it will be reported cause its over $2800.00 but does it mean it capital gains income thus would have to pay tax pending your yearly income??

It doesn't matter if it's one item or 1000 items, if it's a personal item it could potentially be subject to Capital Gain taxes, if it's a business transaction it's subject to regular Income Tax no different than employment income (other than the fact that you can take deductions for expenses for business income).

Many use monthly subscription to list more then the 250 free monthly listings instaed of paying 40 cents per extra listing after the 250, so will they say cause you have store subscription you are a business?? 

Completely irrelevant, you have already been told what constitutes business income.

Ebay no RCA have straight forward answers regarding those type questions.

eBay does not give tax advice beyond reminding sellers that it is their responsibility to report as required by CRA.

This all bs cause if  EBAY RCA say only personal items will be exmpt then why the hell are they collecting sales tax on personl used items sold currently on ebay.

Sales Tax (GST/HST/PST) is a completely different thing than Income Tax. eBay is required to charge and collect GST/HST (and PST for BC). If you were registered for GST you would have to collect and report GST/HST, new or used is irrelevant.

Maybe time has come to say good bye to Ebay

You would have to say goodbye to any type of selling on any platform

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You are selling mostly hockey cards, are these from your peronal collection or have you been buying these (some or all) for your personal collection or for the purpose of reselling? Most of your current listings are for fairly recent cards, you have also sold over 5,000 items, you will have a hard time convincing CRA that these were things you bought for your own personal enjoyment and have now decided to sell off your collection.

[dishrag15]

If I sell 10 items in one transaction to the same buyer, does this count as 1 sale or 10 sales?

[recped]

@dishrag15 

On the eBay page

https://www.ebay.ca/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/canada-digital-sales-reporting?id=5476

There only references to "transactions" which leads me to believe that is the same as what eBay generally considers a "transaction" which is any amount of items purchased via a single payment.

[salvadord]

Looking for information/clarification.  Let's say your sales are $3,000, after shipping, taxes and fees.  eBay will be reporting this information to CRA and you will be expected to report this as income when you do your taxes.  However, there are quite a few additional expenses that a seller incurs, such as month store fee, envelopes, address labels, paper, printer ink, etc. etc.  This there any direction/guidance on how to report your additional expenses?

[recped]

First thing to understand is that eBay will report GROSS revenue, item + shipping. It's up to you to deduct eBay fees, cost of goods, shipping costs, all other expenses related to your sales.

The basics

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-re...

More details

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-re...

The actual form you use

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/forms/t2125.html

Be prepared for questions from CRA about previous years as it sounds like you did not report those. CRA might or might not wonder about that if you never previously reported self-employment income.

[sapphyres-designer-jewellery]

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@salvadord wrote:

Looking for information/clarification.  Let's say your sales are $3,000, after shipping, taxes and fees.  eBay will be reporting this information to CRA and you will be expected to report this as income when you do your taxes.  However, there are quite a few additional expenses that a seller incurs, such as month store fee, envelopes, address labels, paper, printer ink, etc. etc.  This there any direction/guidance on how to report your additional expenses?

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Fill out a T2125 when you file your taxes. You can report all expenses there.

C.

[femmefan1946]

and so selling an a personal item for $200 that you paid $170 for does not yield any capital gain and therefore is not taxable.

Do you have that backwards?
You BOUGHT doe $170.

You SOLD for $200.

That's a MARKUP of $30.

Now there are expenses as well, which reduce the markup.

Say $25 in fees and $5 in shipping.

Which means you did not have a PROFIT.

Profit is income.

And that transaction had no net income.

Now if you BOUGHT for $200.

And SOLD for $170 there is not only no income, but (because of fees and shipping) an actual LOSS.

But since you are not a business, I don't think you can claim those losses.

As others have said- not an accountant.

[Anonymous]

Had a long chat ewith ebay who basically referred me to a tax expert. But, my issue is that ebay is reporting returns as a 1 item sold, wrong adress returns as revenue etc. Their reporting is faulty. They told me to take it up with my accountant lol. But, is the report they produce is wrong and they know it, what a can of worms to put on our back to fight with cra about.

[marnotom!]

According to this help page, eBay reports sales transactions to CRA, not revenue per se:

https://www.ebay.ca/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/canada-digital-sales-reporting?id=5476#:...).

[dinomitesales]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Had a long chat ewith ebay who basically referred me to a tax expert. But, my issue is that ebay is reporting returns as a 1 item sold, wrong adress returns as revenue etc. Their reporting is faulty. They told me to take it up with my accountant lol. But, is the report they produce is wrong and they know it, what a can of worms to put on our back to fight with cra about.

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Their reporting isn't faulty, that's just how it works.

If the buyer paid then that counts as a sale and counts as income. If you subsequently refunded the transaction then that's just an expense on your tax return that reduces your taxable income.

[femmefan1946]

Other expenses would be eBay fees including

• fees on shipping,
• buyer's sales tax,
• international fees for credit card payments,
• packaging costs,
• shipping costs,
• procurement (buying) costs,
• storage rental,
• PST/HST/GST
• and possibly gas and other transit costs.

EBay doesn't /can't track those, and that is why you were told to discuss deductible expenses with your tax accountant.

[Anonymous]

I have been hacked on ebay and I refuse to give ebay my SIN. Probably will close my store. 

[my427sc]

IF they want something they can have my business number but they're sure as H3LL not getting my SIN.  I don't trust ANYONE except the CRA with that number.  Do you think I trust that eBay won't get hacked, but my SIN number will then be used for identity theft.  Screw that.

CRA can try to come after me with a $500 fine... good luck with that.  Sounds like scare tactics to me.

Screw you eBay.  Ask for something reasonable to identify me through CRA and you can have it, but you're not legally entitled to my SIN number, nor will you ever get it.  I'll close my account before that will ever happen!!!