Running a business on eBay
Summary: A participant initiated a discussion on the topic of running a business on eBay.
Good morning
For now I've been running an amateur eBay business for many years, but I'm wondering whether to expand it and try my hand at doing it full time. For several years now the fees have been horrendous and in my opinion they come to 1/3 of the item's value, but I was still always in the black, so somehow it worked out. Of course, if I set up a sole proprietorship, the jokes are over and I need to recalculate everything and think it through 🙂 I think it's the first time I've gone into the payouts tab and started analyzing where these high fees are coming from, and because of that I have a few questions.
In the fee details, some amount appears that is sometimes called "import fee" and sometimes "shipping and handling". I understand that this is a fee paid by the buyer to cover any customs duties in their country, and it's added to my sales just to inflate the value of the revenue and the commission charged by eBay? Because from what I can see, that shipping and handling magically disappears from my revenue right at the very end of all the calculations, but the amount of the commission and VAT is as if it were still there with me. I assume there's nothing that can be done about it and you always have to pay it?
The second thing is the 23% VAT on fees. I remember that when these additional charges were introduced, I got an email saying I should provide them with my... I think NIP or maybe a VAT number from Poland (sorry - I'm not a business owner, so I don't know the correct terminology). If I set up a sole proprietorship and send all the documents to eBay, will I then be exempt from this 23% VAT? From what I read, this VAT goes to Ireland. Honestly, I don't know what my sales have to do with Ireland....
oh. I list items on eBay.com, of course
ps. Are there any people here running businesses only on eBay? Does that even make sense? Let me say right away that my business is / will probably be a micro-business based on selling small handmade items, so I'm not expecting millions 🙂
best regards
E.
