want to open a ebay store in Canada. What business lincese do I need?

[lolkenken]

I want to open a ebay store in Canada. What business lincese or other requirements do I need to prepare. thanks.

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

This might be of some help:

http://ocs.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?CustomerSupport

[frances74915]

Same question as me.  I've opened one ebay store in Canada already, but at the moment I haven't applied for any business lincese.  I want to take some time to see if I can make a good sales through ebay...

[ggsale27]

You'll only need to worry about a business license if your business takes off and you need to start charging tax , declaring income from this business, then writing off part of your house & utilities against your income.

[pierrelebel]

"What business lincese or other requirements do I need to prepare."

Nothing at this time except for a good bookkeeping system.

You must, by law, keep books of accounts needed at year end to calculate and declare your net profit on your annual tax return.

Your net profit is arrived by deducting your cost of goods and expenses from your revenues.

There is no minimum as far as income tax is concerned.  If your small business makes a net profit of $100 for example, that $100 must be declared and added to your other income.

For annual gross worldwide revenues exceeding $30,000 (including shipping charges) you must register with GST/HST.  But you are not there yet!  Maybe later this year! 🙂

Good Luck.

[pierrelebel]

"then writing off part of your house & utilities against your income."

Not as easy as it sounds. 

There are many conditions that must be met to allow individuals to claim some of their household expenses against their business income (and it can only be claimed against business income).  

This is the first area targetted by CRA auditors when they audit you.  And yes, the auditor carries a measuring tape to confirm the percentage of household expenses claimed is directly related to the exclusive use of the personal property (house or apartment) for business purposes!

Been there, done that, the auditor and I are on first name basis! 🙂

[proudjaw]

I have similar questions. I am getting to be on the verge of opening a store. I buy 99% of what I sell at garage sales and flea markets. Does CRA require documentation to prove how much you paid for your goods? Pretty hard to give a receipt at a garage sale...

[cbsalesnb]

That's a question I'm interested in as well, proudjaw. I keep receipts, but if I buy something with cash from an individual through kijiji, garage sales or any other similar venue, I hope I'm not expected to ask for receipts. I wonder what the law is on this.

[pierrelebel]

Please see post #10 at 

http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Canadian-Powersellers-Discussion/Question-About-Taxes/3000008672 

it answers the question.

[productaxi]

How can I list listings that will stay good till cancelled or at least 30 days?  Is it cheaper to do it with a store?

[pjcdn2005]

When you use the sell your item form there is a place right above the price that you can click on for either auction or fixed price. Click on fixed price and then you can select the amount of time that you want the fixed price listing to run. If you use the good till cancelled option the listing will renew itself each month and you are charged each month.

It is less expensive for fixed price listings with a store but unless you have at least 50 items listed most of the time, a store will cost you more in the long run. The rates for store do change in May though so the minimum listings that make having a store worthwhile might change. Keep in mind that right now, you do not get 50 free auctions if you have a store.

[aqyera]

"What business lincese or other requirements do I need to prepare."

Nothing at this time except for a good bookkeeping system.

You must, by law, keep books of accounts

Which law would that be, Pierre ?

Accountants are often forgetting that GAAP is not a law, but guidelines for them.

Please don't mix requirements with recomendations.

[pierrelebel]

"Which law would that be,"

You may wish to contact CRA for more information.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/bsnss/sm/menu-eng.html 

Are you starting a new small business in Canada? Are you operating one already? Then this section of our website is for you. It will introduce you to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) programs you need to know about, and give an overview of your obligations and entitlements under the laws that we administer.

Take it from there.

[aqyera]

Another good one. Where is the bit about requirement of good bookkeeping system ?

CRA has no authority in Canada to create laws, they can make recommendations. Yopu really just wrote the above to save face, there is nothing about good bookkeeping system.

But if by good bookkeeping system you mean paper and pencil, where you write something like "March 20, we sold 10kg of fish to Browns for $220, 5kg to Jenkins for $120 and 25kg to MiniMart for $400 + barter of 10kg of salt.", then yes. You need that.

[nuvistors]

Which law would that be, Pierre ?

Accountants are often forgetting that GAAP is not a law, but guidelines for them.

Please don't mix requirements with recomendations.

From your reply I can see that you are not qualified to sell anything to anybody. 

You must supply a CRA auditor with  all purchase and sales information      If the auditor sees that you sold $10,000,00 worth of items on ebay and you cannot provide  documents to support ehat you paid for this mechandise it could all be counted as taxable income.

You should  do a great deal of reserch before doing any  amount of selling.

[rose-dee]

"Which law would that be, Pierre ?

Accountants are often forgetting that GAAP is not a law, but guidelines for them.

Please don't mix requirements with recomendations."

I'm afraid it's called the Income Tax Act (among other statutes).  If I'm wrong, I spent 10 years working for a law firm who specialized in tax law that didn't exist...

To respond to the poster who asked about how to document the cost of goods bought at garage sales, etc. -- simply keep a little receipt book in your pocket (available for $2 from any stationery store), fill out a receipt for each purchase, and get the seller to sign it.  It doesn't need to be elaborate -- "03/22/13 - Child's toy - $3". 

This may seem like a hassle, but if you want to run a serious business and be able to properly document your costs to CRA, you have to do it. 

[rose-dee]

CRA has no authority in Canada to create laws, they can make recommendations. Yopu really just wrote the above to save face, there is nothing about good bookkeeping system.

Your understanding is incorrect.  CRA has no authority to make laws, but they most certainly have authority to enforce the laws.  And believe me, those laws have very long arms which end up in Federal Tax Court if you think you want to try beating them. 

Trust me, it's infinitely better to educate yourself on the law and follow it.  This is one area where ignorance is no excuse for compliance.  As Pierre indicated, CRA provides good information on the applicable law on their website.  Anyone selling seriously should familiarize themselves with the basic legal requirements.

[aqyera]

Ok, so we are getting somewhere. Income Tax Act: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-3.3/

Please be a dear, and point me to a statement saying business must keep books of accounts

Many small business owners don't even know what "account" is.

This discussion is getting boring. Some are babling about taxation, while lolkenken was asking about business licenses. Let me google that for you:

http://www.bdc.ca/EN/advice_centre/ask_professionnal/start_business/Pages/default.aspx?question=2

Most subjects don't require any licensing and business registration is voluntary. In other words, garage sale is a business, anyone here got some government license for theirs ?

Now to taxation. Keep the source documents (receipts, invoices, etc) in a folder. For reasonably small business, most tax preparation accountants will accept a folder with source documents but may charge extra for going through them.

I am done here.

[rose-dee]

I want to open a ebay store in Canada. What business lincese or other requirements do I need to prepare. thanks.

Since some posters seem to be in rather ill humour about conducting an open, friendly discussion, I thought I would go back to the top and make some comments on this original question.

I think the matter of "business licence" has been dealt with, except that you may eventually find your municipality might require you to register, depending on many things.  For now, the "requirements" part of your question hasn't really been answered.  EBay does have requirements for selling - the "New Seller" section under the "Sell" tab should help. 

Aside from eBay's specific requirements, there are other good practices that help to establish your reputation as a reliable, trustworthy seller on eBay.  Read up on these under "Best Practices" and follow the "Seller" discussion board for a while before you start, as often issues faced by new sellers have already been dealt with by others, especially those who have been around a long time on eBay, like Pierre.

Good luck!

[nuvistors]

Ok, so we are getting somewhere. Income Tax Act: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-3.3/

Please be a dear, and point me to a statement saying business must keep books of accounts

Many small business owners don't even know what "account" is.

This discussion is getting boring. Some are babling about taxation, while lolkenken was asking about business licenses. Let me google that for you:

http://www.bdc.ca/EN/advice_centre/ask_professionnal/start_business/Pages/default.aspx?question=2

Most subjects don't require any licensing and business registration is voluntary. In other words, garage sale is a business, anyone here got some government license for theirs ?

Now to taxation. Keep the source documents (receipts, invoices, etc) in a folder. For reasonably small business, most tax preparation accountants will accept a folder with source documents but may charge extra for going through them.

I am done here.

Possibly you are ignorant as to what an account is but I will guarantee that the vast majority of small sellers and all large sellers know what an account is.

            I am sure that they taught  things like that in school but if you played hookey  you may have missed it.