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.

[mrdutch1001]

obviously ...since eBay requires a chequing account...

[marnotom!]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

obviously ...since eBay requires a chequing account...

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Well, that's why the bank didn't require your SIN, then.  It would be out of line for the bank to request/require a SIN when it won't be processing and sending out a T5 form for your income tax return.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

obviously ...since eBay requires a chequing account...

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Most chequing accounts do not pay interest. 

If interest is paid Canadian banks/credit unions need a tax number for T5 use.

[ypdc_dennis]

NOT JUST eBay:

Over on the amazon.ca seller forums this was announced Jan 2:

New identification requirements for Amazon.ca sellers

To comply with Canadian laws, [amazon] have updated the list of information and documentation required to sell on Amazon.ca. 

No action is required from you until we notify you to provide this information. This process will begin at the end of January 2025 and continue through the year.

You’ll have 60 days after you receive a notification to comply with these requirements. If the required information and documentation isn’t provided within this timeline, your account may be deactivated.

...

No mention of SIN being required by amazon in the supporting documents.  Different additional ID requirements depending on whether you are selling as an individual or as a company.

[fergua3]

Interesting Amazon didn't mention anything about the 30/2800 threshholds.

[sin-n-dex]

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@flipistics wrote:

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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I'm going to point something out as an interesting aside... as nosy as the CRA is about us running our eBay business, your home insurance company will be a whole lot nosier wanting details and such. A lot of home insurance companies will not insure someone selling on eBay with a CGL in place (however this will depend on your gross revenue, yes, gross revenue, the home insurance people don't care if you sell a ton and take a loss, they care how much inventory you're moving through your residential home). I speak from experience as someone who was dropped from my home insurance for selling on eBay and had a hard time finding someone else who would insure me without requiring a CGL. I got a quote for a CGL and they wanted a premium of $2400 a year and that was only for liability.

C.

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It's not just home insurance. Most car insurance companies do not allow any commercial activities under a private policy, and that includes taking packages up to the post office.

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I have commercial coverage on my car, so I didn't think of this. Yes, taking packages to the post office counts and they always ask where were you going and what were you doing when you get into an accident.

Many car insurance companies have a business & personal policy, so as long as you're not driving for ride share or food delivery, or something like that, you can get commercial coverage for your minor amount of use mailing packages. When asked what my commercial activities were I told them taking packages to the post office.

C.

[ricarmic]

My personal car insurance is ok with up to 5,000 KMs a year for "business" use. But you have to make sure they know that the car is occasionally used for business. (My business commute is about 1KM round trip so I've got no worries!!)

[sin-n-dex]

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@ricarmic wrote:

My personal car insurance is ok with up to 5,000 KMs a year for "business" use. But you have to make sure they know that the car is occasionally used for business. (My business commute is about 1KM round trip so I've got no worries!!)

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I'm going to point out, if you're in an accident with injuries, the insurance company can ask to see your T1 and T2125 filings which will rat you out if you use your car for business use. Insurance companies are experts at digging up dirt on claimants to get out of paying on a claim.

If you don't have business use on your vehicle (I had to pay more, some companies will allow a percentage), don't try to write off any vehicle expenses on your taxes. I didn't have vehicle expenses as a deduction until I bought my own car.

C.

[needsmorerobots]

I won't have a problem with this. I declare what I make to CRA.

My only concern is how safe will that information be in the hands of Ebay Canada.

[reallynicestamps]

@fergua3 

So if a seller has 100 sales on .com but 11 on .ca are they going to have to submit a SIN?

It's the income that is being taxed, not where the income is earned.

A consultant with contracts in Germany, who is paid in euros, but lives in Canada, is paying income tax on those euros.

[teenytrinkets]

So if I'm interpreting correctly, anyone with over 30 transactions in 2024 will get a message sometime this month asking to provide a SIN, so ebay can send in their report to cra for January 2025. But it sounds like ebay is still going to report all sellers without it anyway, even if they don't get a response from all notified sellers in time.  So what's the point of requiring the SIN? It's easy enough for cra to ID everyone reported by name, address and bank account. Maybe the $500 fine pays for their staff to do the extra work if they have to look you up...lol.

Also, looks like because Amazon mentions no thresholds, they are going to report sales for all 3rd party sellers and (maybe) deactivate those that don't comply with providing their SIN. Interesting that different platforms seem to have different rules.

I'm surprised this hasn't hit the news yet. I can't find anything on it, besides what ebay has provided. I hope they hired a bunch of new staff to take it on! Because you know everyone's gonna have questions!!!

[marnotom!]

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@needsmorerobots wrote:

I won't have a problem with this. I declare what I make to CRA.

My only concern is how safe will that information be in the hands of Ebay Canada.

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Keep in mind that US sellers have had to provide their Social Security Number to eBay.com for a few years now.  I would imagine that the US eBay would be of more interest to ne'er-do-wells than the Canadian site.

[teenytrinkets]

@joycroe_0

I suspect a very large percentage of ebay sellers sold over 30 items in 2024. Chances are A LOT of them will be surprised when they get a message asking to fork over their SIN and DOB.

It looks like this will take time however. The rollout will probably be like managed payments. The cra is waiving penalties for digital platform amounts until the end of July, so we may see that timeframe for providing information.

[teenytrinkets]

@recped
It doesn't appear as though ebay is threatening account suspensions if personal info isn't supplied - they just passed along cra's threat of a $500 fine. Amazon, on the other hand, did make that threat. Interesting. I'm curious to see how it will all play out. I imagine there will be a lot of "hold outs " like there was with Managed Payments. Someone's gotta test the waters! 😆

[fergua3]

i doubt it has an;ything to do with 2024 sales.   New laws are rarely retroactive.  I believe that once a seller has 30 transactions or $2800 in sales THIS YEAR then they will get notified and have to give their SIN.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@fergua3 wrote:

Interesting Amazon didn't mention anything about the 30/2800 threshholds.

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Probably because amazon assumes all Sellers are there to make money selling stuff for profit. eBay on the other hand knows that a lot of their sellers are doing it to get rid of stuff and are paying no attention to keeping financial records.

[teenytrinkets]

@fergua3
I believe the new law came into affect in 2023. All digital platforms have been instructed to report 2024 info by Jan. 31, 2025. That's how I'm understanding it - can others chime in to confirm their interpretation?

[teenytrinkets]

Yeah, I looked it up and all digital platforms have the same rules for excluding any sellers under the 30/2800. But i wonder if some platforms will just report everyone anyway? Saves them creating a mechanism for measuring it.

Some of the smaller platforms (Poshmark, Tinted, DePop) might have challenges meeting deadlines for reporting. There appears to be lots of technical requirements for setting it up! This whole thing could take years to perfect, really. Think about the amount of glitches ebay has on a weekly basis when they change even the smallest thing. The manpower required to support these new activities for all parties involved is astronomical! And everyone is short-staffed and laying off/outsourcing these days. It's going to be interesting to see this blow up over the next few weeks as everyone starts to get their notification to provide their reporting information. 

[mrdutch1001]

whether the platforms report my transactions/dollar am't don't matter to me...I highly doubt CRA is much interested in my 18 transactions of approx. $200-here on eBay during 2024 ...

CRA is interested in those persons who are selling $thousands with many many transactions> hobbist or otherwise-those are the persons that will be targeted ...that's where CRA's interest lieth...

[teenytrinkets]

@mrdutch1001 very true, but you were only 12 transactions away from the threshold that the cra is VERY interested in, which many would still consider a very casual hobbyist. I think you're likely in the minority and there will be hundreds of thousands with 30+ on ebay and other platforms. This change casts a pretty wide net - especially since it's a surprise if they're reporting for 2024 and no one knew about it.