Self Assessment for a minor

My 14 year old son has been selling digital items on my eBay account for about a year and any payments received have been transferred directly to his bank account. Since February sales have rocketed and we were contacted last week from eBay to say I needed to upgrade to a business account. Having looked at my son's bank statements he isn't making as much profit as you would expect due to his outlay, however, as it is not possible for him to have his own eBay account (due to his age) I became concerned about the implications this could have on my tax allowance so made a call to HMRC. After the hour long wait to have my call answered I was informed that he would need to make a self assessment and all the information was available on the gov.uk website.....great. What they didn't tell me was that to make a self assessment he would need a national insurance number and at 14 years old he doesn't have one. Can anyone tell me where we go from here please? I feel like we're going round in circles but don't want to discourage him from trying to make some money,TIA.

Hi Rachel Plant,
HMRC would have to manually set up a Self Assessment record in this case.
You will need to complete SA1, fill in, print and post the form to:
H.M. Revenue and Customs
Self Assessment
BX9 1AS.


 

I sent the relevant form about a week after your reply but we still haven't received any correspondence. Please could you advise if this is normal to wait this long?

Hi Rachel,
You would usually receive the UTR 3 to 4 weeks following the registration application.
If the UTR still has not arrived, please contact us by webchat or phone here:
Self Assessment: general enquiries
Thank you. 

 

My apologies for contacting you again through this method, however I have since sent another two SA1 forms, one to the address given above and another to HM Revenue and Customs, NIC&EO, BX9 1AN which is given on the form. Both forms and covering letters have been sent by recorded delivery. It's been 4 weeks since they were posted and we still haven't heard anything. I am becoming increasingly concerned that this will never be dealt with and we will be faced with a tax bill in the next financial year despite trying everything possible to have everything in place ready!

Hi,
You can use the following link to check when you can expect a reply:
Check when you can expect a reply from HMRC
Thank you. 

Thankyou for your reply, we have now received the UTR :) Just one more question if you don't mind? As stated previously my son is under 18 and has been using our old eBay account to sell digital goods. All transactions have been carried out using his personal bank account. I understand from January that eBay will report the following information to HMRC......Tax ID, Bank Account Details, Transaction Data, Number of Transactions and Total amount credited. As the eBay account is registered to my husband's name will he automatically receive the tax bill? We are becoming extremely concerned as this would take him to the higher tax threshold and this is not his earnings! We have prevented our son selling until this is sorted but he is desperate to start again. Please could you advise?

Hi,
You can check if you need to advise HMRC of additional income at:
How did you receive your additional income?
Thank you

Hi, thanks for your reply. Unfortunately the link didn't answer my question so i'll do my best to re-phrase it. Would HMRC accept a tax return from my son for an eBay account where he has been receiving payments (into his personal bank account) even though the eBay account is in his dad's name? Thanks

Hi,
Please refer to guidance at:
Selling online and paying taxes - information sheet
Thank you.

I have ran into a similar issue to yours, as my son had to stop before he reached the limit last year. Did you manage to sort this out so I know for next year?

I would also like to know this. Thanks

So we did eventually receive a UTR and a self-assessment tax return form. Unfortunately I didn't know where to start as none of the 'types of business' seemed relevant. I did end up on a webchat directly with HMRC who informed me he needed to be self-employed. Thankfully they sorted all that there and then, however we did receive a new UTR number and a deadline of three months to submit a tax return for 2023-2024. I knew looking at his statements that he wouldn't need to pay tax but didn't want to be fined by missing the deadline and unfortunately as he is under 16 with no national insurance number yet the return had to be posted and cannot be done online. We managed to find a local accountant to take him on and they have taken care of the necessary paperwork, so fingers crossed it should be pretty straightforward from now on and I've advised my son to transfer 20% of all future income to his savings account ready for a possible tax bill this year!

Hi Rachel, I am in the exact same situation with my son. In that he's using an account setup in my name with my permission. I managed to get him a temporary NI number and a UTR by filling the forms and posting them, same as you did. eBay is now asking for NI number for me, which information did you enter into eBay? Your husband's NI or your sons?

I’m in the same situation with my daughter. We plan to send the SA1 by post is there anything else we have to include with the SA1 form in the mail? I’ve heard you need to hand write a letter so just want to confirm before mailing it out.