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incognito

An online shop- feelers out

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Looking around after cleaning up the garden and finding volumes of plants that I would like to move on to better homes, I've been thinking about setting up an online store, I've got a nursery name I'd like to use, what is the most cost effective option? Facebook page, own website? Or ebay store?

Anyways idea is in its wee infancy, any input appreciated.

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Also is it right U can earn 12k annually from a hobbie without declaring it?

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I'm not sure that there is a specific dollar threshold attached to this any more - at least that's what I'm reading at the moment. I know we used to have at least one accountant as a member here, surely someone knows the answer to this.

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I think all income has to be declared

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My most recent research told me that one must declare every cent, if it is for a hobby up to 20 000 is not taxed as income. All of this would depend on income, benefits etc, and being able to prove it is legit hobby.

I doubt anything is gst exempt though.....

****this is my non-professional opinion :-)

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Pretty sure small businesses (grossing under 50k a year) dont have to register for or pay GST.

Another unprofessional opinion tho.

Ive always preferred to deal in cash so as to avoid any headaches with government.

Id say it depends on the scale. A market stall could well be the cheapest setup, but depending on the plants your average punter might not pay what they are worth to an enthusiast.

Setting up a simple webpage is pretty easy. Paypal has some payment solutions that look simple. But then there are records of everything so your back to declaring income.

I dont use facebook, so can't comment on that. But ive heard it works.

Could try just listing the plants on gumtree, assuming the trade section here and ebay arent the way you want to go. Gumtree is free to list, so you've got nothing to loose by snapping a pic and sticking a price on it.

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If you are already on Fb, set up a page for sure. :wink:

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For the hobbiest I'd say ebay is good, put an extra 20% on what you want tho to cover all the fees (10% listing + 10% postage fee commision + paypal fees)

I can get back to you RE the exact amount for the tax free part, but I am fairly certain it's 18-20k like DB said. I doubt a true hobby plant business will exceed this per annum. Unless you've got buyers lined up incog for 40 x $500 lophs ;)

If you use paypal on your website/gumtree have the person pay as family/friends to avoid fees.

The average accountant wouldn't want to know about your hobby business come tax time imo, unless you were already on the raider OR actually earning over 20k

edit: I reckon the hard bit would be getting your website up in the Google ratings, there would be limited traffic from places like here I would imagine. Funnelling them there thru gumtree and eBay would be the go

Edited by theuserformallyknownasd00d
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Pretty sure small businesses (grossing under 50k a year) dont have to register for or pay GST.

The amount is 75k to register with gst , but it seems to get complicated if it's a second income, ie you don't have to register cause its under 75K BUT u get fucked in the end if u earn more with help from Your other job.. .. cause its the ato. ..

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all of the above!

post it everywhere and anywhere you can, that way you can maximize your audience :)

i used to sub contract with an ABN and tbh wasn't that big of an issue though i wasn't GST registered, if you do go down this path, i would presume you would be looking at a sole trader http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/business-structures-and-types/business-structures/sole-trader/Pages/default.aspx

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Technically I think you're supposed to declare all income from all sources, even including ridiculous tiny stuff like the $3.42 interest you earned on your chequeing account this year or whatevers. And if all your transactions are public & online & easily traceable to bank accounts in your name, then it's probably a really good idea to actually do this all by the book.

The tax-free threshold is currently $18,200, but if you're already claiming it for your regular income, I don't think you don't get to claim it again for your sole-trader small-business stuff - it's just the first $18,200 you earn from whatever source.

But of all the terms that could be applied to me, I don't think there's anything that even rhymes with "reliable source", so please confirm all this with an accountant or the ATO or someone before tax-time. One thing I don't know is whether you need to set up an ABN as a sole-trader to declare income from your hobby/business?

As far as how to market, that would kinda depend on the scale you're talking about, I would think. So gumtree mightn't be ideal if you have thousands of items that need separate listings (plus constant re-listing to keep them near the top of searches), but if you only have many multiples of the same three things say, then setting up a webstore might be a bit over-the-top. Consider time-efficiency as well as cost-efficiency - if it's going to take hours every day to maintain the damn thing - responding to PMs & re-listing items - maybe consider whether it would be worth it to pay for a more streamlined store. But I'd start out with a cheap/free option & see how that works for you - if you decide you need to upgrade aspects of it later & get someone to design a webstore for you or something, by then you'll have a better idea of exactly what you want.

Edited by Anodyne
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Hi Nito, go with a selfhostet website on your own domain. And use wordpress because it is easy to update and has countless Plugins, such as Woocommerce. Yes, create a FB page too but you´ll want to have something in case FB decides to give you the boot. ;) And that´s what the self-hosted website is for.

Edited by Evil Genius

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My misso has a salary job and runs a small business, she gets taxed 50-60% depending on the year for her business. But I guess money's money

That sounds unlikely.

The maximum income tax is 47% + 2% medicare levy. So that's 49%. She might also be calculating 10% GST into that, so that would be 58%.

HOWEVER, to be in that tax bracket she would have to be earning more than 180K in total. Anything less and the tax becomes dramatically less. eg at 80K total she'd only be paying about 18k in tax [22.5% overall] or with GST 26K [32.5%].

incog, ebay reports all accounts of over 10k pa turnover, so hiding it is not a good idea.

ebay is the easiest way to sell unless you are looking at a long term business and don't mind maintaining a website.

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Which is unlikely, an SAB members partner can have a good job and salary, or it's unlikely my partner would have a good job and salary?

Edit: point I was trying to make with seasonal work (harvest etc) and the likes it's very easy for your yearly earnings to creep up. It's probably more applicable to incog as he started the thread and was asking for advice lol

Edited by theuserformallyknownasd00d

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Noooo t was just stating unlikely she pays 50c out of the dollar. I have a good salary that's why I'm a bit skeered that if I start selling my wares without setting up as a tax paying side business the ATO and the CSA may have a field day.

An IT mate has recommended some webstore building programs even tards like me can use, and I will be seeing my accountant next week so will discuss what I need to do.

It's just that over the years I've accumulated ALOT of radical plants, a lot of which I can do without, have offloaded all my unlabelled stuff now left with the creme which im propagating. A website COULD be fun :)

Basically I have ALOT of plants to sell and lookin at the best way to go about it without getting in the shit with any authoritahs.

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Which is unlikely, an SAB members partner can have a good job and salary, or it's unlikely my partner would have a good job and salary?

Her circumstances would have to be quite exceptional for those numbers to be correct. hence 'unlikely', especially considering that most people overestimate their tax obligations. If correct then good on her! That puts her in the top 3% or something like that, so definitely exceptional.

Also, most people with a 180K salary don't have time for a side business ;)

Was just pointing out that your estimate was either wrong or is so exceptional that it probably wouldn't apply to just about anyone else.

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besides the fact she paid half of what she earnt (via her business) to tax, what else can I say! Maybe she needs you as her accountant

:)

LOL, if she earns that much she can afford a good accountant ;)

not doubting you at all. it's just that most people exaggerate their tax burden, because you know.... everyone hates tax. But that's obviously not the case here.

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