Ecommerce news: Spring budget and eBay Click & Collect

In this week’s news, we’ve got a roundup of changes included in the Spring Budget 2017 that will affect online sellers and an update to eBay’s Click & Collect programme.

Spring Budget 2017 and small businesses

The Spring Budget 2017, which was delivered on 8 March by Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, included a number of measures that will affect small businesses and online sellers:

• National Insurance contributions: It had already been announced that Class 2 NICs, for self-employed only, will be abolished in April 2018. The Chancellor said in the budget that Class 4 NICs will increased from 9% to 10% for the self-employed, and increased again to 11% in April 2019. On 15 March, it was announced that these increases will not happen and there will be no increases in NICs during the current parliament.
  
• Dividend tax allowance: If you’re working through a limited company the dividend tax allowance for directors/shareholders will be reduced from £5,000 per year to £2,000 from April 2018.
  
• Business rates: Businesses that are losing small business rate relief will have their bill increase capped at £50 a month next year.
  
• Making tax digital: Unincorporated businesses with a turnover that’s below the VAT threshold will have an extra year, until April 2019, before they have to comply with Making Tax Digital (digital record keeping and quarterly updates).
  
• VAT: The VAT registration threshold will increase from £83,000 to £85,000 on 1 April 2017. The deregistration threshold will increase from £81,000 to £83,000.
  

Read the full Spring Budget 2017 here.

£10 minimum for eBay Click & Collect

eBay has made changes to the terms and conditions for its Click & Collect at Argos programme; all listings must have a starting price of at least £10 (not including postage and packaging costs) to be eligible.

Click & Collect is automatically added to all eligible listings, excluding listings with a Best Offer option or auction format. Items are sold as normal, but if the buyer chooses to use the Click & Collect service you will be given the address for an Argos or Sainsbury’s shop to send it to.

The change was announced on 6 March and applies to new sellers to the programme immediately, and to existing sellers 30 days from the announcement. If you don’t want to accept the new terms and conditions you will need to opt out of the programme.

Read the announcement from eBay here, and read the full terms and conditions for Click & Collect at Argos here.