***Selling on Ebay Legal Question***?

Question

Here is my situation.... I work for a retail store and would like to buy merchandise from the store as it goes on clarance, I also get an employee discount. Would it be legal for me to sell this merchandise on Ebay? Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

Yes, but make sure it is something that you want and sells well.

Answer 2

Of course, it's legal.  That doesn't mean that you will successfully sell it.

Answer 3

You could be breaking the law by operating without a business license, or by making a profit on the items and not reporting them as income on your tax return.  Your local or state laws may require you to obtain a business license to purchase items for the purpose of resale.  Federal law requires you to report the profit you make selling the items as income.

Technically you could be breaking the law, but not in the way you are talking about, and the likelihood that you would get in trouble for doing what you are proposing is small.

Good luck to you.

Answer 4

A lot of employers have a restriction on employees buying stuff with their discount.  Most employers will say its for personal use only and can't be resold.  You could get fired for doing this.

Legally (ignoring store policy for this statement) you can sell almost anything you buy for profit, if you sort out the business issues, such as licensing, sales tax, etc. and other issues (is it food, health department issues, etc) as long as its not some item that may have special rules around it (certain types of freon, guns, explosives, etc).

Your biggest issue and concern is your employers policy on this, the rest is really just paperwork.