Hi, i am new to folksy. I opened my shop last year and managed sell 5 items so far. very little i know lol. but i have thoroughly enjoyed the process of learning. The thing is i have only setup my paypal account for purchases from my shop. And that is my general personal paypal. Is it ok or should i have to open a business paypal account instead. I have little knowledge when it comes to these things. Because of covid i couldnt setup stripe but thankfuly i am soon going to be able to do that. I just want things to be right if you know what i mean. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I have a personal and business PayPal. The latter was verified by PayPal and linked to a business bank account. They say a business bank account is recommended but not required. I also think a business PayPal for the customer looks more trustworthy.
Thankyou for your reply 
.To my understanding you only need to register your business once its making profit. At the moment i can not see myself making profit for a long time. I haven’t registered my business yet too. To set up paypal business account i have to give business registeration number and money earned monthly from it. I don’t have both at the moment.
I would love to know folksy members how did they started selling here in their start. Did you setup a basic account first and then later to business?? TThis will make things more clear to me, as atm i am thinking i should stick with a basic paypal account!! Any advice from you guys would be much appreciated 
Thankyou.
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I have a separate bank account but it’s a personal account. I have a business PayPal account because I am sure that in the information from Folksy to set up a shop one of the first steps was to have a business PayPal account.
I am registered with HMRC - the likelihood is I will owe them nothing, but I registered because I hope at some point to sell enough and I thought it was sensible to do that. I also have a spreadsheet of my business ins and outs - just so I have it all if someone asks.
I suggest you read here as you do need to let HMRC know whether you are making a profit or not. They do trawl through sites like this and can check whether you are registered with them as a sole trader or not. I don’t pay tax as my earnings are below the personal allowance but am still registered with them. Have know people lose their home because they did not think they should register. A simple process and worth doing.
Oh my,Thankyou so much for your advice. I will definitely look into it now. I didn’t know selling my hobby would become so serious 
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As Caroline said, you do have to register with HMRC as soon as you start selling. If your business earns less than £1000 in a year (that’s income NOT profit) then you can declare that on your tax return and you won’t have to complete the full return for that year.
As for PayPal, I started on Folksy with a basic PayPal account and then later converted it to a business account. It’s linked to a personal bank account - I don’t have a business bank account.
Hope that helps.
It is well worth having a separate bank account even if another personal one.
The other thing is remember when you initially use PayPal on a new account they hold onto the funds until the package has been delivered.
Once you start selling the HMRC considers it a business, a lot of people come unstuck on that front. You will also need public and product liability again worth getting .
On another forum there was a lady decorating bridal shoes, she would bling the heels and tops etc. One wedding the heel broke off she did not have insurance and the bride sprained her ankle and she was successfully sued. She tried to blame the manufacturer of the shoes but they sold them as they were and any alterations could affect the structure of the shoe. The responsibility was all hers.
I have so many tales on the legalities of sole traders it would make your hair curl. Used to work at a solicitors and always got people in sobbing as they had not registered etc. On the bank account worth having a separate one as again they can audit the accounts. If the one you use for every day, you have to prove funds paid in for birthday gifts etc are that and not income. A minefield.
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Thankyou for your adviceđź‘Ť.
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I am sure there was a to do list when I started selling on Folksy that listed a lot of these things as steps to take before you started selling. If you visit the Folksy blog and use the search there is loads of good info.
Hi guys, just thought I’d pop in with a link to. HMRC website regaring whether you need to register!
I got a little concerned reading the comments earlier as I haven’t registered and my understanding was that if you considered yourself as a hobbyist & didn’t make a big profit you didn’t need to register as a sole trader. I think the rules have changed since I first opened my old Etsy shop & I’m probably guilty of not keeping up with the rules! As I read it this says you need earn (not make a profit) of £1000 before you need to register but if anyone has any other info please let me know.
Cheers Lou
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Yes i use to think like that too but thanks to these wonderful people who helped. I just registered myself with hmrc. It might take a week or so but atleast i have done what needed to be done. unfortuately i couldn’t do it on my own so got some help from watching youtube videos on how to register to hmrc.My lovely husband helped too.
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There are several conflicting results about this online I have always known you have to inform the HMRC immediately when you start to buy to sell. Maybe it would be better to ring HMRC and ask them direct.
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Thanks Caroline.
I think it used to be that you had to register but didn’t have to file a tax return if you earned less than £1000 gross. It appears to have changed but I guess it’s better safe than sorry. It’s easy to register and you don’t have the faff of the tax return anyway if you earn under the limit. It didn’t take me long to start earning over the limit because it’s gross rather than profit - which is a mistake a lot of people make.
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I registered with HMRC when I became self employed even though I made a loss in my first year - I could register that loss so that it was taken off my taxable income from my previous job to reduce the amount of tax I had to pay (or rather increase the amount of tax they had to pay me back!). If you are registered with HMRC you also have the option of paying national insurance contributions (even if you are under the threshold at which it becomes mandatory) so that you stay paid up for certain benefits (eg state pension) where the amount of the benefit is based on the number of contributions you have made (an important consideration if you don’t have a company or private pension elsewhere).
With respect to bank accounts / paypal accounts etc I set up a second bank account (still a personal one rather than a business one - I checked with my bank that they were happy with that) just because it makes it easier to track income and expenditure for the tax return (I run a spreadsheet with everything on it and then double check it against the bank statements at tax return time). For paypal I started off with a personal account but switched it over to a business one as that gave me access to better invoicing facilities and tax records which became useful as my business grew.
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I think it’s in 2017 that it changed. It used to be that you had to register no matter what you made (or lost), but then they introduced a £1000 trading allowance, and now the gov website suggests you don’t have to register below that. If you’re googling then you can get results from any year, so the advice can be conflicting when the rules have recently changed, and there are even results from the past year that suggest you still have to register as soon as you start trading.
The PayPal question is another confused by recent changes. It used to be that there were 3 types of PayPal account - personal, premier and business. You needed either premier or business for Folksy (and any other selling). Now the personal and premier accounts have been merged, so a new personal account has the same uses that a premier used to.
https://folksy.uservoice.com/knowledgebase/articles/58080-do-i-need-to-use-paypal-to-sell-on-folksy
I am new to online shopping and owning a shop. I have a Paypal account but for some reasons I can’t see if the customers will pay the postage price from my shop page or the one from Paypal page. I have tried to make changes that the customers will pay the postage what it shown on my shop page but Paypal isn’t saving the change. I contacted them but they are saying that they can’t help me. What can I do
The postage will be picked up from your shop page automatically when a customer adds to basket.
You may want to add an additional amount for anything extra though as atm if someone buys the giraffe and rag rug they will be charged ÂŁ10.10. I charge extra 50p per additional item and always refund excess postage.
The postage section on PayPal is only relevant if you use PayPal buttons on your own website. This section has no connection with Folksy.
Thank you Caroleecrafts