How Long to Keep eBay Seller Records in the UK

Every seller eventually reaches the same moment: a box of old printouts, a folder of exported spreadsheets, and a decision about whether any of it can go in the bin. Throw out the wrong thing and you cannot support your tax return. Keep everything forever and you collect clutter, and with it a pile of buyers' names and addresses you have no reason to hold. The honest answer to "how long?" is not one number. It depends on the type of record, on how you trade (sole trader or limited company), on whether you are VAT registered, and on what has happened since you filed.

This guide sets out the periods that apply to UK eBay sellers, shows the dates for each recent tax year, explains where five years is not the whole story, and lists what to download from eBay before it is too late to bother. It also separates what the law says from what is merely sensible, because the two are easy to blur. Everything below was checked against official pages in October 2026.

1. The sole trader rule and the dates it gives you

GOV.UK's page on how long to keep your records says: keep records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the relevant tax year. HMRC may check them to confirm you are paying the right amount of tax. The page's example is the 2022 to 2023 return, sent online by 31 January 2024, with records kept until at least the end of January 2029.

The same rule is in law. Section 12B of the Taxes Management Act 1970 requires a person who may be required to make a return to keep the records needed for a correct and complete return and to preserve them until the relevant day. For someone carrying on a trade, profession or business, that day is the fifth anniversary of the 31 January following the tax year, and for the content of those records the Act says they must include all money received and spent in the business and what each payment related to and, for goods trading, all sales and purchases.

Applying the rule gives these minimum dates, assuming the return is filed on time:

The first row is HMRC's own example. The 2026 to 2027 row matches the example on HMRC's Making Tax Digital page, which says records for that year must be kept until at least 31 January 2033. The other rows apply the same five-year step.

Note the starting point: it is the 31 January after the tax year ends, not the end of the year itself. A sale made in May 2026 sits in the 2026 to 2027 year, so its paperwork has to be kept until at least 31 January 2033, nearly seven years from the sale.

Worth remembering: the clock runs per tax year, so you cannot dispose of "2022 records" in one go in January 2029 unless every item belongs to that year. Filing records by tax year (6 April to 5 April) makes disposal straightforward.

2. When five years is not enough

Enquiries and the window to open them

HMRC's Compliance Handbook sets out the business retention period as the latest of several dates: the fifth anniversary of the 31 January following the tax year; the completion of any enquiry into the matters the records relate to; and the day the enquiry window closes, which for a return filed on time is 12 months after filing. In practice, for an on-time return the five-year date is the latest, so it controls. The practical point is that if HMRC opens an enquiry, you keep the records until it is complete, whatever the calendar says.

Late returns

The GOV.UK page says that if you file more than 4 years after the deadline, you keep records for 15 months after you send the return. A related rule in the Act says someone who receives a notice to file after the normal date and still holds relevant records must keep them until the day that would have applied had the notice been given on time. If you have a late or missing return from an earlier year, keep every record you still have until you have taken advice.

HMRC's time limits to go back

This is the part most guides skip. Under section 34 of the Taxes Management Act 1970, an assessment to Income Tax may ordinarily be made not more than 4 years after the end of the tax year. Section 36 extends that to 6 years where the loss of tax was brought about carelessly, and to 20 years where it was brought about deliberately. Both are subject to any other provision of the Taxes Acts allowing a longer period.

Put the 6-year limit next to the record-keeping rule. Take the 2022 to 2023 year, which ended on 5 April 2023. Six years later is 5 April 2029. The minimum record-keeping date, from the table above, is 31 January 2029, about two months earlier. The two are different rules with different purposes, and the law does not require you to keep records until the end of the careless-error window. But if you want your paperwork to be available for the whole period in which HMRC could assess a careless error, you would keep it for 6 years after the end of the tax year. That conclusion is my reading of the two provisions, not HMRC advice, and it is a sensible reason to treat five years as a floor rather than a target.

Other cases HMRC names

• Capital assets. The Compliance Handbook says records relating to acquiring or improving a capital asset follow separate guidance. If you buy equipment such as a computer or van on the capital allowances route, keep the purchase documents for as long as you claim, plus the usual period.
• Business that is not on a tax-year basis. The Handbook's second date is the sixth anniversary of the end of the period for returns not made up to a tax year.
• Records for personal income only. GOV.UK's page for people who are not running a business says to keep records for at least 22 months after the end of the tax year if you filed on time, and 15 months after sending the return if late. That is shorter than the business rule. It applies to non-business records, so do not use it for your trading records, and note that GOV.UK says self-employed records must be kept for longer.

3. What counts as a record

HMRC's page on what records to keep for self-employed people lists, in broad terms, three families of evidence:

• Sales: all sales and income records, supported by sales invoices, till rolls and bank slips.
• Purchases and expenses: receipts for goods and stock, and records of all business expenses.
• Bank: bank statements and chequebook stubs. The page says you may be able to use a personal or business account, so check with your bank which type is suitable for business transactions.

It also lists VAT records if you are registered, PAYE records if you employ people, and records of your personal income. The page says records must be accurate and that you must be able to identify business transactions. You do not send records in with the return, but you show them to HMRC if asked. If you use traditional accounting rather than cash basis, there are extra items: money owed to you that you have not yet received, money you have committed to spend but not paid, the value of stock at the end of the accounting period, year-end bank balances, how much you invested in the business and how much you took out. Our guide on cash basis or traditional accounting explains which method you are likely on.

Under the 2024 Self Assessment notes, a trader who claims the £1,000 trading allowance does not complete the expenses boxes, but GOV.UK's trading allowance page still says that if your gross trading income is £1,000 or less you must keep records, such as invoices, bank statements and payment statements. So "under the allowance" does not mean "no records".

4. Getting your records out of eBay

Most of an eBay seller's evidence starts life inside eBay's systems. eBay's UK help page on reconciling sales transactions describes the reports available, and it is worth knowing exactly what each does.

• Transaction report. A CSV breakdown of all account activity for a date range you choose. In Seller Hub, you go to the Payments tab, choose Reports, then Transaction report, pick the type and the start and end dates, and select Create report. eBay emails you when it is ready. It includes the transaction date, order number, buyer name, payout date and fees, with identifiers such as order ID, item ID, payout ID and transaction ID, and amounts including gross and net totals, fees, charges, adjustments, holds, claims and payment disputes. The help page does not state a maximum date span.
• Monthly financial statement. A PDF summary of your monthly activity with a detailed view of that month's orders, claims, refunds, payment disputes, payouts, fees and credits. eBay says financial statements are available to download for 10 years from the date of issue. It covers only payments eBay processed, is not an invoice, and does not replace other reports.
• Monthly invoice. A separate invoice covers seller fees, other costs and applicable taxes, available as a PDF summary and a CSV detailed view from the Invoices tab under Reports.

eBay also says that for activity before you registered for eBay Payments, you should request a copy of your eBay data or contact your previous payment processor. The ten-year figure is generous compared with the five-year minimum, but do not treat eBay as your archive. A report you can only reach by logging in is not a record you control. The simplest approach is to download the monthly statement, the transaction report and the invoice for each month, name them by month, and store them with your own bank statements.

Why the eBay records and the bank record will not match

A payout in your bank account is a lump sum covering several orders, less fees, and possibly adjusted for refunds. The transaction report is what joins the two: it carries the payout ID alongside the order and fee lines. HMRC says you must be able to identify business transactions, and matching each payout to the orders behind it is the easiest way to do that, ideally while the month is fresh. Our guide to how eBay pays you and our piece on Managed Payments explain the timing.

5. The records on the supplier side

If you dropship, a second set of documents lives outside eBay: invoices or order confirmations from the supplier, proof you paid them, and refunds they gave you. These are your purchase evidence. HMRC's list calls for receipts for goods and stock, and those documents are what show that the cost of goods you claimed was real.

A practical suggestion, which is my recommendation rather than an HMRC requirement: link each sale to its supplier order. Record the eBay order number against the supplier's order reference, so that a single lookup shows what you charged, what you paid, and the dates. If you can show that chain for one order, you can show it for all of them. Our two-spreadsheet guide sets out a layout that supports this.

Things worth keeping because they help you resolve a dispute rather than because tax law requires them: order messages with buyers, delivery tracking, photos of damaged items, and returns correspondence. Treat them as business records that last as long as a claim could realistically arise. In England and Wales, section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980 says an action founded on simple contract may not be brought after six years, so contract-based claims can in principle arrive years after a sale. Limitation rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland, so check the rule for where you sell if you are weighing how long to hold dispute files.

6. Scans, photos and digital copies

You do not have to keep every piece of paper. HMRC's Compliance Handbook says you can meet the duty to preserve records by keeping the information rather than the original, provided the method of storage can capture all the information needed to make a correct and complete return and can reproduce it in a legible form. If it cannot do both, the originals must be kept. Photographing a record to create an exact replica is described as an accepted method. Section 12B of the Act agrees that the duty may be met by keeping the original records or the information in them, in any form and by any means, subject to some listed exceptions where originals must be kept (these concern certain statements, records given to subcontractors under the Construction Industry Scheme regulations, and records needed for foreign tax claims).

In practice for an eBay seller:

• Scan or photograph paper receipts at full legibility and store them by tax year. A faded thermal receipt that is illegible is not a good record, so photograph it the day you receive it.
• Keep the files in a form you can open in years to come. PDF and CSV are the formats eBay itself uses for statements and reports.
• Do not rely on a single place. HMRC's Making Tax Digital guidance on changing software says that after a tax year ends you do not need to import old records into new software, but you must store them securely and be able to access them. The same is true of any system you use. Our guide to backing up the records your business depends on covers the practical side.

7. Making Tax Digital: digital records and the same five years

If you fall into Making Tax Digital for Income Tax, the digital record-keeping page says to keep digital records for at least 5 years after the 31 January submission deadline for the tax year, and to continue normal Self Assessment record keeping, keeping original records or copies such as bank statements and invoices. Each digital record contains the amount, the date and a category, and records should be created as close to the transaction date as possible. The retention period itself matches the sole trader rule above. For the start dates, thresholds and quarterly deadlines, read our guide to Making Tax Digital for Income Tax.

HMRC's legal framework page on the digital record obligation adds a separate penalty of up to £3,000 for failing to meet those requirements, with the rule that no penalty applies under it for a period where a penalty has already been charged under section 12B(5).

8. VAT records

HMRC's VAT notice on record keeping says: keep all business records for VAT purposes for at least 6 years, and records used for other taxes may need to be kept longer. HMRC may allow some records to be kept for a shorter period if the six-year rule causes serious storage problems or undue expense; you ask VAT general enquiries. If you deregister from VAT, the digital record requirement ends, but you must still keep your VAT records for the required period.

The notice names normal business records as including bank statements, cash books, credit and debit notes, orders and delivery notes, purchase and sales books, till rolls and relevant correspondence, plus two items specific to VAT: the VAT account and VAT invoices for supplies to other VAT-registered businesses. It says you keep a copy of every VAT invoice you issue and keep the invoices you receive, because they support input tax claims.

VAT records have a digital angle too. The notice says the records that form your electronic VAT account must be kept digitally in functional compatible software, and that data moved between software must use digital links, with copy and paste not acceptable. It also deals with scans: typed-in invoice data does not replace the original invoice, but a scanned invoice can replace the original if the image contains all the required VAT detail, unless the original is needed for another purpose. Some documents, such as a C79 import VAT certificate, must be kept in original form. If you import goods, that last point matters. For an overview of whether VAT applies to you, see our guide to VAT for UK eBay dropshippers.

Because the VAT period is longer than the sole trader income tax minimum, the longer period governs documents that serve both. HMRC's Compliance Handbook says that where a record must be kept for several taxes, the longer period applies.

9. If you trade through a limited company

A company has its own rules. GOV.UK says a limited company must keep accounting records, including all money received and spent, assets and debts, year-end stock and the stocktakes behind it, all goods bought and sold and the buyers and sellers (unless it is a retail business), plus supporting records such as receipts, orders, delivery notes, invoices, contracts, sales books, bank statements and correspondence. They must be kept for at least 6 years from the end of the last company financial year they relate to, and longer if they cover more than one accounting period, relate to assets expected to last more than 6 years, the Company Tax Return was filed late, or HMRC has started a compliance check. HMRC can fine you £3,000, or you can be disqualified as a director, for not keeping accounting records.

If you are deciding whether to incorporate, our sole trader versus limited company guide covers the wider question.

10. Penalties and what HMRC does in practice

Section 12B(5) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 allows a penalty "not exceeding £3,000" for failing to keep or preserve records. HMRC's Self Assessment legal framework manual puts it as up to £3,000 for each failure to keep or preserve adequate records in support of a tax return, and says HMRC will normally seek it only in serious cases, such as a history of record-keeping failures or records destroyed deliberately to obstruct an enquiry. Where failures come to light during an enquiry, they are usually taken into account in deciding whether to reduce other penalties. The taxpayer can appeal.

That quiet enforcement should not make you relaxed. The bigger risk of poor records is practical: if you cannot prove a cost, you may lose the deduction, and if you cannot support the figures you gave, a small error becomes harder to defend. The Act also says no penalty is charged under this section where the missing records relate only to claims, elections or notices outside the return.

If records are lost or destroyed

GOV.UK's guidance for lost, stolen or destroyed records is that if you cannot replace them, you must still give your best figures. When you file, tell HMRC whether you used estimated figures, meaning your best guess where actual figures are not available, or provisional figures, temporary estimates while you wait for actual ones, in which case you must submit the actual figures once you have them. For an eBay seller the first thing to try is replacing records from the source: statements from eBay, your bank and your suppliers.

11. Buyers' personal data inside your records

The eBay transaction report includes buyer names, so your financial records can contain personal data. The ICO's storage limitation guidance says to keep personal data no longer than is necessary for the purposes it is processed, that the law does not set fixed retention periods, and that you should not keep data indefinitely "just in case". It lists legal, regulatory and tax requirements, and defending possible legal claims, among the factors to weigh in setting periods, and says to delete once such claims can no longer arise. It also says small organisations doing occasional low-risk processing may not need a documented policy but must still review and delete data they no longer need.

The workable position for a seller: keep what tax law and genuine dispute risk require, for as long as they require, then delete. A tax record with a buyer name is covered by the tax period. A message thread with an address in it from five years ago, about an order with no dispute, is harder to justify. One approach, which is a design choice rather than a rule, is to keep financial exports that do not need names, and to remove address columns from your stored copy of the report. Our GDPR guide for a one-person eBay shop goes through the rest.

12. A retention schedule you can adapt

The table gives a minimum for each record type, with the source for each period. Where the basis is my suggestion rather than a rule, it says so.

Illustrative example: a sole trader's June 2026 order falls in the 2026 to 2027 tax year. The return is due on 31 January 2028, so the supplier invoice and the eBay statement for that month must be kept until at least 31 January 2033 (31 January 2028 plus five years). If the same trader is VAT registered, the VAT notice's six-year minimum applies to the VAT records as well, and the longer of the periods that apply to a document governs. HMRC's VAT notice should be checked for exactly where the six years start counting, so work from the actual dates for your own records.

13. A simple routine that makes this painless

1. Monthly: download the eBay statement, transaction report and invoice. Save with the supplier invoices for the same month. Match payouts to bank deposits.
2. Quarterly: if you are in Making Tax Digital, check that the records behind each update are complete before it is sent.
3. After filing: file everything by tax year (6 April to 5 April) and write the "keep until" date (31 January plus five years) on each folder.
4. Every January: destroy the folder whose "keep until" date has passed, after checking that no enquiry is open and no late return is outstanding for that year.
5. Backups: keep at least one copy off the machine you work on, and test that you can open it.

14. Common mistakes

• Counting five years from the end of the tax year. It runs from the 31 January after it.
• Treating eBay as the archive. The 10-year statement window covers only payments eBay processed, and a report you can only reach by logging in is not a record you control.
• Discarding the original of a record that cannot be reproduced legibly. HMRC says originals must be kept if your storage cannot capture everything and reproduce it clearly.
• Forgetting that VAT is six years. If you are VAT registered, the longer VAT period applies to those records.
• Using the 22-month rule for trading records. That period is for people who are not in business.
• Deleting during an enquiry or with a late return outstanding. The periods lengthen in both cases.
• Keeping personal data for no reason. Once tax and dispute reasons have expired, delete.
• Mixing personal and business transactions in one bank account without a way to tell them apart. HMRC says you must be able to identify business transactions.

Sources and how we checked

Facts in this guide were checked against these official pages in October 2026. Rules and figures change, so confirm anything that affects a decision. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

• Business records if you're self-employed (GOV.UK)
• What records to keep (GOV.UK)
• How long to keep your records (GOV.UK)
• Keeping your pay and tax records: how long to keep your records (GOV.UK)
• Taxes Management Act 1970, section 12B (legislation.gov.uk)
• Taxes Management Act 1970, section 34 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Taxes Management Act 1970, section 36 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Limitation Act 1980, section 5 (legislation.gov.uk)
• CH14530 Record keeping: retention periods for business records (HMRC Compliance Handbook)
• CH14100 Record keeping: retention of records (HMRC Compliance Handbook)
• CH13100 How records may be preserved (HMRC Compliance Handbook)
• SALF211 Requirement to keep records (HMRC Self Assessment legal framework)
• SALF1200 Obligation to keep digital records (HMRC Self Assessment legal framework)
• Record keeping (VAT Notice 700/21) (HMRC)
• Company and accounting records (GOV.UK)
• If your circumstances change, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (HMRC)
• Create digital records for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (HMRC)
• Tax-free allowances on property and trading income (HMRC)
• Reconciling your eBay sales transactions (eBay UK help)
• Storage limitation (ICO)

Questions people ask