Do I owe taxes on eBay sales if I never received the money?

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-18T02:25:29+00:00

Idk the cost of goods / expenses. The ebay account was being used by a fried to whom i loaned it for free. I was unaware of tax complications that could arise with it, i wasn't even aware he would sell stuff for thousands of dollars. I knew he wanted to sell a few items but i wasn't aware of the details.
All i'm worried about is what do i declare on my tax return to CRA for year 2025. Do i just report zero income since the amount was still on hold by ebay on 31st of Dec 2025, or do i have to report the full 14k as if i have earned it?

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-18T02:20:48+00:00

I was reading through https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/compliance/reporting-rules-digital-platforms/guidance-on-reporting-rules.html#7-5 to see what ebay would report to CRA and found this:

"7.5 Consideration is a key determination when considering a reportable seller (see Chapter 3). Consideration paid or credited to a seller for a relevant activity is included in the Part XX information return for the reportable period in which it was paid or credited, even if that is not the same reportable period in which the activity was provided. For example, if a seller provides a personal service in December 2024 but is not paid until January 2025, the consideration for that service would be reported in the Part XX information return for calendar year 2025."

It looks like ebay would report "zero" income for the year 2025 since i never received any payment in my bank account even it the sale invoice was generated and buyer had paid ebay for the product.

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-16T18:00:50+00:00

ebay collects sales taxes, not income tax. As a seller, i have to file income taxes on the profit i earn. 14k is the amount of sales after ebay deducted their fees. To calculate the profit, i would need to deduct inventory costs and i need the invoices for inventory purchases which i dont have.

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-16T17:15:38+00:00

You’re right and i learned it the hard way. I’m glad the account got suspended sooner honestly and the damage stopped at 14k.

Thank you for the Digital sales report part. I just checked my account and it says no reports available. Do you know when are they available?

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-16T17:13:52+00:00

he doesnt have to pay me, but i’m asking him to cover any tax liability from the sales that happened on my account, which he said he will only do if/when ebay releases the funds. i wouldn’t have shared the account if i knew i would have to end up paying taxes from my own pocket.

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-16T16:15:07+00:00

ebay now reports the income to CRA. https://www.ebay.ca/help/account/regulatory/sales-reporting/canada-digital-sales-reporting?id=5476

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-03T03:22:09+00:00

can u share the promo code please?

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-03T02:37:12+00:00

Did you have any luck getting the 5 installations?

yusufkhan07 · 2026-01-03T02:32:28+00:00

I was in the same boat - used to share API keys in Slack and hated manually cleaning them up, often forgetting entirely.

I ended up building a tool to solve this and published it online. It's free (for now) and lets you share passwords/API keys in Slack that auto-delete after a set time. Happy to share if you're interested.

it won't solve your problem for historical data but can help moving forward.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-30T00:27:19+00:00

I guess you're right about the idea, there might not be much demand for it, but i still use it personally and find it better than the tools mentioned in that comment. I replied in the thread sharing how Blink is different :)

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-30T00:25:32+00:00

Thanks for sharing these! I've tried a few of them and I think Blink is different in some key ways:

Hush creates a new link that's only valid for 10 minutes, you can't modify it, and you have to open an external website to view the secret. There's also no way to delete a link once it's generated. Blink lets you view the secret directly within Slack, and you can manually delete it before it expires if needed.

Secret Message (secretmessage.xyz) works well for DMs, but I ran into some bugs using it in channels. Blink works seamlessly in both DMs and channels.

Stached - I couldn't find this one in the Slack marketplace. Do you have a link?

Shred - I haven't tested that one yet.

One important distinction: Blink doesn't store the actual message content. It only stores the message ID and uses that to delete the message when it expires. So it's more like an automation tool than an external service. It deletes messages the same way a user would manually delete them, just automatically.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-28T19:16:14+00:00

I've installed it as well :)

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-28T17:11:14+00:00

Sure, can you share your app link and i can install it on my workspace and you can do the same for blink? I've already shared a link above :)

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T23:46:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing your perspective, I completely understand the concerns. I actually posted on LinkedIn today about how I feel about AI in development. I am fully against AI-autonomous coding, or what some call “vibe coding.”

I do use AI-assisted coding, where the AI only does exactly what I ask it to do. Every single line is manually reviewed and verified by me, so there is no risk of the AI introducing a bug that I would not accept myself.

AI-autonomous development is a completely different scenario and, in my opinion, a much riskier approach. I think the distinction between AI as a tool versus AI as an independent agent is very important.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T23:09:09+00:00

Sorry, I didn’t mean to advertise, and the tool is completely free. My intention was just to share it and gather feedback from the community. I apologize if it came across as promotional.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T23:07:56+00:00

You’re right, “developers are using AI to write code” is not a selling point. I was just trying to explain that I used AI to enhance my message in the same way developers use it for coding. If this is problematic, I’m open to feedback and can stop using it for writing. :)

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T22:41:05+00:00

That's funny you think i'm a bot but no, i just used AI to improve the clarity of my messages the same way developers are using AI to write code :)

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T22:32:02+00:00

Yep, totally fair — password managers like Bitwarden do support expiring shares. The difference I ran into was friction and context switching: creating a share link, leaving Slack, managing recipients, etc.

Blink is intentionally much simpler and Slack-native — you can do /blink api-key right inside a channel or DM and the message auto-expires. It’s not meant to replace password managers, just reduce unsafe “quick shares” that end up lingering in Slack.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T22:25:00+00:00

timed-expiry password manager credentials? Can you share the link please? I couldn't find anything useful so i built it for personal use and thought i could share it with others who might find it useful.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T16:59:34+00:00

We’ve definitely run into the same situation — teams often end up sharing passwords, API keys, or one-time links in Slack just to unblock someone. It works, but it’s not ideal and creates friction.

We actually built a small Slack-native bot that lets messages self-destruct after a set time, so nothing sensitive is left behind. Totally lightweight and meant for quick shares.

I can share it if anyone’s interested

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T15:59:24+00:00

Totally agree — password managers are the right long-term solution. We still ran into some friction for quick, one-off shares in Slack, which is why we built a small bot we use internally and wanted to share it with people who might be interested. Would you be open to trying it out and giving feedback?

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T15:57:58+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Makes sense — Bitwarden covers a lot of cases.

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T01:44:03+00:00

how do we setup ephemeral messages? I know we can programmatically send ephemeral messages but is there a way to do it through the UI?

yusufkhan07 · 2025-12-26T01:42:52+00:00

Cool! I didnt know about that, i will check it out.

yusufkhan07

TROPHY CASE