Q: Legality of buying one's own products?
I was wondering about the legality of buying one's own products. I was thinking of buying some discounted gift cards for Etsy/Ebay where I sell products, and using them to buy some of my own products, picking up a little profit and boosting my store activity and seller profile. Are there any legal issues with doing that, or with including the money I spend on it as businesses expenses for tax purposes?
A: You have to review the Etsy and EBay terms of service you agreed to when opening your sellers account to determine whether this is a violation of any of their policies which could get you suspended. Legally speaking, apart from terms of service, the only issue I could see is if you are presenting business data to lenders or investors and this could be seen as some type of misrepresentation of your business financials. I would have to discuss the situation in more detail with you to offer an intelligent opinion regarding your liability.
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