It’s difficult to read the text in the above graphic but it’s the latest news on Amazon.co.uk Seller Central released on 16th August. If you’re an Amazon seller, you can easily view the announcement in your selling dashboard.
It’s an advisory announcement from Amazon that reads:
“Information regarding your account
This is a reminder that we may be required under UK legislation to disclose limited information about amazon.co.uk Seller accounts to HMRC, if HMRC make a formal request to us for this information. If you have questions about VAT ad whether you have a UK was liability, please visit the following websites where you can obtain more information.”
And there follow links to tax advisors who can best advise US and Chinese sellers as well as a link to the relevant UK legislation.
Make of this what you will, but it seems to me that Amazon is covering itself in the likely event that HMRC is going to start using the powers it was granted during the last UK Budget to tackle non-UK sellers who have been exploiting the VAT situation.
What do you reckon?
16 Responses
The powers granted in the last budget have not yet fully gone through parliament.
It is likely they will be passed late September (2016 Finance Bill). Amazon will have an Account Manager within Hmrc who would likely to have advised them that this is going to happen and Hmrc are going to act on the 900 or so accounts they have been passed of VAT evading Chinese sellers.
The list also has many hundreds of eBay sellers, yet they are silent as of yet. Is it possible for Tamebay to contact them for comment re their marketplace?
I have also seen proof that Amazon are emailing Chinese sellers informing them that they have passed their details on to Hmrc……watch this space.
https://onlineselleruk.com/amazon-sent-another-email-chinese-sellers-vat/
The measures announced in the last budget from plants of the 2016 finance bill. This will be passed hopefully in September.
It appears that Amazon must have been contacted by their account manager at HMRC and that they are putting this notice on Seller Central in readiness for this. HMRC have a list of 900 VAT evading Chinese sellers and must be ready to run with this as soon as the law comes into effect.
As of yet there has been no announcement from eBay. Maybe tamebay could contact eBay to see what is happening on their market place in relation to the new law?
About bloody time!
excellent news!
To be fair, I know a lot of domestic sellers who are ignoring some of their sales, thus not being V.A.T compliant in other EU countries.
I will be launching some software that will make it easier for Amazon sellers to calculate their V.A.T liabilities in an automated fashion.
Will let know tamebay readers know when we do launch!
good news , HMRC could easily ask EBAY and AMAZON to freeze all the suspect chinese and uk sellers avoiding vat , then send the uk sellers back dated vat bill based on there sales figures from previous years and big fines
chinese sellers are bit harder to ask for back dated vat but im sure if they have stock at amazon warehouse that could be confiscated or destroyed at amazon expense
The Chinese traders will simply keep changing accounts to ensure they don’t hit the threshold. It will be interesting to see how Amazon and HMRC deal with that.
It would be a good feature for Amazon to have a dashboard that helps traders monitor their VAT threshold position in each market and offer better support in this area, this would certainly help expand their FBA offering.
About time, well done of Chris Heaton-Harris,MP for his continual badgering of the Government to stop the abuse of the Chinese sellers. They have been stealing billions of pounds from us by not paying VAT and taxes which should be going into our Police and the NHS.
These sellers should be closed down, goods confiscated and banned from the country.
I feel very strongly about this as they have destroyed British businesses and stolen money from the British people.
At last Amazon and hopefully EBay are going do something they have the data and the power.
Still dont understand why VAT is not charged at source by Ebay and Amazon after the threshold has been met…Job solve. Level playing field
Wouldn’t it be a miracle if something actually happened….
VAT evasion on Amazon has been going on for a long time and is so prevalant and blatant its almost become the norm for oversea sellers.
Although you cant tar everyone with the same brush (as there are some genuine legitmate oversee sellers) give me 10 min on Amazon and I will find you 15-20 sellers with no Vat numbers, Vat numbers that dont belong or match their company details , or VAT numbers that are simply made up and Invalid.
The really frustrating thing is that its so easy to verify a VAT number and flag up before a costly Investigation is even needed.
For example the below website lists many Amazon/Ebay sellers with VAT numbers that are either invalid or belong to someone else.
https://www.vatfraud.org/amazon-sellers/
This is like saying, here you go HMRC, here is a quick Billion that you could try claw back, no need for lengthy costly investigations, the work has been done for you and verified.
Are you interested, will you do anything.
Do you believe in miracles.
AW