topic Re: eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme in Member To Member Support

eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme

fivercam-com — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 12:59:31 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am looking for advice or an executive escalation point from anyone who has successfully resolved this issue.

eBay’s automated compliance system has incorrectly flagged my UK sole trader account as an overseas / non-UK established business (NETP). Because of this incorrect classification, eBay is overriding my listings and forcing a blanket 20% VAT collection from my buyers at checkout.

This is a massive issue for my business because I am a UK-resident sole trader selling used goods under the official HMRC VAT Margin Scheme.

Under UK law, VAT should only be calculated on my profit margin—never a flat 20% on the full selling price. I operate entirely out of my UK residential address. I have provided eBay with full proof of UK establishment, including my National Insurance number, UTR, official UK VAT Certificate, business bank statements, and utility bills.

The Support Loop and Broken Email:

Despite sending all of this physical proof, standard customer support keeps putting me into an endless "please wait 72 hours" loop. Front-line staff send nothing but copy-paste answers and do not understand the difference between an overseas trader and a UK-resident margin scheme business.

To make matters worse, the specific compliance email address customer support provided for sending establishment documents bounces back as invalid / undeliverable.

Has any other UK sole trader been wrongly hit with this overseas tax flag? If you managed to get a human specialist at eBay to actually look at your HMRC documents and clear the restriction, how did you do it?

Thanks in advance.

Re: eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme

papso22 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:20:06 GMT

There are a couple of threads about this on the main seller discussion boards.

Re: eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme

fivercam-com — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 13:47:35 GMT

Thank I am new here, I will try to find them

Re: eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme

fivercam-com — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:56:20 GMT

If there are "couple of threads about this on the main seller discussion boards" then please help me. Then please let me know the solution or direct me to the post as I could not find any post that is specifically same as mine. Thank you!

Re: eBay Incorrectly Charging 20% VAT on Used Items Under Margin Scheme

tobiasd4 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 16:30:57 GMT

Here you go.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/20-VAT-Auto-applied-all-my-listings/td-p/8034721#M775749