eBay

trollpants · ‎23-10-2025

Good Morning

I have had the same issue with UK VAT registration as others here, I understand that HMRC has made marketplaces like ebay liable for relevant taxes so I do appreciate why eBay have implemented this draconian system for managing this.

My situation - I was selling very different items last year as a private seller, obviously nothing business related, I then started selling some of my personal Games Workshop miniatures which went really well so I turned it into a business and registered as a seller, all through the same account and trading as a sole trader. When my 12 month rolling revenue hit £90k last month I got the email saying that I had 30 days to register for VAT to avoid seller restrictions, I registered with HMRC who said it can take up to 40 days to receive my VAT number - brilliant!

If you are a sole trader and you then register a Ltd company in the UK while you are under the VAT threshold your VAT threshold actually resets to £0, I was closely monitoring my total revenue as a business seller (the sales where I wasn't selling personal items and was operating for profit) and thought I could register my company when I hit around £80k just to be safe, then I could start from £0 which would have been handy, that won't work on eBay in the UK if you are using the same account - fair enough

This is the part I am getting pretty mad about! So I received my VAT number last Friday and uploaded it to eBay and have called everyday since asking if everything has been submitted correctly, this is now the 7th day since submitting my details and my account is still restricted because of this issue. As stated I understand why eBay have had to choose this draconian policy around VAT as HMRC has taken some of these matters out of their control, but what I can not understand for the life of me is why ebay can not lift the restrictions on my seller account after 7 days of having (what I have been told is) all of the requested information about my VAT registration!!! It is obviously completely within their power to confirm the registration details and click a button on their end

Luckily the ebay store is not my only source of income, but beware anyone who is completely reliant on their ebay shop for income that is coming close to the 365 day registration threshold!

notstopbuying · ‎23-10-2025

One thing eBay need to consider, what if your total was perhaps just under the VAT threshold for registration, let's say 89K.... In the 12 month rolling time period... You then decide to take a month off, your 12 month rolling time period, you drop down to say 82K, the following month will potentially see a further drop off..... What happens to your eBay account... You would not need to register for VAT... As you would have at all times been under the threshold for registration.

Knowing ebay, would their system and customer services understand that situation and be able to lift the lock on the sellers account?

papso22 · ‎23-10-2025

Because ebay is legally liable for any VAT due from sellers on ebay who do not register when they should, they don't just use the 12 month rolling figure. We know this because they will insist on a VAT registration from sellers who are clearly under the VAT registration threshold.

So wile HMRC are OK with 'holidays' from selling to keep below the annual threshold it seems Ebay won't risk it, won't discuss it, and won't move from that position.

papso22 · ‎23-10-2025

Ebay takes no cognisance of the length of time it takes to get a VAT number but really should lift restrictions as soon as you provide it! It's profoundly wrong not to.

trollpants · ‎23-10-2025

eBay are basically liable for VAT from sellers that haven't registered so I can see why they don't mess around with this stuff.

What I can't understand is why eBay aren't much more proactive about helping sellers register and get set up in an efficient manner, it's clear in many cases that sellers so not need to be registered so this is "a cost of doing business through ebay" which is fine if it were all made very clear and processes & support were put in place to support sellers who needed to make the transition.

7 days after submitting my VAT details, about 20 tickets from UK buyers saying "why can't I order this please", Ive called ebay every day to make sure that I have submitted everything correctly and I can't through to anyone that can actually help, it's just "yeah, you have to wait"

It's an opportunity for eBay to support/educate sellers during the transition in my mind

ed_58611 · ‎23-10-2025

eBay's automated check system will take several days to verify a VAT number, and removing account restrictions takes up to a further 48 hours.

If there is an "issue" that triggers the necessity of manual verification it will take even longer, a timespan dependant on how complex the matter...

...and then there's the massive backlog of accounts waiting for verification.

notstopbuying · ‎23-10-2025

Sadly that is ridiculous....and perhaps illegal to lock a sellers account, if the seller does not legally need to register for VAT.

4_bathrooms · ‎23-10-2025

@notstopbuying wrote:
Sadly that is ridiculous....and perhaps illegal to lock a sellers account, if the seller does not legally need to register for VAT.

It is not illegal; eBay can lock anyone's account at any time for any reason at all as long as the reason isn't based on a "protected characteristic".

I have noticed one potential issue, though. When checking a VAT number eBay uses the information found on HMRC's VAT number checker here and matches that against the business details provided by the seller. If those details do not match exactly the automated check will fail. In the business details you have provided to eBay you have listed your business name as "firstname lastname" but on the HMRC VAT number checker it is listed as "firstname middlename lastname". I would suggest checking all the details found in your account settings here match exactly those recorded by HMRC.

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.

trollpants · ‎23-10-2025

Thanks for the feedback, I had checked this and there was an issue in the first instance (I am Christopher on the HMRC database and Chris on eBay), I had called eBay on several occasions in an attempt to check if there were any issues to be aware of but customer services thought not.

In relation to eBay's policies this is my understanding as well, they can not discriminate against specific sellers but they are a company/corporation and can chose who they do business with and how they do business, no one has a right to sell on eBay.

I'm not disagreeing with anything that has happened this past week, I understand why eBay have these policies, I just think the policy could be better documented & communicated and the support could be better. eBay could set up an autoresponder for sellers who's rolling 365 day revenue hits £70k with more info about eBay UK's policies around VAT registration as well as links to these types of forum conversations.

4_bathrooms · ‎23-10-2025

@trollpants wrote:
Thanks for the feedback, I had checked this and there was an issue in the first instance (I am Christopher on the HMRC database and Chris on eBay), I had called eBay on several occasions in an attempt to check if there were any issues to be aware of but customer services thought not.

I've just checked and the details still do not match.

About three years ago there was a (now archived) thread where a number of VAT registered sellers had received a notification from eBay about their payouts being suspended because their registered business names did not match HMRC's records. When I looked at a few of their accounts I noticed they had all entered information into the wrong fields - i.e. their trading name in the company name field (for example). A few of the affected sellers refused to follow the advice being given by myself and others, instead they insisted the information was correct so did nothing except attempt to resolve the matter by (repeatedly) calling eBay's (clueless) customer service representatives. Eventually eBay pulled all of their listings and one of the eBay employees who sometimes posts on the boards posted to confirm they did indeed need to ensure the information matched exactly. Once they finally made the changes and their account restrictions were removed they discovered the listings eBay had pulled could not be reinstated. One lady was very upset as she lost thousands of listings; many with a long selling history.

@trollpants wrote:

I'm not disagreeing with anything that has happened this past week, I understand why eBay have these policies, I just think the policy could be better documented & communicated and the support could be better.

Unless you're an anchor store subscribing mega seller with Concierge access you can't even speak to a customer support representative who is based in the UK. If you're lucky you'll get Dublin if not you'll get the Philippines. None of them will have a clue about eBay's VAT number requirements; you'll most likely get some vague response about not being able to share that information with you for security reasons.

Anyway; eBay does state the information you provide must match HMRC's on their VAT obligations page:

Give me ambiguity or give me something else.