Update your business information

[spendwise20]

Hi, 

i have upgraded my private seller account to UK LTD business account on ebay. Ebay requires to update my business information and i uploaded company house certificate which I received by companies house. 
i created new company so only have company certificate. 
but ebay is not accepting that document and requesting to not submit again same document. I don’t have other document like hmrc self assessment, tax return filling. 
anyone please guide me how to tackle this situation. 
Thanks

[4_bathrooms]

Did you set up this account whilst trading as a sole trader?

I'm pretty certain you can't change the business type to a limited company if that is the case as a sole trader and a company are separate legal entities. If you go to your business information page what does it state under "Business type"? Does it state "Sole trader" or "Corporation"?

[game_raid]

You can change from sole trader to LTD, I did mine last year.

All they required was the certificate of incorporation, so I'm not sure why the OP is having issues. They do want all pages of the certificate companies house send not just the certificate on page one.

It could be the PSC, names and addresses don't match if everything has been uploaded, so that could be worth checking.

[4_bathrooms]

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@game_raid wrote:

You can change from sole trader to LTD, I did mine last year.

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Bizarrely, that goes against eBay's own published policy:

"In the interest of protecting our buyers and sellers, and maintaining a safe marketplace, you can’t sell your eBay account or change its ownership."

I always thought the only change of ownership eBay allowed was when "upgrading" (voluntarily or not) from a private account to a business account. 

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@game_raid wrote:

All they required was the certificate of incorporation, so I'm not sure why the OP is having issues. They do want all pages of the certificate companies house send not just the certificate on page one.

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The OP stated: "I don’t have other document like hmrc self assessment, tax return filling." If eBay are requesting a copy of a self assessment tax return it suggests they believe the OP is a sole trader (or ordinary partnership) rather than a registered company. Hopefully the OP will come back and clarify what their "Business type" is showing as and to clarify exactly what documents eBay are requesting. The company name and address shown in their public "Business seller information" section matches that registered with Companies House so a name or address mismatch doesn't seem to be the culprit.

[game_raid]

I am the PSC which matches my existing home address, account details, all you are changing is the legal entity, which I am the Director, I wasn't, you aren't transferring the ownership to anyone else.

It shows as my name with all my details below

Primary contact, Beneficial owner, Business director.

A pretty straightforward process, took maybe 3 hours and this included changing my bank to the business bank account, listings stayed active and sales continued, there was a hold on funds which was released once all was complete.

I would say it's manually processed due to the time taken.

They never requested a self assessment, CUTR for the LTD Company, the new company wouldn't have a return anyway just a registration. 

I went through all of the above at other marketplaces and were just as painless, all they wanted was the certificate of incorporation, all of the pages not just the certificate, the other pages include the IN01, statement of capital and PSC

[4_bathrooms]

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@game_raid wrote:

I am the PSC which matches my existing home address, account details, all you are changing is the legal entity, which I am the Director, I wasn't, you aren't transferring the ownership to anyone else.

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Where a registered company is concerned the PSC, directors and shareholders are separate legal entities to the company itself. A company is a legal person; ownership of the company can change but the company remains the same legal entity. Where eBay is concerned the company is the owner of the eBay account; not the PSC.

This is why I'm surprised eBay allowed an account that was registered to a sole trader to be transferred to a company; "Mr. Some Body" is a separate legal entity to "Some Company Ltd". 

[game_raid]

Yes, I know they are separate legal entities, and I know the company is the owner of the account. Of course the ownership of the company can change, but if it does I can't transfer the eBay account to the new owner due to their policy because I am registered as the Primary contact, Beneficial owner, Business director which I can not change.

Well I suppose I can change but it will soon be picked up and the account suspended.

My details are verified as below.

As long as everything matches your existing account which was registered as a sole trader then you won't have an issue changing to a LTD company.

I have 2 addresses, my office address and my home address which is the beneficial owner address which was the sole trader address.

I would imagine that if I changed the account registration details to someone else it would cause issues because the new details haven't been verified and don't match what they have on file.

I went through this with an account specialist who was UK based in Slough, as I was unsure about a few things.

[papso22]

I am also surprised.

[game_raid]

It was exactly the same process with the big A and they are a lot more strict than eBay, in fact the big A account was verified quicker.

They are known to close you down without hesitation if something is a miss, they only difference with them you have to inform them first before doing anything, hence the reason I got a call back on here.

If you couldn't change legal entity why even have the option on the account?

[ojewellery]

I was the same as @game_raid   I went from an eBay  private account to sole trader then changed the account to ltd company.

In eBay land it appears that a named person linked to a company is who they think of the company as.  Goodness knows how big business' cope when an employee is their eBay person and they move on. 

@spendwise20  whilst your ltd company may yet not of done a return it will still need to have an HMRC account for doing its filings.  Have you/ your accountant created that?  It'd give the ltd company its own unique tax payer reference, would probably come with a brown envelope letter to your registered address but would in the meantime it'd quickly give you something to screenshot to send to eBay to further legitimise your business.  Other items can be things like wholesaler invoices with your full business name and address on.

[game_raid]

That's what I was told, the named person who opened the account is still the registered eBay account owner which can't be transferred or changed.

I did what I was advised and there hasn't been any issues.

[4_bathrooms]

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@game_raid wrote:

Of course the ownership of the company can change, but if it does I can't transfer the eBay account to the new owner

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The eBay account wouldn't have a new owner; the company would remain the owner of the eBay account.

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@game_raid wrote:

Well I suppose I can change but it will soon be picked up and the account suspended.

My details are verified as below.

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This is what appears in my stakeholder (PSC) section:

Changing details in that section does not cause eBay to suspend the account. If anything is changed it will cause eBay's money laundering checks to kick in again meaning payouts will be withheld until the AMLR checks are complete.

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@game_raid wrote:

I have 2 addresses, my office address and my home address which is the beneficial owner address which was the sole trader address.

I would imagine that if I changed the account registration details to someone else it would cause issues because the new details haven't been verified and don't match what they have on file.

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If I remember correctly if the business type is set to corporation (i.e. a company) the details in the "Business details" section must match those registered with Companies House. The details of any PSCs can be entirely different. I'm just surprised eBay allows an account's ownership to be changed from a sole trader to a company as it goes against eBay's own published policy; i.e. changing ownership of the account.

Anyway...I've discovered the OP's stated "Business type" is definitely not the problem. They have a couple of sold items and in the business seller information section their CRN is shown so it must be set correctly.

[papso22]

It seems from the other posts that it is yet another example of ebay's understanding of UK law being flawed as they are allowing something to happen simply because the same person is doing it, ignoring that the same natural person is not the same legal person.