VAT Number for Business Account Odd Advice From Ebay Customer Support

[whoojamaflipruth]

Apologies, but this is a copy of a topic I raised on Member to member support plus an update.

I have received one of the You must change your account emails, so am looking into doing this.

My sales are way below the VAT threshold, so I would not ever need to register for a VAT number.

However, Ebay Customer Support via an email just sent me :

Please know that once you have upgraded the account to Business, then it is compulsory for every business seller to display your VAT ID Number on the account and on your listings.

So once you have upgraded the account, you can apply for the VAT ID.

Now if the HMRC is sharing to you that you do not need to apply the VAT ID, then please share the Screen Shot of their notification or response, so that we can exempt your account temporarily form the VAT ID Requirement.

This is bonkers.

Why would I write to HMRC to ask them if I need a VAT Number, if I can read their guidelines, which plainly state that I do not?

They also sent me a link for a telephone chat which I took up. Things then took an even more bonkers turn.

I have now been told that I can operate a Business Account without a VAT Registration Number, but that Ebay can write to me at any time, if I reach a figure pre-determined by them, but the Agent could not tell me what it is, as she didn't know!, and demand that I upload a VAT Number!

Does anyone actually know what the true situation is?

Thanks

Ruth

[rainbowtrax]

No one here knows the answer to that. The closest you'll get is "whenever they feel like it". They don't publish the finer details of how they operate. All we know from previous posts on these boards is that they seem to do it a while before you reach the 90k threshold, presumably when they think that you're likely to reach it soon.

[boph-67]

@papso22  ebay won’t ask yet as his is not 90k turn over that when he need to register vat as long is under and when the year gone pass and is still under then he dont need to as a new tax year start so it start again so as long is not over 90k in a year then he dont need to register for vat. 

[papso22]

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@boph-67 wrote:

.ebay won’t ask yet as his is not 90k turn over that when he need to register vat as long is under and when the year gone pass and is still under then he dont need to as a new tax year start so it start again so as long is not over 90k in a year then he dont need to register for vat. 

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The whole point is that ebay does ask before you reach 90,000, in order to cover themselves.  Also VAT thresholds do not go on tax years, they are a rolling 12 months.

I agree that you don't generally need to register for VAT if you are below the threshold, but that's not the case when you trade on ebay and ebay has a legal responsibility for any VAT that goes missing.  Then you either register when told to, or cease selling on ebay.

[boph-67]

yh they have responsibilities for vat goes missing but there ain't no vat missing as he only earn so far is way below 90k so how could it be count missing when he dont even reach yet and also ebay can see how much he make in his or her account ? Make sense bro …how could vat goes missing when his or her turn over is way below or not even reach 90k after 12 months (which is a year) 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I would suggest that you go look at HMRC to find out more about how it works.

But in a nutshell, online marketplaces are jointly viable for paying VAT.  It was put in place, to stop avoidance.

And you are talking about turnover on Ebay.  Bear in mind that Ebay does not know what other sales they are making elsewhere, so obviously err on the side of caution.

[papso22]

I know 12 months is a year, but the turnover calculations for VAT do not reset, they roll over.