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.