Sales of books and the issue of invoicing - a bit confused
Hi. I am a novice at Amazon and started selling books (mainly used) because I read a lot myself so this is my passion in a way.
I stock up on books at Charity shops and book stores, sometimes I get a lot of books for free from people who want to discard these books anyway. I always have a purchase receipt or invoice but e.g. when I buy 50-100 books at one time in a Charity Shop or book store, they usually issue a classic receipt or invoice where the final purchase price is. There are no individual books on the invoice. My question should I have professional invoices where each book (even if I buy 200 different books at once) is marked on this receipt? And should I upload invoices every time a customer buys a book despite selling it in the FBA system?
Thank you for your help in advance and I apologize if this question repeats. 
Sales of books and the issue of invoicing - a bit confused
Hi. I am a novice at Amazon and started selling books (mainly used) because I read a lot myself so this is my passion in a way.
I stock up on books at Charity shops and book stores, sometimes I get a lot of books for free from people who want to discard these books anyway. I always have a purchase receipt or invoice but e.g. when I buy 50-100 books at one time in a Charity Shop or book store, they usually issue a classic receipt or invoice where the final purchase price is. There are no individual books on the invoice. My question should I have professional invoices where each book (even if I buy 200 different books at once) is marked on this receipt? And should I upload invoices every time a customer buys a book despite selling it in the FBA system?
Thank you for your help in advance and I apologize if this question repeats.
55 replies
Seller_BS5lg2keRs2QO
The invoices for buyers are those you create yourself for that specific purchase. Even then, you only need to upload an invoice within 24hrs if the buyer actually asks for one. The exception is where it is a business buyer (which will be marked as such) which you must upload whether they ask or not.
You can design your own invoice if you want, otherwise there are lots of sites online which you can use this one.
Assuming you are not VAT registered, below is the required info for the invoice.
Summary
I am VAT-exempt and thus cannot provide VAT invoices. What do I have to do?
If you are not required to apply VAT on your sales, you are required to provide a receipt for each order from an Amazon Business customer. Receipts need to include the following information:
- Seller legal name and address
- Customer legal name and address
- Date of issue
- Type and quantity of products supplied
- Gross price per item as well as total payable amount
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
First, you can only sell books as “New” on Amazon if you’ve bought them direct from the publisher or an authorised book wholesaler (eg Bertrams or Gardners). For those purchases, you will get proper invoices automatically. If you buy books from retailers (Waterstones, W H Smith) or charity shops etc, you can only sell them as “Used - Like new” and you won’t get invoices, just receipts which Amazon won’t accept
Amazon will not usually need to see invoices if you are just selling as “Used” (various sub-conditions “Like new” “Very good” etc) but you might want to keep those you do get for your own records. If you make more than £1000 profit a year, you will need to register as a sole trader with HMRC (the tax man), make an annual tax return and pay tax on the profit. For that purpose, if nothing else, you’ll need to keep accurate accounts
Seller_taDBgt7LctucW
I’d be interested to hear if any booksellers have ever been asked by Amazon for invoices. Personally, I’ve been selling new and used books since 2009 and can’t recall ever being asked.
Seller_DQUCTWPjSm8fp
When you list a book on Amazon to sell you don’t need to provide a receipt or invoice from your purchase of the book. Also, there is no requirement to give a buyer an invoice if they buy from you on Amazon. I have been selling books on Amazon for 10 years and have never had to produce an invoice for Amazon or the buyer, even when I sell a book as new. Some books that I sell are ones that I bought when I was a child and so, of course, there is no receipt, and I sell with no problem.
I hope this helps.
Seller_HyL9WVpk0VC5Q
Could I just ask regarding invoices for business buyers, if I send the Amazon packing slip with an order, would that be the same as an invoice? It seems to have all the required details on it. And would that then mean I don’t need to upload an invoice?
Seller_uSBqWAlkccs2f
It’s not the invoice from you buying it that they want ti see! It is the invoice you make them, from selling it. But you only need to do it for business customers.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
It’s almost laughable the way some of us obsessively observe the rules while dozens of rogue dropshippers are still flooding the catalogue with millions of bogus non-existent duplicate ASINs.
They break virtually all the rules while laughing all the way to the bank…
