VAT registration pending
Hi all,
we are pretty new on Amazon but it doesn’t start too well. I hope so much that someone could help, but I started having real doubts whether I can ever solve our problem. Here is the story:
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We are based in the UK, but wanted to sell our products exclusively in Germany. We speak German, so we opened an Amazon Europe account as a sole trader.
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All started well, but we didn’t realise that we had to upload tax verification papers. By the time we understood this, our account has been deactivated.
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We made some sales on our account before it was deactivated.
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We also changed in the meantime from being a sole trader to a Limited.
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We uploaded our new shiny Limited VAT registration papers weeks ago.
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The site with the upload still says “pending”
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We wrote a lot of sellercentral service tickets of which none has been answered, again, in weeks.
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What to do? Shall I cancel the existing, deactivated account and start from scratch? Is there any way to speak to a human being at Amazon who can help? It is all very well to offer customer ticket forms, but they also would need answering at one point.
Looking forward to hearing any ideas since we have no idea how to solve this mess.
Thanks!
Susanne
VAT registration pending
Hi all,
we are pretty new on Amazon but it doesn’t start too well. I hope so much that someone could help, but I started having real doubts whether I can ever solve our problem. Here is the story:
-
We are based in the UK, but wanted to sell our products exclusively in Germany. We speak German, so we opened an Amazon Europe account as a sole trader.
-
All started well, but we didn’t realise that we had to upload tax verification papers. By the time we understood this, our account has been deactivated.
-
We made some sales on our account before it was deactivated.
-
We also changed in the meantime from being a sole trader to a Limited.
-
We uploaded our new shiny Limited VAT registration papers weeks ago.
-
The site with the upload still says “pending”
-
We wrote a lot of sellercentral service tickets of which none has been answered, again, in weeks.
-
What to do? Shall I cancel the existing, deactivated account and start from scratch? Is there any way to speak to a human being at Amazon who can help? It is all very well to offer customer ticket forms, but they also would need answering at one point.
Looking forward to hearing any ideas since we have no idea how to solve this mess.
Thanks!
Susanne
0 replies
Seller_NoLYurmb006tq
Wow yea you gona face a barrel of issues all can be fixed, unless your storing goods in germany as far as I am aware at the moment you would only need to register for vat if sales were over E100,000 - things are forever changing and VAT is not my strong point so if I am wrong I am sure some one will point it out.
If you have done over that you may have an issue.
The business changing name always seems to get people caught off guard n here but if you change the type in the settings and upload the docs including a letter head stating who is the legal owner etc along with the requested docs this should do the trick - if they need more info they will ask -
Do not cancel account as you will not be able to open another and may get permanently banned.
For each case Amazon have pulled you up on they should have emailed you or you should have received a performance notification you need to address each individually.
Address them the way you have above its crisp its clear and not a bed time story like most seem to write on here lol.
Seller_esvgLzKXw2YAl
Aside from the changing sole to ltd, which in itself, can take some time to do, you have a few issues.
If your UK based and selling to Germany are you actually vat registered in the UK or Germany?
Are you storing goods in the UK or Germany? If your storing them in Germany, then you need to be registered for German VAT. You may also need to be registered for Polish as they use that centre as well.
If your actually sending from the UK to Germany, is via FBA or yourself? If it’s via FBA, this is going to stop in the near future due to Brexit. Otherwise, you will need to effectively run the EU sites separate to the UK when the change completes.
Don’t however create a second account. This can only be done in very specific circumstances and only if all your accounts are fully verified and trading properly. So trying to close the current account wont work until it’s fully verified and opening a second, will just get closed down and you would still need to get it verified in any case.
You can always escalate your issues to the managing director, if your not getting very far with support.
There is currently no way of getting a phone call from them and to be honest, it’s probably not worth it anyway. I’ve yet to speak to anyone there, that english isn’t their first language.
Seller_z6B2L9xab6HlP
Following on from Neil’s comment. With VAT you charge your customer the VAT on the sale, but you claim back the input VAT. When you send it from the UK to Germany you’d use the reverse charge mechanism instead:
- Claim back the input VAT in the UK
- Sell to your German VAT registration as a zero rated supply, with an entry in the EC Sales List.
- German VAT registration pays the VAT due on the purchase, but immediately claims it back as input VAT.
- Your German VAT registration charges the customer the relevant amount and pays it to the tax authorities.
