Legal entity change - sole trader to ltd company
Hi all,
I have searched around for the answer on these forums, but haven't been able to find a solution.
I have requested a legal entity change on my Amazon Seller Central account and Amazon have asked the following question:
"Confirm if your initially registered business(Legal Entity 1 - UK Sole) will continue to exist"
My initial registered legal entity was under my own personal name as a sole trader. I intend to no longer trade under this name on Amazon and instead trade under the newly formed Ltd Company. However my personal name as a sole trader, as far as my self assessment is concerned, will still continue to exist due to other non Amazon related reasons. Given this, I am not sure what the correct answer is to the question and I'm conscious I don't want to get this wrong. If anyone could assist, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance
4 replies
Seller_k2X0L9mVRT0pW
you can’t be a sole trader and a Ltd Co on Amazon- hence the question. There is a huge difference in legal liability between the 2entities. You will have to provide info from Company House once you confirm with Amazon. This will require going into verification again and all your provided info will need to be in company name (bank account etc)
Ange_Amazon
Hi@Seller_Nurx6DoBqEDtE,
Does @Seller_k2X0L9mVRT0pW's answer clarifies things for you?
Let us know.
Ange from Amazon
Seller_CJAn9FclIoBJn
Been through this recently - you are now a LTD company whether you like it or not.
I would Email the verification team and explain you are wanting to change status and ask them which documents they wish to see. I would email them all the docs you have from forming the LTd company and include some ID - passport and driving licence. Also a copy of a recent bank statement including your LTd name on it. They will look probably approve and ask for more info if required. Then they advise to follow the business transfer process on your dashboard - you may need to upload a few docs again at this point. You will have the account frozen (as in unable to sell for a brief period) and then off you go again. Took around 36 hours but we emailed the verification team first so they had things in place in the background and advised us to follow the transfer process once everything was in place. Basically its almost like transferring a business to another party (in your case to a new legal entity). I would strongly stress nothing was changing other than you were becoming LTD. In our case nothing changed - bank account, address, email, phone number, VAT number etc.
