NOWADAYS, TAXATION MEASURES CANNOT BE IGNORED WHEN PRACTICING CROSS-BORDER EC BUSINESS, AND THIS TREND IS BECOMING MORE AND MORE PRONOUNCED.
Just a few days ago, Ebay, one of the leading e-commerce platforms, issued an official notice to sellers conducting business in Europe, requiring them to register for tax purposes. Below is the full text in English.
UK Value Added Tax (VAT) Obligations Notification
We're reaching out to inform you of your potential Value Added Tax (VAT) obligations in the United Kingdom (UK).
According to Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the UK's tax authority, any eBay seller making sales to UK buyers and fulfilling those orders from UK-based inventory needs to register with HMRC and pay VAT on those sales.
Since you have inventory located in the United
Since you have inventory located in the United Kingdom, you might have VAT obligations associated with selling goods in the UK.
Your next steps: 1. If you haven't registered VAT with HMRC, please You will obtain a VAT Number after registration with HMRC.
2. Once you have obtained a VAT Number, you should:
● Provide your Please log into https://www.ebay.com/spr/vat and update your VAT number.
● State the item price including VAT in your listing.
Please provide your VAT Number to eBay no later than November 20, 2017. Failure to provide a valid VAT Number may result in a range of actions being taken against your account, including but not limited to listing removal, account restriction, international selling privileges being reduced, or suspension.
How to register and pay UK VAT?
You can either choose to register and pay VAT
You can either choose to register and pay VAT by yourself or contact your independent tax advisor to help you on VAT issues. You are responsible for paying any due VAT to HMRC in accordance with the Falsification of information to evade payment of VAT may result in fines and/or criminal prosecution. It is important to remember that eBay It is important to remember that eBay will share your eBay seller information with government authorities if we are required to do so by law.
This email is not tax or legal advice. consult your independent tax or legal advisor regarding your obligations to pay VAT.
To learn more about UK VAT, please visit here.
To learn more about the UK VAT Regulations, please visit here.
As always, thank you for selling on eBay!
eBay
Quoted from the above EbayUK official notice
This notice requires Ebay sellers to obtain a VAT number, and failure to do so by the deadline will result in the mandatory freezing of accounts and removal of all items from the listings. We are hearing more and more about sellers who have suffered losses as a result of the measures taken by Ebay, and we understand that the pressure from tax authorities in various countries to impose taxes is growing stronger by the day.
Sole proprietors and small businesses are often unaware that they are subject to taxation because their sales are not that large, and they often do not pay attention to formal overseas business registration and tax payment obligations.
However, if a company has a certain amount of sales and is established as a business to some extent, it will inevitably incur tax liability, and if it continues to be neglected, there is a good chance that it will be subject to additional taxation or even litigation.
IN TODAY'S WORLD, IT IS ESSENTIAL TO DEAL WITH INTERNATIONAL TAXATION IN ORDER TO EXPAND AND GET YOUR CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE BUSINESS OFF THE GROUND, AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO DO SO WITH THE APPROPRIATE SUPPORT. THE TAXATION SYSTEM DIFFERS GREATLY FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY IN SOME CASES.