Ebay Seller Wont Supply VAT Invoice - Anyway Round This?

RFW

Tea3 wrote: »

Hi - the copy message above was their latest one when I asked again for vat invoice, but prior to purchsing we had several emails back and forth and in two I specifically asked if the price included vat - it took a few emais to get a straight answer but they then said:

Hello,
Thank you for getting back to us.
The price paid includes V.A.T. and is deducted by eBay directly. Their European H. Q is based in Luxembourg through which payment is passed.


The thing is even the basic ebay invoice would do at a push if they had put through the 40 packs I bought instead of 1 pack plus the £115 adjustment - no way will hmrc accept me claiming vat on something that says £115 adjustment with no notification of what was purchased.

Ebay only deduct the VAT for listing and final value fees, your contract of sale is with the seller, your VAT receipt should come from the seller. In fact if the seller is VAT registered (and not on a flat rate scheme) then Ebay do not charge VAT on the listing fees it is already deducted.

frivolous_fay

RFW wrote: »

Only VAT registered businesses can supply a VAT receipt, I was assuming that the seller referred to was registered or claiming to be from what was originally posted.

That's what I thought, it's just the 'standard rate goods' bit that confused me. Surely everyone sells goods at the same rate, more or less

RFW

frivolous_fay wrote: »

That's what I thought, it's just the 'standard rate goods' bit that confused me. Surely everyone sells goods at the same rate, more or less

I was talking about standard rated goods (now charged at 15% VAT) as opposed to zero rate goods (eg food, baby wear, books, etc).

Hintza

Ask them for a full refund or you'll grass them off to revenue!

martindow

I'd not hesitate to shop them to HMRC.

kevinyork

They either have a poor grasp of English and dont fully understand the question you are asking or you are being given the brush off. Are they actually in the UK or someone posing as being in the UK?

Their response isnt relevant to them as a VAT registered business (if they are VAT registered). As has been said, if they are truly VAT registered then they must supply a VAT invoice to any business. In reality this means anyone who asks for one.

Unfortunately if they dont as in this case all you are left with is sending the details of the seller, copies of emails and evidence of payment to HMRC for them to investigate. Trouble is this isnt going to get you the invoice you need so you are going to have to write off the VAT included in the price you paid as you wont be able to recover it on a VAT return. You of course have the feedback system with which to vent give 'feedback' on your buying experience.

kevinyork

hendrix wrote: »

Thing is, i pay VAT but cant add it to my Ebay listings as i pay a flat rate of 9%. Which simply means i dont have to bother getting VAT invoices from my suppliers which is good because i import goods from worldwide. You should try and explain VAT to a Korean based company lol.

If you are importing from outside of the EU then the invoices from the overseas company would not attract VAT anyway. You would incur VAT on import and be billed for it by the import agent or direct by HMRC so in reality there would be no issue about asking the Korean supplier for a 'VAT invoice'

Its worth checking your sums on the flat rate scheme on a regular basis. Yes its easier to operate as you dont need to be as exact in terms of acquiring proper VAT invoices for your purchases as you dont claim VAT back. Instead you simply hand over 9% of your turnover to HMRC (of course the percentage depends on your type of business). However given that you need evidence of your costs for Tax purposes anyway, ensuring this evidence is in the form of a VAT invoice is only a step away.

As an example:

Flat Rate Scheme:
Purchase price of item £100 - No VAT claimable

Sales Price £150, VAT due to HMRC of £13.50 based on 9% flat rate.

Normal VAT Scheme:
Purchase price of item £100 – VAT reclaimable £13.04
Sales Price £150 – Vat due £19.56
Net VAT due to HMRC £6.52
Saving of £6.98 using normal scheme when compared to flat rate scheme.

So dependant on the margins being applied, the normal VAT scheme can save a business money compared to the Flat Rate Scheme as in addition to the calculation above you can of course recover VAT on other business expenses....fuel, stationary, accountants fees, telephone and broadband etc. You probably know all that already but when we exceeded the turnover limit for the flat rate scheme we thought we were doomed having to use the normal scheme but in reality we pay less VAT overall.

prowla

As I understand it:

1. If the seller is VAT registered, then they have to supply you with a VAT receipt on request. (And the VAT receipt must include their VAT Regiostration number.)

2. If the seller is not VAT registered, then they cannot supply you with a VAT receipt. (And they do not have a VAT reg. number, so it is impossible for them to include it.)

3. I don't think that foreign companies can be VAT registered.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

VAT threshold is 67k as i have just had to register for vat,

it sounds as though the company you bought you items from are not vat registered, so they can not give a invoice with vat, or as been suggested they could be from abroad, or someone moonlighting, and is not actually registered anywhere, just 'pretending' to be a business.

i know someone who is registered as a business on ebay but isnt delcaring anything...as if you register a shop on ebay you have got to be registered as a business with them too.

hendrix

kevinyork wrote: »

If you are importing from outside of the EU then the invoices from the overseas company would not attract VAT anyway. You would incur VAT on import and be billed for it by the import agent or direct by HMRC so in reality there would be no issue about asking the Korean supplier for a 'VAT invoice'

Its worth checking your sums on the flat rate scheme on a regular basis. Yes its easier to operate as you dont need to be as exact in terms of acquiring proper VAT invoices for your purchases as you dont claim VAT back. Instead you simply hand over 9% of your turnover to HMRC (of course the percentage depends on your type of business). However given that you need evidence of your costs for Tax purposes anyway, ensuring this evidence is in the form of a VAT invoice is only a step away.

As an example:

Flat Rate Scheme:
Purchase price of item £100 - No VAT claimable

Sales Price £150, VAT due to HMRC of £13.50 based on 9% flat rate.

Normal VAT Scheme:
Purchase price of item £100 – VAT reclaimable £13.04
Sales Price £150 – Vat due £19.56
Net VAT due to HMRC £6.52
Saving of £6.98 using normal scheme when compared to flat rate scheme.

So dependant on the margins being applied, the normal VAT scheme can save a business money compared to the Flat Rate Scheme as in addition to the calculation above you can of course recover VAT on other business expenses....fuel, stationary, accountants fees, telephone and broadband etc. You probably know all that already but when we exceeded the turnover limit for the flat rate scheme we thought we were doomed having to use the normal scheme but in reality we pay less VAT overall.

Thanks for the info :-) One question i must ask though. If i'm paying the flat rate of 9% can i still add the VAT to my ebay items so i can get my fees VAT free? Same with Play.com, they say if you register your VAT number with them you will get your fees VAT free. My accountant wasnt so sure and thinks it might affect my 9% VAT status.