We reported this seller to HMRC VAT Fraud team in 2014 . HMRC finally took action against them in 2017.

HMRC has gifted this seller at least £2,000,000 in unpaid VAT. That’s 9% of the total £22.5m budget HMRC have allocated to tackle this fraud over the next 5 years.

Case Study

These 4 Chinese eBay accounts had combined sales of £2,993,232.00 which equates to £498,872.00 of VAT in 2014.

However since our campaign and following a recent VAT fraud article about them in the The Daily Mirror several of the eBay accounts have stopped trading products located in the UK and have removed the VAT number from their eBay Accounts.

eBay Accounts:

persue1234 – is making sales in the region of £1,409,664 per year. This equates to £234,944 of VAT a year. They started trading on eBay.co.uk 5 years ago on 22 March 2010.

persue1234 – £1,409,664 sales per year
zhenbin li
Shenzhen Fu Jincheng Court Road, Block 702 B 518049 Shenzhen
China

bayfish2013 – £386,448.00 sales per year
Peter Li
HUAFA Hongli Road, Futian District 11, Unit 2, 504 villages 518000 Shenzhen
China

x-global (was liiawysys) – £727,848.00 sales per year
fengkun zhang
16th,Futian Free Trade Zone,Futian District 518000 Shenzhen
China

persuebing12 – £469,272.00 sales per year
yongfeng wang
710,1st Building,Tehao Villa,The 10th, Linyuandong Road,Futian 518000 Shenzhen
China

Questions for HMRC to Answer:

  1. How much VAT has been collected from VAT number 142767207 for the last 5 years?
  2. How & why can 4 overseas retailers register the same VAT number on Online Marketplaces without any verification or due diligence by the Marketplace?