About Us
Our campaign was set-up by a group of UK eBay and Amazon business sellers. We have felt the full impact of the VAT evading overseas sellers who have taken over eBay & Amazon and pushed many of us out of business.
It was impossible to compete with the 1000’s of VAT evaders who were trading and offering ‘too good to be true’ deals by illegally not charging 20% VAT on products located in the UK. The situation got so out of hand that even the VAT evaders found impossible to compete because there are so many of them.
In July 2014 we sent HMRC a comprehensive report detailing the £billion Online VAT Fraud and listed hundreds of VAT Evading sellers. We had hoped that HMRC would have taken action, but they chose to ignore it for years.
We finally decided to set up this website and publish the report that HMRC had been ignoring. By that time our report included lists of thousands of overseas sellers who were committing VAT Fraud.
Thanks to Richard Allen from RAVAS – Retailers Against VAT Abuse Schemes our campaign has gained much media attention and political backing.
RAVAS has been pivotal to the success of our campaign. RAVAS is an independent pressure group of UK retailers who successfully fought to end the exploitation of the Channel Islands LVCR VAT Loophole.
HMRC started to engage with us after we attracted a lots of negative media coverage about their incompetence in tackling online VAT fraud. HMRC then spent many years introducing new policies that failed. We had many meetings with them over this time. We told them the only way to solve the problem was to get online marketplaces to collect the VAT.
Finally on 20th November 2019, HMRC made Online Marketplaces responsible for collecting VAT. In the first year HRMC will have collected £1.4bn in VAT from overseas sellers. We estimated that HMRC has failed to collect over £9bn in VAT since 2014.
HMRC failed to understand and underestimated the enormity of the problem at every stage.
The Office for Budget Responsibility
On 27 October 2021, the Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the fiscal impact of the new rules for overseas goods introduced from 1 January 2020, which includes the requirement for overseas businesses to register for VAT in the UK for the sale of low value imported goods. Based on outturn data for the current year it is now expected that the measure will generate £1.4 billion in 2021-22, rising steadily to £1.8 billion by 2026-27, a fivefold increase on the previous estimate.
Political Backing
Public Accounts Committee – Tackling VAT fraud and error
We worked with the Public Accounts Committee providing evidence for the hearing and gave in-depth briefings on how the fraud worked. On 13 September 2017 the PAC had a public televised hearing on Tackling online VAT fraud and error inquiry with the heads of HMRC, eBay and Amazon.
We submitted several written evidence documents to the PAC which are available online.
The National Audit Office
In conjunction with the PAC hearing, we helped The National Audit Office carried out an investigation “VAT evasion by overseas online retailers” looking at the risk of VAT (Value Added Tax) evasion by overseas online retailers. The investigation focuses on HMRC’s role in administering the UK VAT system, including managing and reducing risks to the collection of tax revenue.
Meetings
Our campaign has also led to:
- Meetings with the heads of the EU VAT Unit in Brussels.
- Meetings with the heads of Government.
- Meetings with the heads of Public Accounts Committee.
- Meeting with heads of HMRC in Whitehall.
- Debates in the House of Lords & House of Commons.
- Tea and scones in the House of Lords tearoom.
Press Coverage
Panorama – The Billion Pound VAT Scam
We worked with the Panorama team for several months helping provide evidence about the Online VAT Fraud. The program “The Billion Pound VAT Scam” was televised on 27 November 2017 and was be viewed on iPlayer until 27 September 2018.
Online traders who evade VAT are forcing British companies out of business and costing the taxman more than a billion pounds a year. Reporter Richard Bilton sets up his own business to test what checks are made to stop the tax cheats exploiting the UK.
Below is some of the coverage we have gained:
Coverage from Public Accounts Committee Hearing:
Just some of the coverage:
- The Times – Revenue and HMRC tackle VAT dodgers
- The Times – Are Amazon and eBay the villains of VAT?
- The Times – Amazon must take responsibility for its sellers’ unpaid VAT
- The Times – Emails throw doubt on Amazon claim of crackdown against tax fraud
- The Times – Amazon in £1.5bn tax fraud row. Web giant accused of profiting from evasion
- The Guardian – Amazon and eBay turning blind eye to VAT evasion, say MPs
- The Independent – Amazon and eBay putting UK firms out of business by ignoring tax fraud by foreign firms, say MPs
- The Daily Mail – Amazon ‘turns a blind eye’ to £1.5bn VAT fraud which sees foreign sellers undercut law-abiding British traders
- The Sun – VAT’S UNBELIEVABLE Amazon ‘is turning a blind eye to a £1.5bn tax dodge that’s driving Brit firms out of business’
- The Register – MPs accuse Amazon and eBay of profiteering from VAT fraudsters. HMRC: About £1.5bn lost due to overseas sellers’ tax swerve
- Retail Gazette – Amazon & Ebay accused of profiting from VAT tax evasion
- Yahoo! – Amazon and eBay criticised by MPs for ‘turning blind eye’ to tax fraud on sites
Coverage from National Audit Office Report
- The FT – UK lost up to £1.5bn from VAT evasion by foreign online retailers
- The Times – Online retailers failed to pay up to £1.5bn in VAT last year, says watchdog
- The Times – Amazon and eBay failing to tackle £1.5bn tax dodge
- The Guardian – Online retailers failed to pay up to £1.5bn in VAT last year, says watchdog
- Daily Mail – Internet sellers in £1.5bn VAT dodge: HMRC accused of failing to crack down on scam that sees criminal gangs using online marketplaces to avoid tax
- Daily Mail – Probe is launched into £7bn-a-year ‘import tax dodge’ by overseas traders on eBay and Amazon
- Reuters – Britain loses 1 billion pounds through VAT fraud and error by Amazon and eBay sellers
Budget 2016 Announcement; George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a series of measures to combat on-line VAT Fraud in the March 2106 Budget (starts at 13:01:35). These measures include:
- VAT: overseas businesses and joint and several liability for online marketplaces
- Fulfilment house due diligence scheme
The Guardian:
- MPs poised to investigate VAT fraud on Amazon and eBay
- Brussels to crack down on VAT fraud by firms shipping goods to EU
- Amazon and eBay sellers’ VAT fraud rife despite crackdown
- Osborne targets overseas sellers on Amazon and eBay in VAT clampdown
- Amazon and eBay to be held liable for VAT fraud by sellers
- Amazon and eBay face crackdown over VAT fraud by overseas sellers
- UK losing millions in VAT from non-EU sellers on Amazon and eBay
- Tax inspectors raid warehouse containing £500,000 of illegal goods
Financial Times:
- Online sales clampdown nets VAT registrations
- Overseas online retailers face crackdown
- Osborne plans crackdown on tax avoidance by multinationals
- Overseas e-retailers face VAT crackdown
- Online tax evasion growing and ‘very big issue’, warns Revenue
- MPs accuse Amazon of being ‘morally complicit’ in sales tax fraud
BBC:
- BBC Radio 5 Investigates VAT Evasion on eBay and Amazon – HMRC Missing In Action
- Amazon and eBay ‘liable’ if they ignore VAT fraud.
- BBC Radio 5
- BBC Radio 4
Parliament:
- Budget 2016 Announcement (starts at at 13:01:35)
- VAT: overseas businesses and joint and several liability for online marketplaces
- Fulfilment house due diligence scheme
- Clueless Lin Homer was grilled by the Commons Select Committee about online VAT Fraud (starts at 15.54)
- House of Lords Debate
Daily Mirror:
- VAT evading Chinese firms are wiping out British business
- These Chinese sellers on eBay should be paying VAT – so why are they listing other people’s VAT numbers?
- eBay insists these Chinese sellers are VAT registered – so why won’t they reveal their VAT numbers?
- Why isn’t more being done about the foreign eBay sellers who cheat us all by not paying VAT?
The Register:
- Osbo slaps down Amazon and eBay – who’ll be liable for traders evading VAT
- Brit iPad sellers feel the pain of VAT-free imports
- Crackdown on eBay sellers ‘failing to display’ VAT numbers
Tamebay:
- Budget 2016: eBay and Amazon “can be made liable” for seller VAT fraud
- Trading Standards weigh into eBay UK VAT row
- The Register probes VAT affairs of Chinese iPad sellers
- Penman’s latest on eBay seller VAT on eBay UK
- Next chapter in eBay UK’s Chinese sellers and VAT dispute
- Daily Mirror and Chinese VAT sellers on eBay UK latest
- Daily Mirror reports Chinese VAT evading sellers on eBay UK