We reported this seller to HMRC VAT Fraud team in 2014. They are still trading.

With Just one of the eBay accounts HMRC has gifted this seller at least £1500,000 in unpaid VAT so far. That’s 6.6% of the total £22.5m budget HMRC have allocated to tackle this fraud over the next 5 years

Case Study

There are now 10 eBay accounts associated with the same VAT numbers & company names. They are still trading, swapped their company name & VAT numbers multiply times.

Just one of the accounts, besdata_top1, made sales of £2,313,324 in 2014.  This equates to £1,5000,000 of in VAT the last 4 years

The amount of VAT lost must be enormous and would cover a good proposition of the £22.5m budget HMRC have allocated to tackle this fraud over the next 5 years.

Secret Shopper

In July 2014 we asked besdta_top1 for a VAT invoice for an item we purchased. They told us “The items we sell on eBay are excluding VAT. If customers need a VAT invoice, they have to pay 20% extra”

Account 1 – besdata_top1 (changed name – was besdta_top)

eBayer Seller besdata_top1 started trading on eBay.co.uk on March 2011. They have used 3 company names and 2 VAT numbers.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390836102735
Company Name: UK LED LTD
VAT NUmber: NO VAT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/390627376394
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/182265995290
Company Name: OSAN ELECTRONIC HK LIMITED
VAT Number: GB 245951780

Account 2 – uk-top-outlet (changed name – was outlet_uk1911)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181018942862
Company Name: UK.Adapter sellers.ltd
VAT Number: NONE

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181572120864
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

Account 3 – v-good-seller (changed name – was uk_verygood_seller)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110756554079
Company Name: UK adapter .LTD
VAT number: None

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351500287632
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/132040172990
Company Name: GUANGZHOU AIMENTE ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 245955278

Account 4 – best-ukdata (changed name – was besdata)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371103083172
Company Name: 雪林 张
VAT Number: None

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371779876385
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT Number: GB 151403845

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371474300743
Company Name: Guangzhou Aimente Electronic Technology CO.,LTD
VAT number: GB 245955278

Account 5 – easylife-3c

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152310227730
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT Number: GB 151403845

Account 6 – all_mobilecompaccessories2010

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391653933727
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/270983092038
Company Name: allmobilecompaccesories ltd
VAT number: NONE

Account 7 – oriental-pearl1314

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/162558343448
Company Name: meiyuan wedding dress co., LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

Account 8 – amazing_4c

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252902585268
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

Account 9 – 24hrs-mall

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291954213989
Company Name: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301704343790
Company Name: mcd ltd
VAT number: NONE

Account 10 – ledlighting-home

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252732705259

Company Number: GUANGZHOU TAIGUFENG ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY CO LTD
VAT number: GB 151403845

Daily Mirror

The Daily Mirror ran a series of articles in 2014 exposing Chinese iPad Case sellers that were not registered for VAT; besdta_top was one of them.
VAT evading Chinese firms are wiping out British business – 19 NOV 2014
Why are they listing other people’s VAT numbers? – 4 DEC 2014

Government Procurement

When a payment is made to kdata1688@hotmail.com via Paypal, the name on the Paypal receipt appears as Paypal *KDATA1688

We searched Google for the name on the Paypal invoice“KDATA1688” and found that the Government was purchasing items from the seller:

  • Chorley Borough Council – 26/04/2013 – Slim magnetic leather smart cover – £6.95
  • Chorley Borough Council – 07/05/2013 – 7 x Ultra thin magnetic covers for ipads – £41.65
  • Chorley Borough Council – 09/05/2013 – 2 x Ultra thin magnectic covers for ipads – £11.90
  • Solihull MBC – 22/11/2013 – IT Equipment & Software – £8.81
  • Solihull MBC – 28/11/2013 – IT Equipment & Software – £9.99
  • Solihull MBC – 14/05/2014 – IT Equipment & Software – £14.73

Why on earth is the UK Government procuring products from VAT Evading Chinese eBay sellers and not supporting UK Businesses?

Duplicate Listing Practice

This seller isn’t happy with just 4 eBay accounts. They also list the same products multi-able times on each account. They have a range of three “36w Nail Lamps”. We searched their eBay accounts for the products. These 3 products are listed over 300 times:

It is completely against eBay’s Duplicate Listing policy which states you are only allowed to list a product once.

Duplicate listings is standard practice for Chinese sellers.

Questions for HMRC to Answer

  1. Why haven’t you taken any action in the past 4 years to remove this seller’s eBay accounts?