We reported this seller to HMRC VAT Fraud team in 2014. Their accounts were removed in 2016.

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

eBayer seller my-elink is run by CSJ Communications Technology Limited. They started trading on eBay.co.uk 8 years ago on 14 November 2008.

CSJ Communications Technology Limited operates 7 eBay business seller accounts all using the same company name and VAT number. Their combined sales are in the region of £5,812,308 per year, equating to £968,718 of VAT a year.

Below is a list of their eBay accounts:

  1. acceleration100 – £737,640.00
  2. dailysources – £698,832.00
  3. dock_basin – £629,628.00
  4. elec-touch – £1,220,784.00
  5. fairyledlights – £682,320.00
  6. my-elink – £1,690,224.00
  7. xd_populargadgets – £152,880.00

my-elink

This seller clearly shows their company name, address and a UK VAT number.

CSJ Communications Technology Limited,
503 Tiancheng Plaza,
354 Longkou Road
Guangzhou
Guangdong
510635
China

VAT Number 150540153

The VAT number 150540153 is NOT registered to the Chinese company CSJ Communications Technology Limited. It is registered to:

POCKETDEAL LIMITED
8 GREAT CAMBRIDGE IND ESTATE
ENFIELD
MIDDLESEX
EN1 1SH

Pocketdeal Ltd  is a UK registered company which was incorporated on 23 August 2012.

Pocketdeal Ltd has no accounts filed and has a status of “Proposal To Strike Off”.

There are several other Chinese owned business registered to the same address as Pocketdeal Ltd:

The contact name associated with my-elink eBay account is Tian Ke Fu. Tian Ke Fu is the Company Secretary of Pocketdeal Ltd. Tian Ke Fu’s registered address with companies house is:

354 Longkou Dong Rd
Tianhe District
Guangzhou
Guangdong
510000

This is the same address used for my-elink eBay account.

Questions for HMRC to Answer

  1. How has Chinese company CSJ Communications Technology Limited accounted for VAT in the past 8 years?
  2. Why is an 8 year old Chinese based eBay seller using the VAT number of a 2 year old UK company?
  3. Is Pocketdeal Ltd accounting for and paying HMRC the £968,718 a year VAT produced by CSJ Communications Technology Limited eBay seller accounts?
  4. Is the £5,812,308  of sales from CSJ Communications Technology Limited being paid into Pocketdeal Ltd UK bank account or is it being laundered out of the UK via CSJ Communications Technology Limited Chinese PayPal account without declaring VAT?