6 Comments

1. 

   Dipen D on 18th August 2015 at 5:52 pm

   Have you reported these sellers to eBay as well ? There is an article in the Daily Mirror where ebay has said that they would investigate any sellers which were reported to them – http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/vat-evading-chinese-firms-wiping-4657621

   Obviously, the chances of eBay actually doing anything is minimal – if the HMRC can’t be bothered why should eBay bother ?

   I reported 100 sellers to HMRC 2 years ago and all of them are still trading without VAT numbers and all are fulfilled from the UK and are avoiding VAT.

   I’ve explained on your petition and also on various forums how the fraud is committed and have also explained this to the HMRC – it makes me angry that the HMRC have taken no action. I wouldn’t be surprised if eBay and Amazon contributed to the HMRC coffers for them to turn a blind eye (note this is my personal thought and NOT an allegation)

   I think it will be challenging to get 10,000 people to sign up to this petition as you would need to contact UK eBay sellers directly to make them aware of this petition or get some press coverage.

   • 

     vatfraud on 19th August 2015 at 4:56 pm

     Yes we have reported these sellers to eBay – they say contact HMRC – which we did.

     The Daily Mirror articles was us too – we worked with Andrew Penman on several articles – http://www.vatfraud.org/about-us/

     We sent the info to our MP who wrote to Lin Homer – CEO of HMRC – got reply saying we should report it to VAT Fraud team.

     We have also been working with Trading Standards – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/02/ebay_vat_tax_hmrc/ – this was us too.

     eBay have refused TS request and said HMRC need to make the request.

     HMRC have done nothing even after being contacted by Trading Standards

     We have a meeting with our MP to discuss the lack of movement by HMRC. It’s now been well over a year since the first report was submitted

     I am trying to go through eBay accounts and contact them directly – just need some more time.

     I’m also thinking about setting up a Change.org petition now

     • 

       Dipen D on 3rd September 2015 at 5:07 pm

       Hi,

       I would like to get in touch with you, can you PM me or let me know how I can contact you ?

       Thanks

       • 

         vatfraud on 4th September 2015 at 11:18 am

         Hi you can email me on hello@vatfraud.org

2. 

   Bob Keene on 28th January 2016 at 12:57 am

   Great site.

   Are you going to post a list of Amazon VAT evading traders on this page?

   It would be nice to see these sellers posted too. Amazon in the past 12/24 months has become over run with overseas sellers, so much so that of course recently the larger press have become aware of this (hence your links to recent articles and your excellent hard work) but there are many overseas sellers with stock in FBA warehouses which are not just simply avoiding VAT registration and paying UK sales VAT, they are also avoiding import VAT & Duty which is another HMRC issue and not just in the UK, these sellers are also trading in other EU Countries using Amazon too (Which of course will be the responsibility for the other EU Countries).

   The invoices which accompany goods more often does not match the “actual value” of the products shipped to Amazon FBA UK – the term they use is “Low balling the value” and because HMRC can not possibly audit an overseas company to check the “payment flow” to the invoice value like they do on a UK company customs import audit – the Duty and VAT will be missed/reduced inwards also landing goods in Amazon’s warehouse pre-cleared through agents in the shipping country and landing here in the UK in FBA warehouses with under declared VAT and DUTY, there will be a small amount picked up at customs on entry (very small percentage considering they have enough problems looking for other issues).

   I wonder if Amazon imported $20,000,000 worth of product over Xmas 2015 from China and duly paid $20,000,000 from their bank account then declared this on invoice (at customs) at $3,000,000 then sold these on their site at full retail value (without any sales VAT) what HMRC would say ? – I know what they would say if UK Sellers did this, this is exactly what is happening but they pass the responsibility back to the sellers in question, hiding behind their insistence that it is the sellers responsibility to account correctly for taxes – it has to be said, why would they want to change things ?

   These sellers pay Amazon fees.
   These sellers fill their Amazon warehouses.
   These sellers are providing tax free product to UK Customers (They sell cheaper to get more sales and Amazon know this).

   A enquiry to one shipping Agent (Who provides a pre-pay VAT/Duty service to direct ship to Amazon) in Shenzhen claimed they ship 2500 packages averaging 20 Kilos to Amazon UK every week for sellers on Amazon in the UK they offer unwritten advice to make the invoice value to be 20-30% of actual value so Duty/Vat is lower.

   There are over 200 agents in Shenzhen alone offering this service.

   Solutions in an ever changing world are often hard to find but if this £130mil from Google is a drop in the ocean compared to the bigger picture of what’s going on in the consumer world of VAT & Duty evasion.

3. 

   Peter on 28th September 2016 at 6:52 pm

   The data of ebay sellers need upgrade coz they had vat number or closed shop already.