Something odd with this UK eBay seller!
Discussion
Morning,
I stumbled across a UK eBay business seller the other day and noticed that they had no VAT number displayed, nothing out of the ordinary here as there are lots of business sellers with T/O's lower than the VAT threshold, however in this case I noticed they had feedback far in excess of what I do and an average T/O calculated at about 500k!
The T/O is a best guess by taking an average sale cost of the last 20-30 items sold and multiplying by their feedback, I also found from experience only about 2/3rds of customers leave feedback so if we add this into the equation and multiplied our figure by 1.5x we get approx approx. 500k.
Looking back at his feedback it seems he has been trading at this quantity of feedback for the past 3 years. I had a quick look on companies house as the company is Limited, and we get lots of 'Gazette Notice for Voluntary Strike Off' and then cancellations, and no filed accounts in the past 3 years either?
Seems a bit odd to me, for the people in the know, what do you think is going on here?
I stumbled across a UK eBay business seller the other day and noticed that they had no VAT number displayed, nothing out of the ordinary here as there are lots of business sellers with T/O's lower than the VAT threshold, however in this case I noticed they had feedback far in excess of what I do and an average T/O calculated at about 500k!
The T/O is a best guess by taking an average sale cost of the last 20-30 items sold and multiplying by their feedback, I also found from experience only about 2/3rds of customers leave feedback so if we add this into the equation and multiplied our figure by 1.5x we get approx approx. 500k.
Looking back at his feedback it seems he has been trading at this quantity of feedback for the past 3 years. I had a quick look on companies house as the company is Limited, and we get lots of 'Gazette Notice for Voluntary Strike Off' and then cancellations, and no filed accounts in the past 3 years either?
Seems a bit odd to me, for the people in the know, what do you think is going on here?
Look at their address, Chinese name by any chance?
There are loads of these companies, they fake a UK company, address and VAT number but aren't even in the UK and don't pay any VAT or taxes.
They simply put all their products into Chinese run UK fulfilment centres (I know, I used to have one as a big client when I was in installation) which of course are proper UK companies as they are here but obviously make no money!
That's why it's so hard to sell on eBay these days unless you have something unique.
There are loads of these companies, they fake a UK company, address and VAT number but aren't even in the UK and don't pay any VAT or taxes.
They simply put all their products into Chinese run UK fulfilment centres (I know, I used to have one as a big client when I was in installation) which of course are proper UK companies as they are here but obviously make no money!
That's why it's so hard to sell on eBay these days unless you have something unique.
Nothing points towards them being a Chinese seller, the descriptions are written in good English with all the hallmarks of a native English speaker, they are also selling big heavy goods which aren't usually favoured by the Chinese and fulfilment centres.
Everything checks out that they are a UK based seller.
Yup, it's harder to make money on eBay, more so than it has ever been!
Everything checks out that they are a UK based seller.
Yup, it's harder to make money on eBay, more so than it has ever been!
Without looking at it, it does sound like a chinese seller.
Like the guy above said, they register a uk company and register for VAT, company not trading but they use the VAT number on their listings.
A year ago i bought two laser cuttting machines from a chinese seller with a VAT number listed, i asked for a VAT receipt and they said sorry the VAT number is an error and they cannot provide one. The VAT number was registered to a company in north england with identical name as the chinese company, no accounts filed.
And the machines came on two pallets so i dont think the large heavy goods stops them.
I cannot mind the address but there are alot of chinese furfilment places in portsmouth, guessing where the boats come in.
Like the guy above said, they register a uk company and register for VAT, company not trading but they use the VAT number on their listings.
A year ago i bought two laser cuttting machines from a chinese seller with a VAT number listed, i asked for a VAT receipt and they said sorry the VAT number is an error and they cannot provide one. The VAT number was registered to a company in north england with identical name as the chinese company, no accounts filed.
And the machines came on two pallets so i dont think the large heavy goods stops them.
I cannot mind the address but there are alot of chinese furfilment places in portsmouth, guessing where the boats come in.
It's not odd, it's just VAT fraud. Spend some time looking on eBay and Amazon and you will find hundreds of examples.
eBay and Amazon are aware of it but don't care. It would be easy for them to police by ensuring business sellers have a valid VAT number, as overseas sellers shipping via UK fulfilment centres now have a zero threshold for VAT registration, so can't use the old "this is just a small business we don't sell enough" excuse.
HMRC are aware of it but seem fairly toothless in tackling it so far.
eBay and Amazon are aware of it but don't care. It would be easy for them to police by ensuring business sellers have a valid VAT number, as overseas sellers shipping via UK fulfilment centres now have a zero threshold for VAT registration, so can't use the old "this is just a small business we don't sell enough" excuse.
HMRC are aware of it but seem fairly toothless in tackling it so far.
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