Jay Cooke

I think you recognise that you probably need to register for German VAT. At stage (2), when UK orders the goods from German parent, does title/ownership shift from Germany to UK? In other words, is this sale recorded as a sale by the UK entity/UK turnover or is the sale recorded as a German sale/German turnover and the UK entity receives a commission from Germany for arranging the sale? As your later question asks about charging VAT on your UK invoice, it suggests you (UK) take ownership of the goods in Germany before they are shipped to Netherlands (else the Netherlands customer could just order directly from Germany and cut you out altogether). If UK takes ownership of the goods in Germany, then UK entity should be VAT registered in Germany, there would then be a domestic (Germany to Germany) sale between German parent and UK entity taking ownership of goods in Germany, then UK entity with ownership of German located goods would ask the German parent to ship the goods (owned now by the UK entity) to the customer in Netherlands, UK entity records that sale on their German VAT return (not the German parents VAT return, the UK entities German VAT return). Do you not have an Accountant or advisor in Germany to assist with this?

If your company is VAT registered then yes, you would charge VAT on the fee you are charging to the sole trader. Also, if you are leasing the van, you should check the contract as you will likely find the lease company will not be happy that you are sub-leasing, you are responsible for insuring and taking care of the vehicle, so how can you insure a van in your name (as per lease requirement) and then sub-lease to someone else, is the sole trader going to insure the van for their use? What if there is an accident or stolen? If you are sub-leasing outside of the lease agreement then you may find both your and the sole traders insurance (if they have any) is invalid.

Invoicing USA for what? - Goods or services? If goods, sales would be exports and zero rated and zero rated counts towards gross turnover under flat rate (you'd be declaring output tax on these sales at your flat rate % even though you are zero rating the sale to the customer). If services, assuming the default rule is in play, services would be outside the scope of VAT and do not count towards gross turnover and no output tax is due on such sales. If services, be mindful of the limited cost trader rules, which will see your flat rate percentage changed to 16.5% for each VAT quarter where the limited cost trader rules are triggered.

I think Amazon are saying that in the past the Amazon fees would not have been subject to VAT (they would have been reverse charge) but from August, Amazon will charge UK VAT on Amazon fees and as you are using flat rate, you cannot reclaim the VAT on the Amazon fees. So I don't see this change as affecting the actual price you sell for (£10) and the VAT you declare on your sales (75p). You never did receive £10 into your business account from Amazon, if we assume a £1.50 Amazon fee, for each £10 sale you make you would receive £8.50 into your business bank account (but still declaring output tax to HRC based on the £10 selling price/75p VAT). That £1.50 was previously non-VATable/reverse charge, now that £1.50 will be plus VAT of 30p so your £10 sale will see you receiving £8.20 into your business bank account, a difference of 30p (the VAT on the Amazon fee). Whether flat rate works for you is something you need to think about, discuss with an Accountant, etc. It looks like Amazon are simply saying any sales made by UK sellers will be invoiced by Amazon via Amazons UK VAT number and no longer via Luxembourg.

The time to pay/debt management team is contacted by calling 0300 200 3831 The time to pay agreement is usually agreed during the phone call, the first part of the call is security, you will be asked questions about the business details so that HMRC know they are talking to the business. Second stage is for you to propose a realistic repayment period (12 months, maybe 18 months), there may be some negotiation by HMRC, but you will end up with a proposal that should be agreeable. Third stage is HMRC will take the first payment from you over the telephone during that call, they will also take your bank details to set up a direct debit for the remaining monthly payments over whatever number of months you have agreed. In my own experience, HMRC rarely "call you back", something as important as a £350k debt, you should call back, daily if needs be until matter is resolved. There will be notes of your previous conversation on file, HMRC will be able to see what was discussed and agreed, so you should not have to repeat yourself. Presumably, HMRC didn't want to make a decision during your original phone call, but it is poor that they have not called back, but lesson for the future, don't expect a call back, you must call them each time to progress matters.

The agent should be using their own "agent gateway". You, as the VAT registered business would need to create your own gateway via this link https://www.gov.uk/log-in-register-hmrc-online-services. It is not clear from your post but you seem to be saying that you do not have your own gateway/login. I would have expected your tax agent to set up your gateway, give you the login details as that login belongs to you, the tax agent uses their own separate login for filing VAT returns for clients. It should not be possible for an agent to file VAT returns on your behalf without you having your own gateway/login, so I do not see how the agent is filing returns without you having your own gateway, maybe the agent did setup a gateway for you but they have not told you those log in details so that they can keep you as a client/make it difficult for you to leave? Why do you not know the Box 5 figure of your last/previous VAT return? The VAT return is prepared and submitted based on your accounting records. HMRC also ask 2 or 3 other security questions such as date of VAT registration, business address and other questions only the business owner (you) will know. If you are unable to answer any of the security questions, then how do you expect HMRC to believe you are the business owner if you cannot answer questions about your business? The best way to resolve this is to call the HMRC IT helpdesk, pass the security checks and have your account reinstated. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/vat-online-services-helpdesk But I would first double check to see if you can set up your own gateway first.....you might be calling HMRC and failing the security test because you are trying to gain access to the tax agents account and you will not know the security answers for the tax agent. If you have already tried calling, then you can always write to HMRC and ask them to reset the login details/gateway for your business, but that could be a slow process and you will continue to receive VAT demands until the issue is resolved. Can you not go back to your tax agent and ask them what the problem is and why did they not set you up with your own gateway when they registered you for VAT?

The VAT account layout is terrible from an accounting perspective. You can call Debt Mgmt and ask them to send you a detailed statement in the post, but that might take a week to get to you, leaving it tight for your appeal. You may have to appeal on the basis you HMRC have failed to explain and detail what the mystery figures are actually for. Have you called and spoken with Debt Mgmt already to see what this transaction might relate to? Debt Mgmt will have a fuller access to your VAT payments/liabilities than the normal VAT helpline, so you may be able to get this resolved over the phone. The number to call is 0300 200 3831.

Question 2 appears to be an issue between you and Amazon. If Amazon are asserting that the Director is overseas since 2021 then on what basis is Amazon arriving at that decision? Amazon may not be correct - and if you are saying the Director only left the UK in 2024 then that would suggest Amazon are wrong - but Amazon are getting their information from somewhere, even if it is wrong. Companies House would usually show the Directors home address (or service address) but either way, Companies House would also show the residency of the Director. When the Director left the UK they should have updated their details with Companies House (both their home/service address and their residency), and maybe they did do this, if they did, then there would be a series of filings on Companies House that would prove the date when the Director left the UK and that should prove to Amazon that the Director left in 2024 and therefore limit Amazon's position to just 2024. Assuming Companies House was not updated, then you will need to convince Amazon as to when the Director became non-resident, you'll need to ask Amazon what evidence they require to prove this, maybe a UK tax return? You also need to find out what information soruce Amazon are using for them to decide the Director is non-resident. Question 1, UK establishment is defined by HMRC as :- 1. the place where essential management decisions are made and the business’s central administration is carried out is in the UK or 2 the business has a permanent physical presence with the human and technical resources to make or receive taxable supplies in the UK So if you employ a UK resident Director, then it may be possible to meet condition 1 or condition 2 (you only need to meet one of the two conditions). Whether that satisfies Amazon is the issue. A UK resident Director may not be seen as having the ability to make "essential management decisions", if that UK resident Director is not a controlling share holder and if the UK resident Director is operating from their home, then that would need to be reflected on the VAT registration certificate as you can't use a virtual or registered office address for VAT registrations - it might be possible to satisfy Amazon and limit the scope of their assessment to 2024 but this is more a contractual matter between Amazon and yourself, HMRC are not going to get involved in legal disputes.

You should receive a standard letter in the post from HMRC confirming you are deregistered, that letter might take 10 days or more to get to you after deregistering. As eBay have also stated, you should be able to call HMRC and ask for a copy of your deregistration letter. Your issue may be that you are asking for a de-registration letter, which may be confusing HMRC as it sounds like something new you are asking for, what you should be asking for is a COPY of the "confirmation of de-registration letter" that HMRC will have sent to you be default already and will already be on your file at HMRC. That letter will go to the address you used when registering for VAT, so if that address is overseas, these letters can get lost in transit and take a little longer to get to you. I'm not aware of HMRC issuing any form of certificate confirming deregistration, eBay and Amazon asks for all sorts of documents that HMRC does not issue, they are simply protecting their own position, not yours.

The VAT number is 9 digits (111-1111-11) but you should enter the number without any spaces or underscores/hypen (111111111) HMRC do have trouble with their own VAT database, https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-vat-number but check this link first to see if your number is coming up on the HMRC VAT number checker. If it is not showing as valid on this link, then the issue lays with HMRC and you will need to call the VAT helpline for assistance as its not something you can fix. The VAT helpline for general enquires is still open, for now, and you will just need to be patient and once you are through to someone, they should be able to help. If your VAT number does show up on the VAT number checker then the issue more likely rests your side, either you are typing in the VAT number wrong or might be worth trying a different browser.