Jay Cooke

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.

If goods are physically in the UK at the time your friend sells the goods, when the goods leave the UK to be delivered to overseas customers, these sales would likely be zero rated (zero rated export). Zero rated sales counts towards VAT registration threshold and in simple terms (as there is little detail in your post) this would mean your friend would need to register for UK VAT. They can, at time of registering, request to be exempted from registration on the basis they only make zero rated sales (only export goods abroad) and do not want to reclaim any import VAT and HMRC may accept that request. The registration can be done online and during the process it asks if you are seeking exception from registration on the basis of only making zero rated sales.

When an item is sold on the Amazon marketplace, you (the UK Ltd) make a zero rated sale to Amazon and then Amazon make the final sale to the customer and Amazon charges UK VAT and Amazon declares this to HMRC. So your UK VAT return would in simple terms for a sale via Amazon, the return would have Nil output tax to declare in Box 1 (zero rated sale to Amazon) and net value of sale in Box 6, and your inputs would be the VAT on purchases you incur in the UK and your postponed VAT statements (or C79's) where you import goods into the UK. You can request monthly VAT returns, you do this via your government gateway/VAT portal with HMRC (where you can also see your historical VAT returns, payments and your postponed VAT statements). Monthly returns is not an automatic right, so HMRC can reject a request if they believe there is a risk. More details - https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/vat-registration-manual/vatreg33450 The online marketplace is responsible for collecting VAT where the seller is an NETP because so many NETP's charged VAT but failed to pay over to HMRC or just didn't charge VAT at all and undercut VAT registered traders, these rules were implemented across the UK and EU a few years ago.

Once the HMRC officer has approved the refund/return then it usually takes about 7-10 days for the refund to be processed and in your bank. There has been a bank holiday last week so that may add a day or two to the situation. Sometimes the HMRC officer can forget to process the refund instructions following a VAT audit/inspection, the easiest solution is to contact the VAT officer dealing with your audit/inspection and ask them to check the situation. You will have their email and/or telephone number and they will know who you are and familiar with your case. The General VAT helpline should have been able to advise you, they do have access to your VAT file/account and can see any notes on your file, but where you have been dealing with a person who you know by name, its best to contact them, it'll be quicker.

You'll need to call HMRC to resolve this. Call the VAT IT Online Helpdesk - this helpline only deals with logging on/security type queries and so the wait time is less than the general VAT helpline. https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-revenue-customs/contact/vat-online-services-helpdesk

Only the values in Boxes 1 to 9 are submitted via MTD. If you have a VAT inspection, HMRC can ask to access your Xero software and they would then be able to see any notes. Not all HMRC inspections require access to your accounting software, sometimes HMRC just ask for copy invoices or a print out of the VAT report.

When a customer buys the goods from Amazon, yes Amazon collects the VAT and pays this to HMRC, but behind the scenes, you first make a sale of those goods to Amazon, that sale is zero rated. So you would record the net (before VAT) value of the sale in Box 6 (sales excl. VAT) and £nil in Box 1 (zero rated sale). Amazon should not charge VAT on their admin/service fees to you, you would have to apply reverse charge to their invoices, https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-in-the-uk-using-online-marketplaces "When the goods are sold to the customer, the overseas seller will be considered to have made a zero-rated supply of the goods to the online marketplace, known as a ‘deemed supply’. The overseas seller does not have to issue invoices to the online marketplace for deemed supplies that are considered to be zero-rated."

French VAT should be being charged by the French Hotel. You can't reclaim this on UK VAT return but can submit an EU refund directly to the French tax office using a third party specialist who will submit claim for you, for a fee.