Jay Cooke

Just reiterating point 2. If the UK entity passed the establishment tests, then the UK company could avail of the £85k/£90k VAT registration threshold, so all those sales on Amazon that were made on the understanding that the UK company was UK established, those sales were not subject to VAT as no requirement to register for VAT. if you are saying that the UK entity is actually non-established, then there is a Nil VAT registration threshold for non-establish businesses, so all sales made on Amazon are subject to VAT, including all the historical sales. Amazon is liable for this output tax and will pay this to HMRC, but then Amazon will seek to recoup that VAT payment from you and will suspend your Account until you pay Amazon. Whether you obtain a UK VAT number or not, the UK company will still be non-established for VAT purposes. the Nil VAT threshold will still apply. UK establishment is a matter of fact. If the control/ownership is by overseas owners/Director or there is no UK resident director or UK control, then it will likely be seen as non-established. Likewise, renting a warehouse does not create a UK establishment for VAT purposes. The UK address cannot be virtual or an Accountants, the address must be capable of receiving customers or business related supplies, an Amazon warehouse is not going to allow customers to arrive at the gate or for the Accountant to arrive to "meet their client", likewise a virtual office does not generally receive guests or allow deliveries to be received.

It may be that Amazon.com are seeing you as an individual (a person) rather than a business (sole trader business). If you were say ABC Ltd, Amazon would recognise you as a business because you are a Ltd. The place of supply of digital services such as those supplied by Amazon USA to you would be :- 1. if you/customer is a business, Amazon would not charge VAT on their invoice and the customer would reverse charge. 2. if you/ customer is a consumer/man on the street/joe public, Amazon would charge UK VAT to the customer. The problem often is a sole trader does not have a trading name, a Mr Smith can be Joe Public just selling a bit of stuff from his garage as a side hustle (not trading/not a business) or Mr Smith could be a sole trader operating a serious business but as a sole trader....so how does Amazon differentiate between Mr Smith a member of the public and Mr Smith a sole trader? When you setup the MarketPlace account with Amazon, was there an option to identify yourself as a business, a box to tick to state you were trading? Did it ask for a VAT number or other form of proof you are "in business"? You need to liaise with Amazon.com to have them amend their historical VAT invoices and refund you the VAT they charged in error/or in error as a result of not realising you are a business. You cannot register for UK VAT or apply for the flat rate scheme because you appear not to be making any taxable sales in the UK? A requirement of VAT registration is that you make or intend to make sales in the UK.

There is more than one "reverse charge" in VAT legislation, think of it like a car, there are petrol cars, electric cars and diesel cars, they are all cars but they are all slightly different in how they work from each other. The reverse charge regarding services from UK to EU or rest of the world, that relates to certain services where the place of supply is shifted to the customer so as to avoid the seller having to register for VAT in the customers Country. The "domestic reverse charge" relates to a UK to UK supply (hence domestic, meaning a UK to UK supply) of certain construction related services, the main trigger is the supplies must fall under CIS (Construction Industry Scheme). So if what you do/sell is not a CIS supply then the domestic reverse charge does not apply to you and you charge UK VAT to your UK customer as normal. But if what you do does fall under CIS, then potentially your sale comes under this domestic reverse charge, it is not as simple as your customer just telling you what to do, you need to get this right as it is you who has to get the VAT treatment right. Very useful flowchart here from HMRC, follow each step to determine if what you do is or is not eligible for domestic reverse charge : https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fassets.publishing.service.gov.uk%2Fmedia%2F636eaebed3bf7f4a4da3cfc2%2FSuppliers_flowchart_-_VAT_domestic_reverse_charge_for_building_and_construction_services.odt&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK Further detailed guidance here : https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-domestic-reverse-charge-for-building-and-construction-services It may be that some jobs you do fall under CIS and domestic reverse charge applies and some other jobs you do, do not fall under CIS/reverse charge. These rules work the other way to, so if you are buy in sub contractor work and that work falls under CIS, then the sub contractor may not charge VAT to you and instead you must "reverse charge", which is where you treat the purchase as a both a purchase but also as a sale to yourself, basically shifting the VAT liability to the customer not the seller.

The change of company address you will make via your government gateway. Login and select the "Change registration details" option. You access your postponed import VAT statements, C79's and CDS enrolment via the same login/gateway. If you cannot access your government gateway then you will need to call the HMRC VAT IT Helpline on 0300 200 3701 or if outside UK +44 2920 501 261

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/revenue-and-customs-brief-2-2022-vat-early-termination-fees-and-compensation-payments/revenue-and-customs-brief-2-2022-vat-early-termination-fees-and-compensation-payments It may be that the supplier is taking a view that the £30 payment is not an ex-gratia payment but is a payment connected to the original supply (of domestic electricity) and so they are adjusting your bill and charging reduced rate VAT. In your post you state the VAT charge means you are paying part of the the "fine". So is it a fine or compensation? Fines are usually issued by a Court or authority (like HMRC or Council) and paid by the person who made the error, whereas here, the supplier is paying you £30 and perhaps on the basis it is compensation and if so, then the above link explains the logic as to why the £30 might be inclusive of VAT. In other words, the £30 is being treated as VAT inclusive by the supplier. Whether or not the £30 should be VATable will depend on the legislation you are referring to about failing to meet performance standards. It's a matter between you and the supplier as HMRC do not have sight of your energy contract or the legislation you refer to and so cannot know what basis the £30 compensation is issued.

HMRC Admin 2 - This current issue of numbers not being recognised has been on-going for about 6 months now, it should now be a priority as taxpayers can't sell on online platforms as those platforms use HMRC's checker to validate traders. What is really annoying is that there are a couple of (free) third party websites that you can check VAT number on and they are accurate, they can even show the day a VAT number has been issued way before the trader receives their letter from HMRC, these third parties use the same API bridging as HMRC does, if the third parties can access HMRC databases correctly, why can't HMRC access its own database? I'm a registered user of the HMRC Developer Hub and am working on my own third party web based browser to access HMRC's databases and at a beta test stage it is working perfectly. So the issue is internally within HMRC that this problem persists.

The VAT certificate can be downloaded through the taxpayers government gateway/VAT portal. The taxpayer must have a government gateway for VAT purposes and the agent cannot use the taxpayers gateway, the agent must use their own agent gateway (ASA) and link to the taxpayers gateway, then the agent can see the VAT certificate of their client.

You may also want to check Companies House https://www.gov.uk/get-information-about-a-company If the fraudsters have a VAT number associated to your home address then there is a big chance that the fraudsters have also registered a company at your address as HMRC check Companies House when issuing VAT numbers and as long as the address on Companies House is a real address (even if it is some random persons house), then HMRC will issue a VAT number no questions asked. You can file a report to Companies House to have your address removed, link here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/report-a-company-using-your-personal-details-without-your-permission I'd also write to HMRC or use their online fraud report here https://www.gov.uk/report-tax-fraud and the reason to do this in writing is to ensure you have some sort of audit trail/evidence that you reported it, then if there are any VAT debts incurred by the fraudsters or other legal issues, you've formally reported the fraud to HMRC via post and online, you have proof and if HMRC can't be bothered to act then it at least protects you from debt collectors or legal actions.