Jay Cooke

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-agent-services-account-if-you-are-not-based-in-the-uk You can apply if: your agent business complies with anti money laundering supervision registration or similar regulations in your country the person applying is a director or senior officer of the business You will need your: full name job title business trading name telephone number email address main trading address, which cannot be a PO Box or third party address money laundering supervisory details, if your country requires this, including supervisory body’s name, your membership number and the date your membership needs to be renewed When you apply, you will also need a photo or scan of your proof: of trading address, for example, a bank statement or utility bill dated in the last 3 months that your business is registered with a money laundering supervisory body, such as a letter from your supervisory body dated in the last 12 months, if your country requires this of tax registration, for example, a letter from a tax authority dated in the last 12 months You may also need: any HMRC agent codes you have your UK National Insurance number or Self Assessment Unique Taxpayer Reference, if you have one your company registration number or equivalent, if you have one any business tax references you have in your own country

Gavin. Thanks for the extra information. I feel your pain, as you have stated, Amazon Europe understand the rules and recognise a sole prop/sole trader as a business and Amazon Europe also recognise that the VAT registration threshold across UK/EU is variable so it is entirely possible for a legitimate sole trader to be trading/selling but not have a VAT number. Your battle remains with Amazon USA, the same rules/logic applies....a USA business making electronic supplies to a UK or EU business is not subject to VAT, the customer applies reverse charge (as per HMRC's link/post), but if the customer is a consumer then Amazon USA must register for and charge VAT to that individual. You appear to have all the evidence to prove you are a business sole proprietor and not a consumer, persist with Amazon USA and once they see sense they should then refund you the VAT they've overcharged you. Amazon is a machine, it often treats marketplace traders poorly.

Your tax agent will have an "agent" account with HMRC, this allows the agent to file VAT returns for all their clients. The tax agent cannot give you the login details for their agent account, else you would be able to see all of the agents clients and would be a breach of data protection laws on privacy. You would need to create your own government gateway/login. Click here first https://www.gov.uk/log-in-register-hmrc-online-services Then click the "sign in" green button, on the next page where it asks you to login, there is an option to "create new sign in details" and you can then create new login details. There are then a series of questions to enrol for VAT services, you will need to know your VAT registration number, date of registration and some other details to set things up.

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.