Hello everyone.
As you probably know, there is an entire wave of VAT establishment verifications all over Europe. I am the “beneficiary” of suspended payments for 2 accounts already even though on one I have provided all the documents they initially asked for. Anyway… to avoid complications I need your help with the second account. Here is the short story:
In 2019 my mom (UK resident, living and working in the UK since 2017) opened a UK LTD and appointed me as a director of the company. I created an account but I never really took too much care of it so it stayed under the 85K threshold where I would have to register for VAT.
I have notified Amazon at the time about the fact that I am not VAT registered and I will provide them with VAT number whenever I cross the legal threshold. They “took notes on that matter” and that was it until recently when I was asked to do the VAT Establishment verification. I am not trying to dodge anything but there is one particular section where I am not sure what documents to provide so I do not give them yet another reason to ask for 10 more documents:
“Provide evidence of physical operations at your stated UK business address. Provide one of the following documents: recent UK council tax bill or business rates of the current year addressed to the company or a director/Partner of the company, or a recent utility bill issued less than 180 days ago addressed to the company or a director/Partner of the company, or if you are using a shared working space, either your licence agreement, or copies of invoices for payment of rent, in the your name with the shared working space provider for a period of 6 months or longer.”
Basically they are trying to figure out if I conduct physical operations within the UK or not. The problem is that I do, but they are at a different address, in a warehouse, and not at the registered address.
For that reason, I can not provide ANY of the specifically requested documents for the address where the business is registered (being also the address in the SellerCentral).
From your experience, would a Letter from the provider who registered the company for me work? Would an agreement showing the place of operations on another address work? Anyone has any kind of suggestions how to approach this?
Anyone else who has gone through this or has any knowledge…your advice is much appreciated.
Is your business address kind of a virtual address ? I can share my experience but let me know about the address first.
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I am not sure if that is counted as virtual. It is an address that exists for real but I think it is an address where multiple companies are registered. Like for example when you set your address to a lawyers office.
Yes, Amazon detected and they will count the address as virtual. Anyway, a very few people can provide bills or something for their virtual address. Can you provide the other information ? For example, rental agreement, 6+ invoices and proof of payment in the past for those 6+ invoices ? Something ordered on that address like supplies ?
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Pay your family’s electric bill and submit it or add whichever parent pays electric bills, then submit their documentation and electric bill to Amazon.
You just need a utility bill.
To clarify, you don’t need a utility bill for where the company is registered you only need it for wherever you live.
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I have gone through vat verification not long time ago.
The problem is Amazon have people looking at documents that are not aware with HMRC definition of UK establishment. They have a document guidance section which states each document you need. They will ask for documents against your business address in Amazon account. If you are using virtual address you can provide them your yearly subscription invoices or the agreement. I would suggest attaching any invoice that shows goods delivered to your registered address if you have any. If you have prep center then include prep center agreement, invoices and stock invoices showing goods delivered.
I also had some pushback as i had virtual address but my vat certificate clearly stated UK establishment so I used that as-well and bit of explanation in further information section.
You will also need to prove the director’s are UK based so attach whatever they have asked. Keep the replies professional and point to HMRC rules when speaking to them.
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Rental agreement for the registered address? No, because the Companies MadeSimple do not charge a rent. I do have a letter of authority in which they “certify that company x has purchased the use of our Registered Office address”. I might be able to find 1 invoice from 2022 where one supplier has shipped by accident to that address instead the prep address. I also could order something on that address now even if it is returned (maybe some office supplies). I tried getting an invoice from Companies MadeSimple on that address but they refused because they say that invoice can be used as proof of conducting operations at that address and they do not agree with that.
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Rental agreement for the business address. Do you have same address for personal and business or different?
You can order supplies now, thats not a problem and you can use the invoice but you will still need rental agr. for the business address + at least 6 invoices + proof of payment for those invoices. Keep in mind that verifying as virtual address is harder comparing to verifying a physical address. If you did not started the verification yet, you can still change the business address.
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Different. And that is exactly what I am saying in the post: Companies MadeSimple do not provide such rental agreement. They offer that service for free in exchange of forming the company through them.
Also, in the section I mention they ask for specific documents. Not even one requirement for 6 invoices.
Thank you. I will give them whatever I have and offer a proper explanation too.