We have a client that we're handling ongoing bookkeeping for, and what I thought would be a straightforward enough job is being made extremely complex by trying to track and identify which of his eBay purchases have input VAT available for us to reclaim.
The problem is that I can't seem to find any report which clearly shows us which of the purchases have VAT, this information is available on their website but in order to check we need to manually click into the detailed section of each individual purchase to see whether the seller was VAT registered or not. This client can have dozens of these transactions in a week and this complication makes the job exceptionally time consuming.
Has anyone here had a similar client and if so am I missing something fundamental on eBay's portal that would make this easier? I feel like I must be missing something here since it's hard to imagine that such a massive company has such an obvious gap in their website's reporting system.
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I feel like I must be missing something here since it's hard to imagine that such a massive company has such an obvious gap in their website's reporting system.
What you’re missing, surely, is that eBay is a platform not a retailer. Not sure how it compares to Amazon Marketplace but I always saw eBay as providing a means for connecting buyers and sellers who then transact.
The answer may simply be that I just need to suck it up and accept the time commitment required.
Surely you just tell the client to give you the VAT invoices or pay you the going rate to download them. Not sure why the cost should fall on you. Sounds like a bone idle client.
We don't claim VAT on any ebay or Amazon purchase without a corresponding VAT invoice - as you have no idea who the sellers are on the other end. Paired with a piece of software (like Dext) you'll be able to rattle through these in no time.
That way onus is on client to work out who is VAT registered.
Really? Care to share where? Never seen it myself.- you actually can access VAT invoices on eBay's website which show the seller's VAT registration number if the seller is indeed VAT registered.
Ah - never used ebay myself and we always throw this kind of thing back to clients to pull out details. Didn't realise this was possible. If so, agree with you that it seems madness they can't create a report if they have the info already.
Possibly a third part app can pull out the data?
With Dext* we can link up client's Amazon and Ebay accounts and it will pull all the invoices from their systems. I've used this for Amazon and it works OK, assuming E-bay connection will work just as well.
*there are other options available, don't know how good though
AFAIK there is no such report on eBay so you are looking for something that doesn't exist.
The MAJORITY of sellers that state "I provide invoices with VAT separately displayed." do no such thing unless you hassle them, and even then often they don't.
I will occasionally make up a receipt by copying & pasting the details however you have to be prepared to argue this with HMRC under the alternative evidence rules.
Would I do it in the circumstances you describe? - No way.
I'm not aware of any shortcut way of seeing whether a seller on eBay is VAT registered or not ....and even if the seller is VAT registered, you still need a VAT invoice to reclaim the input tax.
Appreciate it may be a fixed fee job, but even a low cost fixed fee job expects the client to actually provide the paperwork for you. It sounds like the client is giving you nothing but a login for eBay and that is not the same as supplying you with appropriate business records so that you can do the book-keeping.