eBay Input VAT?

Any way to properly see Input VAT on eBay purchases

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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.

Replies (12)

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By David Ex
21st Jun 2022 14:38

Jdopus wrote:

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.

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Replying to David Ex:
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By Jdopus
21st Jun 2022 15:05

Certainly true, but in a purely practical sense it would be nice if I could get some sort of report showing the input VAT. There seem to be reports which show a breakdown of all purchases on the platform, it just excludes a column showing whether or not there's VAT.

The answer may simply be that I just need to suck it up and accept the time commitment required.

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Replying to Jdopus:
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By David Ex
21st Jun 2022 15:23

Jdopus wrote:

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.

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Replying to David Ex:
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By Jdopus
21st Jun 2022 15:36

Fixed fee job agreed in advance; fee would have been fine for the work but we didn't realize how time consuming the eBay transactions would end up being as we hadn't dealt with any other businesses doing eBay purchasing on this scale.

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Danny Kent
By Viciuno
21st Jun 2022 14:52

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.

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Replying to Viciuno:
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By Jdopus
21st Jun 2022 15:03

I may not have made it clear - 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.

The problem is the actual process of accessing these. As far as I can see there's no report to download these en masse and no report which shows any total of the input VAT from your purchase history.

Therefore the only way to total up the input VAT is to click manually into dozens of purchase invoices and check each one individually to see whether or not there's VAT included. I'm just trying to work out if there's a better way of doing this, as eBay already hold this information.

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Replying to Jdopus:
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By Wanderer
21st Jun 2022 15:47

Jdopus wrote:

- 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.

Really? Care to share where? Never seen it myself.
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Replying to Wanderer:
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By Jdopus
22nd Jun 2022 09:15

I checked with the bookkeeper who does the work for me and she advised me that the method she's found to check is:
Click into the item in your purchase history
Scroll to the bottom and select "Details of seller"
Scroll to the bottom of that and if the seller is VAT registered it will give a VAT number

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Replying to Jdopus:
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By Wanderer
22nd Jun 2022 09:18

No doubt, but that's not "you actually can access VAT invoices on eBay's website" is it?

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Replying to Jdopus:
Danny Kent
By Viciuno
21st Jun 2022 16:55

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

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By Wanderer
21st Jun 2022 15:46

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.

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VAT
By Jason Croke
21st Jun 2022 17:17

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.

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