The rise of cross-border e-commerce has completely subverted people's lives and has also become an Internet e-commerce giant. If you are still wondering why cross-border e-commerce is so popular, or when cross-border e-commerce becomes popular, don't worry about it, is it too late to become cross-border e-commerce?

We can't categorically say that a certain company or a certain product or a certain trend will continue forever, but a certain element suddenly appears around us, detonates instantly and is well known by the people. This is the explanation of e-commerce. Today's e-commerce relies on big data. Big data comes from life. What happens around us may affect others. Without further ado, let's see if the UK VAT number should be registered.

　　As early as 2016, the HMRC (HMRC) was named and criticized by the Parliament. They claimed that sellers from cross-border e-commerce (including Chinese sellers) evaded 1.5 billion pounds of tax every year from the eyes of the UK. This time, HMRC can only accept criticism through gritted teeth. Instead, he vented his anger on the platform side, and pointed at large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and eBay, while educating them and restraining these giants.

　　However, Amazon and eBay also complained repeatedly. Long before things were shaken out, the sellers on the platform were mixed, with all kinds of products, and inferior merchants could not control. Of course the platform would like you to come, but it doesn't matter what color you are.

　　The 2016 budget report stated that if sellers evade taxes, the government will hold platforms such as Amazon and eBay accountable. This decree was issued, and the nerves of the sellers were suddenly awe-inspiring. The sellers who settled in must report the value-added tax number (VAT).

　　Of course, there are also those who don't believe in evil. I believe that after so many years of not collecting taxes, they suddenly turned around. These sellers really don't believe it. Later, the first batch of bad sellers were closed and the products were forcibly removed from the shelves. In 2017, there were suddenly more customers who inquired about VAT number.

　　At first, there was an example of a seller who visited the European station to sell goods without uploading a VAT tax number within a fixed period, resulting in being restricted from creating FBA shipments, which was not paid attention at that time. It was known that afterward, the British customs detained a large number of shipments at the terminal. Due to the failure to provide the tax number and related materials, the goods of the third-party freight forwarding company were stranded at the port for several weeks.

　　The problem is that most of the time sellers do not have VAT or are unwilling to use their own VAT as importer for declaration, so it is very common to use the VAT of the freight forwarding company for declaration; and the freight forwarding company has long used its own VAT to help sellers to clear customs declarations. This itself is not in line with tax logic and regulations. Once the goods are seized by the customs, only the recipient company (the importer under the VAT account) can negotiate with the customs, which makes the processing process more complicated and cumbersome.

　　The issue of VAT is everywhere in Europe. Under the strong pressure of governments, VAT has become an important prerequisite for sellers to sell on major European e-commerce platforms. Not only Amazon and eBay, but many cross-border e-commerce platforms have begun to require sellers to register and submit a value-added tax (VAT) and EU import number (EORI).

　　There are policies on the top and countermeasures on the bottom. If you can’t pay the tax, the big deal is to go to other sites to make money. As early as when the tax inspection turmoil broke out in the UK, some sellers resolutely gave up their accounts and moved to other sites such as Germany and France. However, after the UK station was subject to tax inspection and the sales rights were removed, and because other countries did not have a VAT tax number, the entire European station was removed from the sales rights.

　　Since the seller has not registered VAT tax numbers in Germany, France, Italy and Spain and paid tax in accordance with the regulations, Amazon has removed the seller's sales authority on the European site. Not only that, but sellers were also removed from the pan-European program by Amazon.

　　If the seller wants to get back the right to sell, he can only register for VAT obediently and pay tax on time. Other than that, there is no other way.

　　Not only Amazon, but eBay has also taken a series of measures to urge sellers to register for VAT as soon as possible

　　I learned from eBay that eBay will display the UK VAT number in the Listing. Sellers who have provided a UK VAT ID number will automatically display the tax ID number in their listings from February 21, 2018. In addition, eBay also recommends that sellers visit the tax number management page "Manage VAT numbers" to check whether the tax number previously provided to eBay is valid.

Not only that, eBay also warned sellers : eBay is working with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to prevent sellers from evading tax. Take action against the offending seller, including removing the seller's selling privileges.

　　VAT has become a very important issue in various European countries. Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for major e-commerce platforms to stand by and watch sellers evade tax. Therefore, we remind all European sellers to register for VAT as soon as possible and pay taxes in accordance with the law. After all, only in compliance with the regulations can long-term sales.