Why ecommerce accounts are harder
- Stock: you must value inventory and match sales to cost of sales — profit isn’t just income minus purchases
- Volume: thousands of small orders, fees and refunds across Amazon, eBay, Etsy, Shopify and more
- Fees and payouts: marketplace fees, payment-processor deductions and settlement timing all have to be untangled
- VAT: marketplace collection, imports, and cross-border rules layered on top
VAT for online sellers
VAT is where online sellers most often go wrong. Online marketplaces are frequently responsible for collecting VAT on certain sales — especially goods sold by overseas sellers or imported below set values — while your own registration depends on where you, your stock and your customers are. The UK £90,000 threshold still applies, but volume selling reaches it quickly.
Selling into the EU and beyond
Shipping goods to EU consumers can create EU VAT obligations. Schemes like IOSS (low-value imports) and OSS let you account for EU VAT centrally rather than registering country by country — but they must be set up correctly. Cross-border VAT is the single most expensive thing to get wrong as an online business scales.
What your ecommerce company files
The standard company obligations — annual accounts and a confirmation statement at Companies House, a CT600 with HMRC, VAT returns under Making Tax Digital, and payroll if you have staff. With clean multi-channel records behind them, none of it needs to be painful. We handle the lot. Call 0114 327 1480.