Encountering Amazon's tax audit, a large number of UK sellers' payments were frozen, and one company was frozen more than 300,000 pounds. This has led many people into despair, and some have even wanted to quit. Amazon's move has caused many questions and complaints from sellers, and the platform has recently made a formal response, and sellers may receive Amazon's information verification request to reconfirm the company's registered address.
The incident has hit many UK sellers hard, and they have sought help from the relevant departments, which has attracted the attention and investigation of the British Small Business Commissioner. Now a British minister has stepped in and asked Amazon to unfreeze the withheld funds of hundreds of merchants.
More than 400 sellers asked for help, and the UK** asked Amazon to unfreeze the funds
The Amazon UK tax audit incident continues to ferment, and the uneasiness of sellers is still increasing. Now, these sellers who have withheld funds are expected to have good news.
Recently,A U.K.** minister has asked Amazon to unfreeze withheld funds from hundreds of merchants who could go bankrupt.
British Business Minister Kevin Hollinglake saidAs many as 400 small businessmen have turned to Small Business Commissioner Leeds Barclays, whose funds have been withheld by Amazon for monthsWe are very concerned and are writing to Amazon asking them to unfreeze their accounts until they go through the proper procedures. ”
In a letter to Amazon UK CEO John Boomflye, Hollinlack said: "I urge you to investigate this issue further as a matter of urgency and ensure support for those whose accounts have been affected. ”
It is known that there are more than 850,000 UK businesses use Amazon to sell their products. This time, Amazon has suspended payments for many small sellers, imposing stricter requirements on them. One of the technology companies was frozen by more than 300,000 pounds (about 2.72 million yuan).
There are also sellers who have been caught up in the frozen funds saying they have been struggling for months, unable to pay taxes and other fees, and some partners are worried that their businesses may go out of business.
Many sellers are waiting for £1,000 to £300,000 in their accounts to save their business from moving forward.
Since the beginning of January, hundreds of Amazon sellers have complained on Amazon forums. The UK Department of Commerce and HMRC have also expressed their concerns. In the face of controversy, Amazon recently responded.
Amazon responds to the "tax audit" incident
Amazon has issued an announcement to officially respond to the tax audit. The Marketplace informs sellers that they may receive a request for information in the near future to confirm their business location. This is a requirement of UK VAT law, and the goal of the platform is to minimise any inconvenience to the seller's business.
Retailers, including Amazon, are required by UK tax authorities to confirm the seller's location in order to comply with VAT laws. In addition to the information already provided to Amazon, the platform may request additional information from the seller as part of the due diligence, and the seller's ability to pay funds may be temporarily frozen during this period.
Amazon has asked sellers to provide relevant information before, and this time it seems that more information will be provided, which has once again caused many sellers to be dissatisfied.
A seller bluntly said that Amazon's move this time is even worse for him. Many of my peers felt the same way. People don't understand Amazon's behavior, mainly focusing on the following points:
First, Amazon needs to collect and remit VAT for sellers set up outside the UK, and many people are confused: most of the first people to receive the mail are companies established in the UK, and some of them have been in business for many years.
Second, all the information held by Amazon proves that the seller is in the UK, so why do people still receive this email for the seller to prove that they are in the UK?
Thirdly, why go around in circles again and again and not solve the problem? One seller said that he provided all the required documents and still received repeated requests for the same documents over and over again. Another seller said he had been in the nightmare for nine days and sent 16 documents by mail again on Monday, including bank statements, passports, HMRC account statements and VAT certificates. Others have been trying for 2 months and still have no solution.
Because customs clearance is not possible, the payment account is frozen, and many sellers are anxious. One of them said that he was so worried that he couldn't sleep or eat, and his family was very worried. For a lot of sellers, what worries them the most is:PaymentAll the timeis suspended
One seller described his own experience, which may be representative of a lot of his peers. "Amazon sent me an email confirming that my documents were verified on January 29 (all documents were sent to Amazon)," he said. Although my account is in good shape, the payment is still frozen, and Amazon has no reason to withhold my funds. I've called the verification team several times and they confirm that my information is verified but tell me I need to contact Seller Support. I provided information to Seller Support, and they referred the issue back to the verification team ......And so on and so forth, endlessly.
Seller Support told me that this was a system bug that affected UK Amazon sellers, so why is Amazon trying to cover up this issue andThink soSeller fails to provide the necessary information? And it's also clear from the feedback from a lot of sellers that it's a systemic problem, but Amazon denies it. ”
The seller also said that some of his peers have fallen into despair, and some are even facing bankruptcy and are unable to pay employees' salaries, rent, and bills. This is not unfounded.
Sellers: Leaving Amazon after successful verification is too stressful
In January, after Amazon issued a tax audit warning, a seller posted a related post on Amazon forums, and now the post has received nearly 2,000 responses, and sellers' worries are deepening.
An Exmouth seller mentioned that an email from Amazon almost gave him a heart attack. He was supposed to receive the £1,300 payment, but when he checked his account, he found that the amount had dropped to zero. Subsequently, Amazon's email suggested that he may not have established a presence in the UK.
"I panicked, checked out the Amazon seller forum and saw that everyone had the same problem. It's my only income! I sent the document on January 25 and didn't receive any response after that. There are hundreds of Amazon sellers who, like me, don't get paid. ”The seller was helpless.
Faced with Amazon's failure to pass the review, sellers in Exmouth said they may move their business away from the platform to stabilize their income. At the moment he has told his wife to withdraw the stock because the stock has been in ** but we can't get the money. We decided,Once verifiedSuccessYesIt's too much pressure to put all your energy into leaving Amazon
For most sellers, they are currently unable to determine the reason for the payment freeze by the platform, and they do not know how to unblock it. Amazon continued to ask for information, and the problem was not resolved after they did.
Today, there are still a large number of Amazon sellers' payments frozen, and after the pressure from the relevant departments in the UK, the seller's dilemma may usher in a turnaround.