Recently, a large number of Amazon UK sellers have received a notice that their sales rights are restricted, and there is also an official notification email from Amazon, asking sellers to provide IEN encoded emails for shipments sent to distribution centers.
Why did this email affect the seller so much? How do I resolve follow-up issues caused by IEN? Today, the author will start with these questions and sort out the beginning and impact of Amazon's IEN warning for you.
Amazon began to tighten its grip on IEN coding
The email received by the seller shows that all sellers who have an account outside the UK and need to send inventory to Amazon's UK fulfillment center must provide the corresponding IEN for the relevant product, and if there is no IEN number, the seller must provide Amazon with a valid reason, which will be reviewed by Amazon after submission.
In the absence of a valid reason, Amazon may suspect that the seller has not complied with the UK VAT and customs regulations relating to imported goods and notify the UK Customs Authority (HMRC). In addition,If a seller's behavior is judged to be non-compliant and continues after 60 days, Amazon will stop the seller's "Product Fulfillment".
Before we get to know this, we need to know what IEN is.
The full name of IEN is Import Entry Number, that is, the import entry number, and when all goods are imported into the UK, the British Customs will assign the corresponding IEN code to each commodityThe code uses a standard 18-digit alphanumeric format, with the first 2 digits representing the year, the next 2 digits representing the country and region, and the next 14 digits being randomly generated.
In fact, since 2019, the UK has begun to increase the supervision of import taxes for overseas sellers, requiring all e-commerce platforms to perform the due diligence plan of FHDDS warehousing service operators, and Amazon has also required all European sellers to provide IEN codes within 240 days of product warehousing from April 1, 2019.
As a policy that has been promulgated for a long time, why did Amazon not strictly control it before, but suddenly tightened it this year and began to strictly implement this policy? This is not unrelated to the double clearance tax package products that are quite popular with some sellers on the market.
The space for double tax package is getting smaller and smaller
As we all know, customs clearance is a very cumbersome thing, sellers often need to spend a lot of manpower and energy to do customs clearance by themselves, everyone hopes to have a simpler and more convenient customs clearance method, driven by this kind of demand, the market was born some gray products such as double clearance tax.
To put it simply, the double clearance tax means that the seller only needs to hand over the things and freight to the forwarding company, and does not have to worry about the rest, only needs to pay the relevant feesWhile the double clearance tax may seem convenient, there are some fatal risks.
First of all, the goods with double clearance tax are imported into the destination country by way of transshipment for the sellerTherefore, in many cases, the service provider will not give the seller IEN code, or some more unscrupulous service providers will directly provide the seller with a fake code.
Even if the code given is true, in order to save costs,Service providers that support double clearance tax often use a VAT to clear customs for different goods of multiple sellers, which leads to the IEN code obtained by sellers is also mixed with other sellers, which will cause a lot of problems in the future.
Finally, even if the seller has a problem in the follow-up and wants to make a supplementary application for the relevant code, most of the service providers of the double clearance tax package will be unwilling to make a supplementary application for the seller because of trouble.
Reflected in this incident, some sellers are unable to provide the IEN code corresponding to the product to the platformIn this case, products without IEN codes will be restricted by the platform and cannot be sold, affecting the normal development of business.
Faced with this situation, how should sellers respond? How can I avoid it in the future?
INE's warning is another wake-up call for compliance
In this IEN warning event, if the seller is indeed unable to provide the IEN code for various reasons, there will be a transition period of 60 daysThe best way to dispose of the goods is to sell them within 60 days, otherwise they will have to be destroyed or removed from Amazon's warehouse.
This incident has undoubtedly sounded the alarm bell for cross-border sellers to comply again.
Here, Jalynn, a logistics expert at the head of Western Post LogisticsIt is recommended that sellers should apply for their own VAT for customs clearance, so that they can not only ensure the submission of their own IEN code when facing the requirements of the platform IEN, but also ensure the normal sales of goods, and other places that may need to use the IEN code in the future.
More importantly, IEN warnings are only one part of the platform's compliance actions, and in the case of having its own VAT, sellers can ensure that they are safe and sound in the future, whether it is data declaration or other compliance actions of the platform.
Finally, it is also recommended that all seller friends choose a partnerBe sure to keep your eyes peeled, and remember not to be attracted by unreasonable **, after all, low ** often means high risk.
Entering 2024, Amazon's compliance actions in the European market will continue, and the possibility of sellers wanting to be lazy through the gray area is getting lower and lowerAs a leader in overseas warehouses and logistics in Europe and the United States, Western Post Logistics has always been guiding customers to carry out sunshine customs clearance, neither providing customers with double clearance tax package products, nor recommending sellers to use such gray products.
If customers and friends encounter questions on the road to compliance customs clearance, they can also consult with West Post LogisticsIt can not only provide professional advice and guidance for sellers, but also assist sellers to connect with high-quality tax agency partnersHelp sellers develop in compliance.
With the continuous advancement of the compliance process of the industry, sellers will only face a stricter compliance environment in the future, and they will do a good job of compliance layout as soon as possible to prevent compliance risks, so that the business of going overseas can go more safely and in the long run.
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Text: Huang Cheng.
Editor: Huang Cheng.
Review: Jelly
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