Action required: Add your taxpayer ID

[eusebio]

Have received this a few days before New Year.

"n United Kingdom, Etsy is required to report certain tax information to local tax authorities when sellers make more than £85,000.00 in sales on Etsy each year. It looks like you’re getting close to this threshold in your shop.

You’re required to have a valid taxpayer ID on file in the legal and tax information page in your Shop Manager. If you don’t add a valid VAT ID your shop will be suspended and you won’t be able to continue making sales in your shop until you provide it. "

I did close to 60K last year so have no idea why did I received this. Anyone else? Opinions?

Btw, can't see any requirement to provide taxpayer ID under my dashboard.

[rsot]

have you checked other VAT posts on the forum for cross-reference knowledge?

[eusebio]

Yes, I did.

You can point me out if you are aware I skipped the answer already published here.

[aaa7z5]

Doesnt really matter why.. but have you asked in the Etsy forums? An Etsy Rep is almost always on there to reply.. you can ask for clarification, and they may tell you.. but still, the platform says:

"If you don’t add a valid VAT ID your shop will be suspended and you won’t be able to continue making sales in your shop until you provide it."

So..regardless, they will still suspend you without the ID verification.. what is your bottleneck?

Is it that you are not able to provide Tax ID, or is it a different ID than the bank account, etc?

[eusebio]

They are asking for VAT number, even tho they call it TAX ID Number, which actualy doesnt exist as such.

I have been in contact with them, bunch of useless reps.

[SaiJin]

Originally Posted by eusebio

Have received this a few days before New Year.

"n United Kingdom, Etsy is required to report certain tax information to local tax authorities when sellers make more than £85,000.00 in sales on Etsy each year. It looks like you’re getting close to this threshold in your shop.

You’re required to have a valid taxpayer ID on file in the legal and tax information page in your Shop Manager. If you don’t add a valid VAT ID your shop will be suspended and you won’t be able to continue making sales in your shop until you provide it. "

I did close to 60K last year so have no idea why did I received this. Anyone else? Opinions?

Btw, can't see any requirement to provide taxpayer ID under my dashboard.

So your $ count doesn't reset on etsy even though it's the new year?
And they are still asking for it even though it's below the 85k threshold?

[Jackies]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

So your $ count doesn't reset on etsy even though it's the new year?
And they are still asking for it even though it's below the 85k threshold?

resets, but it is unknown whether the process does not start if you receive the first reminders (already 2023)

[Rom Tittenhouse]

My friend had this issue for his existing stealth shop based in Canada. He didn't have a taxpayer ID he could use so he entered a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ one and it worked. I don't think Etsy has the capability to verify these numbers themselves which makes sense when you think about it. The government is not going to open up their database of citizen's personal information to Etsy. Etsy just has to take the number you give them and submit it to the gov. Does anyone else have experience with this?

[Jackies]

Originally Posted by Rom Tittenhouse

My friend had this issue for his existing stealth shop based in Canada. He didn't have a taxpayer ID he could use so he entered a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ one and it worked. I don't think Etsy has the capability to verify these numbers themselves which makes sense when you think about it. The government is not going to open up their database of citizen's personal information to Etsy. Etsy just has to take the number you give them and submit it to the gov. Does anyone else have experience with this?

was it for VAT ID or his individual Tax number like TIN? VAT numbers are probably checked in the VIES database

[Rom Tittenhouse]

Originally Posted by Jackies

was it for VAT ID or his individual Tax number like TIN? VAT numbers are probably checked in the VIES database

Canadians don't have VAT numbers. Just the equivalent of an TIN or SSN. In Canada its called social insurance number SIN.

[Jackies]

so it is very possible that they verified this number because the algorithm of the number entered was correct

[Rom Tittenhouse]

Originally Posted by Jackies

so it is very possible that they verified this number because the algorithm of the number entered was correct

well one thing is for sure - he did not have the correct number. He must have had the correct number of digits and maybe correct number format but there is no way that the number matched the name.

[murdered_by_ebay]

Originally Posted by Rom Tittenhouse

well one thing is for sure - he did not have the correct number. He must have had the correct number of digits and maybe correct number format but there is no way that the number matched the name.

personal tax numbers in canada , australia and usa are verified online , paypal do it all the time

[Rom Tittenhouse]

It could be that paypal is trying to verify your identity whereas Etsy made it clear that they are doing it because they are legally obliged to. For them, it's not about verifying your identity in this case, but fulfilling new government regulations. Strictly a reporting requirement. Technically, they took the information and reported it - fulfilling their obligation.
I am hoping someone who has tried it can comment here because it still seems like a huge risk.

[eusebio]

Originally Posted by SaiJin

So your $ count doesn't reset on etsy even though it's the new year?
And they are still asking for it even though it's below the 85k threshold?

Mail was sent at the end od the 2023., and yes, I was arround 60K. Still not suspended, but I guess I will..

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by eusebio

Mail was sent at the end od the 2023., and yes, I was arround 60K. Still not suspended, but I guess I will..

It's got nothing to do with the end of calendar year date, I suspect that's simply coincidence.

Unless you're a limited Company who happens to have their accounting period set as the 1st January, then nobody has a calendar year tax period, it's 5th April for most anyone else.

In any event, there's no such thing as 'a year' with VAT, it's done on a continual rolling basis, so it's easy to imagine a scenario where a seller, particularly a new one, only sells 70K per financial year but crosses the 85K rolling snapshot triggering registration or some software predicts that in any given 12 month period you are likely to do so. Okay, it can be managed with HMRC but sales platforms aren't privy to that conversation.

Given HMRC have said they'll hold sales platforms liable for unpaid VAT you can sort of see why they're taking a cautious approach, rightly or wrongly.

Have you investigated the possibility of registering and then de-registering if they're going to enforce this?

[angryatebay]

Originally Posted by eusebio

They are asking for VAT number, even tho they call it TAX ID Number, which actualy doesnt exist as such.

I have been in contact with them, bunch of useless reps.

Did they specifically mentioned VAT? If not, the number you need to input is the UTR number (Unique Tax Reference)

[OldTom]

Originally Posted by angryatebay

Did they specifically mentioned VAT? If not, the number you need to input is the UTR number (Unique Tax Reference)

It's literally quoted verbatim in the opening post:

"Etsy is required to report certain tax information to local tax authorities when sellers make more than £85,000.00 in sales on Etsy each year. It looks like you’re getting close to this threshold in your shop.

You’re required to have a valid taxpayer ID on file in the legal and tax information page in your Shop Manager. If you don’t add a valid VAT ID your shop will be suspended"

[mrsalexia]

just use UTR you dont need to be registered for vat in UK if your threshold is below £85k