Scary Experience with Avalara

Hello Sellers!

I want to document my experience so far after signing up for “VAT Services on Amazon” with Avalara acting as my tax agent.

I signed up in June and it took about a month to receive my UK VAT number.

The process of calculating the VAT is largely automated with this system. It took a little getting used to dealing with the Excel spreadsheets and uploading them to the Amazon website but it was all manageable. The trickiest bit was entering non-Amazon sales and purchases but I got the hang of it after the first month.

So after my first quarter of uploading the VAT spreadsheets, my VAT due to HMRC was displayed on the Amazon site, along with payment instructions. I paid HMRC this amount in October and thought nothing of it since. I was actually very happy with how easy everything seemed to be working.

But yesterday I got scared. I received an email from Avalara, with a scanned copy of a letter attached, that they had received from HMRC. The later was dated over a month ago. HMRC writes “We have not received your VAT return…”, and requests a payment of more than twice the amount due and no mention of the payment I did send.

I initially presumed this meant that my payment had not been received but after calling HMRC they confirmed it had but my VAT return due in October had not been filed.

I tried calling Avalara yesterday but was not able to get through. Left a message for a call back and emailed them so I’m hoping I can get talking to someone there today.

It’s alarming to think that months have passed since the deadline and they have not filed my first return. It’s also worrying that it took Avalara over a month to scan and email the letter they had received from HMRC alerting them to the fact that no return had been received.

Most puzzling of all is that there was no explanation in the Avalara email as to why they had not submitted my return to HMRC (see screenshot below of the Avalara email).

I am now worried that if Avalara don’t submit my return in the coming days I will be shut down on Amazon? Or it will be a very costly mess to get out of. I’m really not sure how this is going to pan out. Hopefully today will bring more clarity if I can get talking to someone in Avalara.

Has anyone one else signed up for VAT Services on Amazon with Avalara as agent? How have you found the service so far? I’d be very interested to read your comments.