Business licence or national ID card
Hi all. Do we need to be a registered business to sell on Amazon on the paid professional plan? I’ve fallen upon some posts where sellers have received emails asking for:
“If you are the trademark owner, provide a copy of the trademark registration certificate, as well as the business license or national identity card”.
Does anyone know what they mean by “business licence or national identity card”, please?
Also, is the paid pro plan the same as an Amazon business account?
Ta.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
This might help (it’s an outline of the various activites that constitute ‘trade’):
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205
I think there is (or used to be) a limit below which you don’t have to declare (around £1000, if memory serves) but if you intend to carry on selling/trading with the hope of increasing your sales over time, it’s probably best to register sooner rather than later.
15 replies
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
No. You can have an Individual or Business account and be on the Professional or Individual selling plan
The messages to trademark owners would be about trademarks, obviously, not necessarily about the type of account they have. National identity cards don’t exist in the UK and most UK businesses don’t need a licence to operate: those that do include ones selling alcohol, for example
Seller_lw4PDgdCxcN6B
Thankyou. I’m still confuddled though. I don’t want to set up as a sole trader as yet, so does that mean I can’t sign up for the Professional account? But I could have an Individual account and pay the £30 per month selling bought to sell items without being a registered business?
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
You don’t have any choice. As @JillyB1 has said, if you are buying stock (or creating products) to re-sell, you are running a business - sole trader - so you must open a business account. You can still use the Individual selling plan, unless/until your Amazon sales exceed the roughly 34 per month that make it financially worthwhile to go to the £30 a month Business plan (and/or you want to use some of the features that are only available on that plan)
Seller_lw4PDgdCxcN6B
Thanks. Thing is though, I’ve had an Amazon FBA/FBM account for a couple of years and mostly Individual account. But when I paid the subscription for a while, I was never asked to supply my business details. Just my name, address, contacts, bank statement etc. So it seems I can sell on my current account. It’s just that I’ve seen posts mentioning new sellers receiving emails from Amazon asking for all sorts of docs. I’ve never actually had a business account and am wondering if this is a new thing, because I’ve only recently discovered this Amazon business account thingy.
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
If you had/have an individual account, you won’t have been asked for business details as they wouldn’t apply to an individual. If you are now required to have a business account, because you are running a business, then you need to change the account type. Be warned that this will almost certainly trigger the re-verification process. This is currently taking several months, although some of us think this may be because those sellers are not supplying the right information in the right format. Certainly, several sellers have reported that their reverification has been very quick, sometimes the same day or a few days at most. You may be lucky
Whatever you do, don’t open a second account. It’s not allowed, except for certain specific circumstances, and both accounts will immediately be suspended, giving you a lot of trouble
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
By this, do you mean you haver never actually had a business bank account ? If so then that is ok (but not ideal if you are just using your own current account). - best to keep business and personal transactions and finances separate.
If you mean your account type on Amazon is not a business one, then have you ever registered with HMRC as self-employed, which is what you are if you are buying items to sell on ?
I sincerely hope I am not assuming incorrectly, and please forgive me if I am, but if you buy items to sell on then you really MUST be registered with both HMRC and Amazon as a Business Seller ie. a Business Selling Account as your legal entity.
If not then both will catch up with you at some point.
Seller_lw4PDgdCxcN6B
Sorry, didn’t get notifications for the latest comments. Nope, I’ve been faffing about selling vegan keyrings that didn’t sell. This was before I realised research was needed to see if items would be profitable. I sold as FBM and also FBA for a while but they didn’t sell, even being Amazon’s choice. They have asked me for my bank details including a statement etc though. So I’m now researching properly but I’m not self employed. So was wondering when I do buy some products to sell and they hopefully do sell, if I can just make a listing and continue. If they do sell then I’ll register for self assessment?
Seller_64jziShTiTjOq
Sorry but as we keep telling you, if you buy stock to sell, you are running a business as a self-employed person. You must register with HMRC as a sole trader as soon as you start trading, not when you start making a profit
Seller_lw4PDgdCxcN6B
Ok, thanks. I was just thinking if my products didn’t sell it would be a waste of time but I’ll get it sorted. Makes sense to get organized before I start trading. Thanks guys.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
This might help (it’s an outline of the various activites that constitute ‘trade’):
https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/business-income-manual/bim20205
I think there is (or used to be) a limit below which you don’t have to declare (around £1000, if memory serves) but if you intend to carry on selling/trading with the hope of increasing your sales over time, it’s probably best to register sooner rather than later.
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
As Stallion says, and something which virtually all new sellers are confused by and can easily get wrong, there are 2 types of accounts ie. the legal entity:
Business Account - where you buy stock to sell on - can be either a sole-trader, limited company or partnership
Individual Account - where you are selling off your own personal items, such as books, DVDs, CDs etc
Then there are 2 types of Selling Plan:
Professional Plan - where you pay £30 a month fee (only financially sensible when you sell a minimum of 33/34 items per month, or want to take advantage of the other perks
Individual (Basic) Plan - you pay an extra fee per item sold.
A business seller can use either Selling plan and you can easily switch between the two depending on level of sales.
