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_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
The above comment is slightly confusing, as in a previous post you said you ’ I’ve had an Amazon FBA/FBM account for a couple of years’ - did you never sell anything at in all that time ?
Surely you must have been very out-of-pocket with sending items to FBA and then all the FBA fees ?
All fees can be claimed as a business expense in your accounts.
I really find it hard to believe that anyone would use FBA if not a business.
In addition to advising you that you really must be registered with HMRC as self-employed, it sounds as though have already been trading.
You need to go the the HMRC website, and probably Amazon’s Seller University pages.
Seller_lw4PDgdCxcN6B
Well it’s quite easy to understand. I haven’t traded because I didn’t sell anything.
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
Ah, OK.
If you didn’t sell anything at all in that time, then I would say you need to have a rethink about the products you want to sell if you really do want to have a small business.
As I said before, if you paid the monthly fee for a while and also sent items to FBA you must have been quite out of pocket without having sold anything ?
Good luck.
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.
