The best way to get information to complete a VAT return from Amazon?
Could someone explain simply what information to download from Amazon in order to compete a VAT return? I find this one of the most frustrating parts of selling on Amazon.
I have tried to generate a number of reports. The obvious option is to go the top menu on seller and Reports>Payments>Date range reports tab
Then insert the dates for the VAT quarter and generate. Open resulting file in a spreadsheet.
So far so good.
Product sales is in one column. Great I can just add those up.
However fees are split into a number of confusing columns
promotional rebates / postage credits / selling fees / fba fees /other transaction fees
There is no simple total fees column I can use. It would be good if Amazon could provide us with a simple total.
Do I have to add together selling fees / fba fees /other transaction fees to get a total?
If I do this, then the fees come out as very high - around 30% of the total selling price.
This seems higher than expected in the “fee preview” in dashboard.
Firstly, is this the best way to get the information required for a VAT return?
I also get monthly fee invoices but these do not seem to match.
Secondly, what are “other transaction fees”? Usually 75p per item in this case
Edited by: Microscience on Jan 16, 2018 6:18 PM
Edited by: Microscience on Jan 16, 2018 6:20 PM
12 replies
Seller_bbq8eA650G6ER
OK - what we do rightly or wrongly is (and it is ok with our accountant for VAT):
Payments/Transaction View/custom date range
Download this & open in a spreadsheet, run a sort using Payment Detail. This sorts all the various charges & receipts into sections. Insert a row at the end of each type & take a total.
Seems long winded but is relatively quick in practice.
Amazon for some reason seem to work on a 15th - 15th invoice cycle.
Hope this helps, but others may have alternative ways of dealing with this.
Seller_ZTfpifoTlBAw5
Thank you very much for your comments and help.
It would be nice if Amazon provided us with an easier way to do this. A one-click vat download (or even better - scheduled).
Seller_hua6i0YNlWkOV
Thanks - that sounds good to me … how do i go about telling excel that it should open the txt file as a tab delimited file? - i’ve tried opening and re-saving as tab delimited - makes no difference when i re-open it though… I think i’ll try another spreadsheet prog and see if its a(nother) excel issue…
Seller_AkXWHZFYED7E0
I know this is an old thread but hopefully this will help someone.
In excel open a new spreadsheet, go to the data tab at the top of the screen and select the “import text/file” button.
Just clicking on the file in explorer doesn’t always open the file properly.
I’m not at my computer so the name of the tab/button is most likely different but hopefully you can work this out.
Seller_ZTfpifoTlBAw5
I continue to get myself into a pickle with Amazon fees / VAT.
To get the total Amazon fees for a VAT return, do I add together all of the following fees?
gift wrap credits+promotional rebates+selling fees+fba fees+other transaction fees
And total sales (what we need to pay VAT on) are made of
product sales + postage credits
Thanks for your help.
Seller_t3cqhUUJv1Kdm
Have you tried using Reports>Payments>Date range reports> and selecting summary report for the dates you need rather than transactions. This gives you an overview of income and all fees on one page for the dates you enter, rather than a spreadsheet of all transactions
Seller_ZTfpifoTlBAw5
Thank you Jemima, that’s really helpful 
I hadn’t spotted that option and it looks much easier to understand (it generates a pdf rather than a spreadsheet but that shouldn’t be a problem).
