Recently, I have been asked by Amazon to send my due VAT amount to Amazon of the last two years, because NOW (after two years) Amazon has determined that I am not a resident of the UK. Therefore, I need to send Aamzon my previous two years' due amount of VAT.

I am a Canadian Citizen but registered my company with HMRC for VAT two years back. I had regularly been paying my VAT to HMRC. I had sent all my VAT records of HMRC to Amazon, but they are now asking me to re-claim it from HMRC and send it to Amazon - which is beyond my comprehension. To me, this is Amazon's fault because they did not follow their own procedures and did not deduct the required VAT. Now Amazon wants me to fix their mistake. I have repeatedly asked Amazon why should I fix Amazon's mistake on my end. It was Amazon's mistake that they have all my records of residency, and my VAT number in their system, yet ignored it for two years. Despite all this, I have been fulfilling my responsibilities to declare my sales to HMRC and have been paying my due VAT which Amazon should accept. Moving forward, Amazon keep deducting VAT and submit to HMRC. I have even sent an e-mail to Jeff Bazoz (jeff@amazon.com) to let him know the mistake Amazon has made.

I called HMRC about re-claiming the VAT procedure. HMRC commented first saying that it is Amazon's error and they should fix it, so why should I fix it on Amazon's behalf? I told the guy that Amazon wanted me to get the refund of the VAT and then send it to Amazon. He told me to search for VAT re-claim on their website and follow it but warned me that it would be a complicated and time-consuming effort. Has anyone went through this exercise of re-claiming VAT from HMRC and how long it takes, any feedback will be greatly appreciated.