Hello Amazon Sellers,

I'm reaching out to share my recent frustrating experience with Amazon's handling of our account funds. We received a VAT bill from Amazon for our UK account, which we promptly paid. According to Amazon, the funds were supposed to be released 10 days after payment. However, it has now been almost 30 days since we paid the VAT bill, and our funds are still on hold.

To provide some context, our Amazon UK account was on hold for over two months due to the outstanding VAT tax. Consequently, Amazon placed a hold on the disbursement of funds from our US account, citing the UK account's issues. I find this situation to be incredibly unfair and frustrating for several reasons:

1. **Distinct Legal Entities**: The US and UK accounts are separate legal entities. Any problems should be addressed within the specific account in question. It seems unreasonable to penalize our US account for an issue that solely pertained to the UK account.

2. **Prompt Payment**: We paid the UK VAT bill on 05/01/2024, yet the hold on our funds persists well beyond the promised 10-day release period.

3. **No Issues with US Account**: Our US account has no tax issues or any other problems. It is operating compliantly, yet it is unfairly impacted by the UK account situation.

This has significantly affected our business operations. Our funds being withheld has created cash flow challenges and hindered our ability to manage our inventory and meet customer demands.

I am seeking advice or similar experiences from other sellers who might have faced this issue. How did you resolve it? Any tips on escalating this matter effectively within Amazon?

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to any suggestions or insights you might have.

Best regards,

On May 9, I received a notification on my Amazon UK account, stating: 'This is a reminder that the disbursements of part or all of your Amazon sales proceeds remain temporarily withheld in all stores you operate worldwide... We must collect and remit VAT from non-UK established Selling Partners for the sales of goods delivered to customers in the UK. Based on a review of your account, we determined that you may not be UK established for VAT purposes. This may have resulted in inaccurate tax treatment on your sales under the VAT on eCommerce legislation (effective January 1, 2021, in the UK).'

Even though my UK account has been disabled since 2022, I understand that Amazon is tracking me to pay the VAT for the sales I made from 2021 until my account got disabled. I don't have any option so I acknowledge that I owe Value Added Tax (VAT) to Amazon and clicked the button for understanding what repayment options I have, and still waiting for Amazon to reply me on how much I owe and the payment option.

My question now is how long Amazon will take to calculate my VAT amount and provide me with the options to pay. How many percentages will be the VAT, and will it be calculated from the total sale amount or for the amount Amazon paid me after their cut?

Another question is why Amazon is holding my US account funds for the UK account issue, even though both accounts are completely different entities in both countries?

Hi @Seller_4GjtS9k0cnHHv@Seller_aEROSwwdnzGiU @Seller_F4AbbFj6ovBk3@Seller_GEZPMc4CeQfh6@Seller_R6oYCnTB9O1Uy

Since May 3, 2024, I've been going through VAT liability issue for non-established UK company, which I've confirmed I'm non-established, have paid the VAT liability as notified by Amazon UK, and received confirmation in performance notifications that payment has been received on May 21, 2024 (see attached). All disbursements for my US/CANADA/UK/EU were on hold, and only until recently have had small percentage of disbursements paid out to US and UK accounts. But still net proceeds are zero for EU and Canada, and the account level reserves are just accumulating and much higher than they normally are for US and UK. I've opened cases for US account and UK, asking for reason why funds still are being held in Account level reserve, even after I promptly paid the UK VAT liability. Just been told to wait till the appropriate team finishes the investigation, but it's been over 2 weeks since paying VAT liability. Account health reps say nothing seems to be wrong with account health, no other performance issues according to seller support. The last notice from UK performance notifications, was to submit address verification documents, which I did, and received confirmation stating: Your information is verified – Start selling on Amazon now.

Is there any way to escalate this to the right team to help me get my the disbursements paid at the normal rate of funds being held in Account Level Reserve, as I had before this VAT issue? Or follow up with the team that these cases have been 'Transferred' to 3 weeks ago?

Related case ID for UK/EU which are in 'Transferred' status: 9848359842, 9865482912

Related case ID for US/CANADA which are in 'Transferred' status: 15234222131, 15361937051,