Recently, many sellers selling items on Amazon UK have received notification emails from Amazon officials requesting sellers to provide IEN information or tax receipts for some (or all) of the applicable shipments within 30 days of first receiving each shipment. Failure to fill out the tax form number or provide the IEN in a timely manner may result in Amazon discontinuing the delivery service, which in turn may result in the suspension of the sale of the merchandise.
Seller A ：It has been thought that the IEN of the British station does not need to fill in, but today the account has been stopped?
Seller B: We are going to use the double clearing and tax package, what should we do if we don't have IEN?
Seller C: How to solve the problem of long time of VAT registration in UK, without VAT tax number and EORI number, and I can't get my own IEN?
Double Clearance mode forwarder usually does not provide IEN code. However, there is a risk in this way, because the concept of tax package is a VAT for multiple tickets of different stores for customs clearance, which may be subsequently challenged by the platform that the main VAT bound by the store is not the same as the VAT bound by the IEN that we provide.
According to the latest regulations of Amazon, sellers need to import goods in the name of their own company and provide IEN number, if there is no UK VAT number, sellers can apply for temporary EORI for customs clearance and generate a separate IEN number. After the official VAT and EORI number come down, the temporary EORI can no longer be used (canceled), and you need to update the EORI number in Customs Declaration System, and the CDS system supports to change the EORI number.
(The green circle shows the temporary EORI number applied by the customer, the number will be issued within 1 working day)
This is because for businesses starting to import into the UK for the first time, registering for UK VAT can often take several months before a tax code is available. This means that businesses have sent goods to the UK, but have not established themselves as importers, and it is commercially undesirable for businesses to be unable to act as importers themselves, so it is possible to apply for a temporary EORI number from HMRC so that the supplier can become the importer.
The temporary EORI number will be used for imports and businesses will have to pay import VAT at the point of import in order to clear the goods through customs into the UK.
UK VAT and official EORI number registration
Finally, after the seller's VAT number comes down, the seller uses their own VAT number and official EORI number to clear the goods, using the CDS system and selecting the UK VAT Deferred (PVA) clearance method (VAT clearance deferred records can be downloaded from CDS's e-account). In this way, the seller does not need to pay import VAT and can comply with customs clearance.
For sellers importing goods into the UK, understanding and applying for an EORI number is a key step, as it is a requirement for cross-border trade clearance in the EU and is particularly important for cross-border e-commerce sellers.
1
What is the EORI number?
The EORI number is called Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) and if you or your business wants to trade, you need an EORI number for customs clearance/transfer of goods. EORI numbers have different formats for different countries within and outside the EU. However, they usually consist of the country's ISO code and 12 digits. In the United Kingdom, the format of the EORI number is as follows:
GB123456789000
2
What is the connection between CDS and EORI numbers?
CDS is the customs clearance system used in the UK, which is responsible for handling customs declaration and customs clearance procedures. Sellers must use EORI number in customs declaration, after activation of EORI number, it will take effect in 2-5 days, at the same time, the account number used by the seller will become the CDS account number which is bound to the EORI number. An EORI number can only be associated with one CDS account, and an EORI number is required for CDS registration, and the two are interdependent.
With the new regulations and challenges facing Amazon UK sellers, it's important to ensure that you are operating in compliance. Being aware of and complying with the latest requirements and obtaining the required VAT, EORI and IEN numbers in a timely manner are key steps to ensuring continued sales and avoiding account deactivation.
EN 
ZH_TW 
ZH