Why?? Please upgrade your account to business i to continue listing on the German site

[uk197]

Hi all! 

Today I got following popup

We recently reached out to you about a change in German VAT law and your need to identify as a business seller. Please upgrade your account to business in order to continue listing on the German site or items located in Germany.

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I'm not from Germany, don't have Germany VAT Nr., registered in ebay.com, and many years don't use German site ebay.de,  not selling anything in German site, and not interested to sell in future too. Do you have any ideas, why I received this message, and how to resolve it without Germany VAT?

P.S. Answer "contact support" I know 🙂

[sergo7sergo]

Really hope that they will fix it as soon as possible. If anyone have news just text it here Please.

Thank You

[lacemaker3]

@uk197, @sergo7sergo, @xenon-europe, @ali-aamedia 

It sounds as though eBay has identified your accounts as businesses, so you are required to upgrade to a business account, and provide VAT registration. You need to register for VAT in the country where you are a resident, and provide that on your business account profile.

eBay Germany is the main eBay website in Europe, and that is probably why the notification is being sent from eBay Germany. But it doesn't really matter if you sell on eBay Germany, or ship to Germany or not. The requirement is the same no matter where you live in the EU. Even if you registered your account on eBay USA eBay.com.

Here is a good explanation of the eBay requirements for sellers to register for VAT. eBay, as the marketplace that manages the sales and payments on behalf of sellers, is required to collect VAT on many purchases even if the sellers are not registered for VAT and are not including VAT in their prices.

https://export.ebay.com/en/fees-and-payments/taxes-and-accounting/vat/

Here is the page where you can submit your VAT registration to eBay. This page has several explanations for when eBay may require a business account to submit their VAT information.

https://www.ebay.com/spr/vat

 ...

Where required by law, eBay will share your VAT ID with the competent authorities under its statutory reporting obligations.

Your VAT ID may also be shared on a case-by-case basis with the eBay entity providing payment services to you where this is required for the purpose of complying with applicable anti-money laundering and other payment laws, or necessary to pursue a legitimate interest and you are informed about this legitimate interest separately (e.g. in our Privacy Notice). Such information will be processed in accordance with the terms of our User Agreement, Payment Terms of Use and Privacy Notice.

...

[collins-eu]

It seems that sales are also affected, this is a big loss for ebay and it is the fault of Fascist Germany in an attempt to secure financial resources due to the cessation of lending from the Russian Bank and is trying to burden other countries in a Fascist way. All together we must stop buying German products and support the countries of the south together with the United Kingdom and the United States

[xenon-europe]

Problem with registering as business seller is currency. In that case currency must be EUR, not USD. And that is impossible to change on "ebay.com".

[uk197]

1) If eBay considers people to be business sellers, then it should be written , but not ask all to register Germany VAT. 

2) In EU i know minimum 5 business forms that are not VAT payers. Also in may country VAT you can become a VAT payer if you have a minimum turnover of 40K.

3) in UK thread with similar problem, eBay people write that they haven't even sold more than 5-10 of their personal things. Where is the business here?

[lacemaker3]

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@xenon-europe wrote:

Problem with registering as business seller is currency. In that case currency must be EUR, not USD. And that is impossible to change on "ebay.com".

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You can register in a European country, and still sell on eBay.com. You can sell on any eBay website you want. ebay will convert the currency to pay your account in euros.

[collins-eu]

The problem is very simple, ebay.de should be closed in the German region

[xenon-europe]

So I need to close my 15 years old ebay account with 2500 feedback ratings, create new one and start selling from 0 feedback rating. That's sounds like great business advice 🙂

[uk197]

And convert by own currency exchange rate 😉 

[ali-aamedia]

Still no solution? This is very stupid, Bulgarian law allows me to sell up to 50000 Bulgarian Lev (~24500 EUR/year) to sell without being a company and I yearly pay my taxes. I am just trying to make few bucks selling things from home. I hope this is some kind of mistake, otherwise it's really stupid. My earning won't even cover the costs of running a company as I make less than $400 profit in a month.

[lacemaker3]

There's no point in arguing with me about this. Nobody here makes the law, or sets eBay policy, or works for eBay. We can't do anything about this.

Unless eBay changes their position about this, all of you who are affected by this will have to upgrade your accounts to  a business account and provide your VAT registration number (in your own country) in order to continue selling.

[sergo7sergo]

I completely understand that you are unable to list your products and no planning to list on German site. Rest assured; I will surely check and guide you further.

Sergo, I have reviewed your account and glad to inform that your account is in good standing. I would also like to share that we have received many such contacts wherein members are facing similar issue. Our back-end team has been working to get this issue resolved as early as possible.

We regret the inconvenience caused to you in this matter.

At the same time, we need your cooperation and patience till the issue gets resolved.

I appreciate you taking the time to contact eBay Customer Service today to clarify this matter. Have a nice day!

Here is what i just received from Ebay customer service, it seems it an error in their system. Lets wait a bit to see. 

Also in previous comment you are absolutely right, that much less sales i have right now. Selling 2 items in 3 days, before was 2-3 products in a day.

Please text here if you have any news

Thank you 

[collins-eu]

Prohibits buyers from buying

For tax reasons it is currently not possible to buy from this seller. We apologize for any inconvenience and recommend that you search for similar items from other sellers.

[ali-aamedia]

Very stange, I tried to buy from you and it didn't allowed me to buy, but my items are still selling and when I tested to buy from myself with a private window it allows me to buy my items. Very very stange.

[collins-eu]

Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service.

 I understand that you are reaching out to us regarding a concern where you are unable to list/revise the listings because of an error.

 Please do not worry, I will make sure this is handled promptly.

 I have already escalated this issue to our VAT specialist team, and I want to assure you that they are currently investigating it.

 Please allow us 2 to 3 business days to provide you with an update.

 Requesting your patience in the meantime.

 I appreciate the opportunity to resolve all of your concerns today.

 Thank you for your continued business. Thank you for contacting eBay Customer Service.

 Have a wonderful day!

 Regards,

Riya

eBay customer service