Notes for online sellers
E-commerce Accountants UK Blog
From the journal
25 articles
Accounting for Amazon FBA Reimbursements for Lost and Damaged Stock
Write the lost units out of stock, post the reimbursement as compensation, and expect a small loss on each unit now that Amazon pays sourcing cost rather than the sale price.
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R&D Tax Relief for Shopify App Development and Ecommerce Software
Most Shopify and ecommerce development is routine and does not qualify. What can, what the merged scheme is worth, the overseas restriction and the deadlines HMRC enforces.
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Director Salary and Dividends for Ecommerce Companies in 2026-27
Salary, dividends and the director's loan account for ecommerce company owners in 2026-27, with the new dividend rates, the 35.75% loan charge and profit tied up in stock.
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Printful, Printify and Gelato Invoices in UK Bookkeeping
Post each POD supplier charge as cost of sales for its order, treat wallet top-ups as prepayments, and know when the VAT on UK and overseas-made orders can be reclaimed.
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Business Asset Disposal Relief When Selling an Ecommerce Brand
How Business Asset Disposal Relief works for Amazon and Shopify brand sales from April 2026, and the structure, cash and earn-out points to settle before you sign.
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Amazon Account Level Reserve Accounting for UK Sellers
Money Amazon holds under DD+7 is a balance due to you, not a fee. How to post the reserve, when income and VAT fall due, and how to plan cash around it.
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Why TikTok Shop Payouts Don’t Match Sales: Co-Funded Discounts Explained
Trace a TikTok order through discounts, fees and settlement. Includes an illustrative co-funded voucher calculation and a month-end reconciliation.
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UK Online Business Tax Rules: Registration, VAT & Deadlines
UK tax rules for online sellers: trading versus personal sales, Self Assessment registration, VAT, limited companies and Making Tax Digital, with HMRC links.
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Ecommerce Accounting Software: A UK Selection Guide
Choose accounting software, settlement connectors and stock tools around your ecommerce records. A practical comparison and migration checklist.
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Profit Margins in E-commerce Explained
Profit margins measure financial health by showing what percentage of revenue becomes profit after costs, with e-commerce businesses targeting 20-40% gross margins and 5-10% net margins according to S...
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Tax Deductions for UK Online Businesses
Which costs can UK online sellers claim? A practical guide to stock, marketplace fees, software, home working and the trading allowance, with HMRC sources.
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Financial Reporting for UK Ecommerce Businesses
Understand ecommerce profit, stock, cash and platform balances. A practical reporting guide for UK online sellers, with a monthly review checklist.
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Year End Accounting for E-commerce Businesses
E-commerce businesses using QuickBooks or Xero should start year-end prep by organising 12 months of transactions into folders for sales, expenses, inventory, and taxes. This approach helps streamline...
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The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS): Registration, Compliance, and Limits for UK Sellers
IOSS lets UK sellers collect EU VAT at checkout on B2C consignments below €150, clearing them through EU customs without delay. Without IOSS, every package faces import VAT plus a courier handling fee at delivery, which is the single largest abandoned-cart driver for UK sellers shipping into Europe.
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Navigating Pan-EU FBA: Triggering Local VAT Registrations in EU Member States
Pan-EU FBA gives a UK seller faster Prime fulfilment and lower fees in exchange for a structural complication: every member state where Amazon stores inventory triggers a separate local VAT registration. Six member states means six monthly returns, six local-language compliance burdens, and registration costs that materially exceed the FBA fee savings for smaller sellers.
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Reclaiming UK Import VAT on Freight: Understanding C79 Certificates and PVA
UK e-commerce brands importing stock from China or other non-UK suppliers pay import VAT at the UK border. Two recovery routes: the paper C79 certificate or the Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) scheme. The cash-flow difference between them runs into tens of thousands of pounds per year for a £500k stock buyer.
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Best Practices for Reconciling Chargebacks, Disputes and Payment Holds
Chargebacks, disputes, and payment holds each move or lock up cash on their own timelines. Recording them correctly is what keeps the bank reconciliation honest and the VAT return accurate.
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Consolidating Omni-Channel Revenue Across Shopify, Etsy, TikTok Shop and Amazon
Selling across Shopify, Etsy, TikTok Shop, and Amazon means four settlement structures and four fee models feeding one set of accounts. Consolidating them correctly gives a single P&L without losing per-channel margin visibility.
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Gross vs Net Revenue Recognition and the Payout Accounting Trap
Recording the net payout from a processor as revenue is the most common e-commerce accounting mistake. It under-states turnover, hides fees, and can leave a brand wrongly believing it is below the VAT threshold.
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US Sales Tax Nexus for UK E-commerce Brands: Economic vs Physical Triggers
US sales tax has no federal rate. Each state sets its own rules, its own threshold, and its own filing cadence. A UK Shopify or Amazon seller can trigger registration in a dozen states without ever realising the line was crossed.
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EORI Numbers and Customs Declarations for UK E-commerce After Brexit
Every UK seller importing stock needs a GB EORI number, a customs declaration through the Customs Declaration Service, and a decision on Postponed VAT Accounting. Getting the three set up correctly keeps goods moving and the import VAT off your cash flow.
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The Settlement Timing Gap Between a Sale and a Stripe or Shopify Payout
A customer pays on the 30th; the cash lands in your bank on the 4th of the next month, net of fees. That few-day gap means the sale and its payout fall in different periods, and at a month or year end it quietly understates both your revenue and the money owed to you. A cut-off that recognises the in-transit balance puts it right.
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Multi-Currency Sales and the Exchange Rate Variances That Distort Your Accounts
A dollar sale is worth one sterling figure when the customer checks out and another when the payout lands, and a third if the balance is still sitting with the processor at your year end. Those differences are exchange rate variances, they are real numbers your accounts have to carry, and getting them wrong quietly misstates both profit and the VAT you owe.
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Who accounts for the VAT on your marketplace sales, you or Amazon?
A settlement report shows Amazon collected the VAT, but you are VAT registered too. Who actually accounts for marketplace VAT comes down to one test.
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VAT on Dropshipping Goods Direct from China to UK and EU Customers
Dropshipping goods straight from a Chinese supplier to a UK or EU consumer creates a VAT problem that holding-stock sellers never face: the goods cross a customs border on every single order, and the value of each consignment decides who has to account for the VAT and when.
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