Amazon seller finance: funding stock and advertising against your marketplace sales

If your business is established in the UK, you must register once your taxable turnover for the last 12 months goes over £90,000, or if you expect it to go over £90,000 in the next 30 days alone. Taxable turnover counts sales on every channel, not only Amazon. A business based outside the UK that supplies goods in the UK has no threshold and must register whatever its turnover, unless all its supplies are zero rated and it is granted an exemption. We arrange VAT funding and working capital for online sellers meeting their first VAT bills as sales grow.

Does Amazon pay the VAT on my sales?

Only in set cases. HMRC makes an online marketplace liable for the VAT on goods already in the UK that are sold through it by a seller not established in the UK, and on imported consignments worth £135 or less sold to customers in Great Britain. Outside those cases the seller accounts for the VAT, so a UK established seller includes its marketplace sales on its own VAT returns once registered.

• Price for it. On a standard rated product, one sixth of a VAT inclusive price is VAT, which comes out of your margin.
• Plan the first return. A VAT loan can spread a large quarter over several months.

GOV.UK explains when to register for VAT, and our ecommerce loans page covers other online sellers. Instant Quotes shows which panel lenders may fund a VAT bill, without searching your credit file.

Yes. Sellers often have to order and pay for stock months before the autumn peak, and lenders that fund marketplace sellers look at your sales by month, your account health and margins, and how quickly the same lines sold last year. A short stock finance facility, trade finance that pays an overseas supplier directly, or a revolving credit facility can carry the gap until the sales are paid out. We search the market for peak season funding for Amazon sellers.

Does packaging EPR apply to Amazon sellers?

It can. A business established in the UK with annual turnover of at least £1 million that supplies or imports more than 25 tonnes of packaging a year is an obligated producer, and packaging you supply under your own brand, pack, import or sell to the end user counts towards the tonnage.

• Small producers. Register with the environmental regulator, report packaging data each year and keep records for 7 years.
• Large producers. Above 50 tonnes and £2 million turnover, also report every six months, buy recycling notes and pay a yearly waste disposal fee for household packaging.
• Marketplace owners. Owning an online marketplace through which packaging is supplied in the UK from outside the UK is itself a packaging activity.

A fast growing seller can cross these lines in a single strong year, so add the cost to the plan. GOV.UK sets out who packaging EPR affects. Instant Quotes lists panel lenders for stock purchases, and it leaves no mark on your credit file.

Lenders know a seller's income depends on its account staying in good standing. A suspension, a change in fees or a listing problem can stop sales overnight. Expect lenders to look at your account health, and expect better options if you also sell through other marketplaces or your own website. Some lenders collect repayments as a share of your sales and others by fixed instalments, so read how repayments are collected before you sign.

Sellers who also trade on eBay can compare a platform-linked offer with independent funding in our guide to eBay seller loans.