[Closed] Amazon Stalemate

 I need to claim back the cost by handing the invoice to the treasurer,

Email the treasurer a copy of your order? It's right there in your account history.

They can't claim back VAT without an invoice

They can’t claim back VAT without an invoice

This is your problem how?

You've done them a favour.  They pay you back what you paid out or they can buy their own damn bins next time.  It's probably cost you more in time chasing it already than it's worth for the amount of VAT on a bin.

I think in this case, surely they can claim back the VAT in their return as they don’t need to provide an invoice upfront. It works on a “this is what we’ve paid, this is how much VAT, and this is what we’re claiming back” and if the VAT-man comes knocking they just say, “this is the order, this is the bin, but by ****, we cannot get an invoice out of the supplier...however if you want the £20 back, here’s a cheque for it.”

IANAA though - do they have to supply copy invoices with their VAT return? (Honest question.)

I put a few invoice-less expenses in every year (I’m not VAT registered). I know I’ve spent the money, just can’t find the invoice/receipt - if ever I really had to, I could always get a duplicate.

Having had an issue returning faulty goods to a 3rd party seller, I now buy direct from Amazon where possible. I suspect their business model is changing to being a shopfront website and logistics partner for other sellers now though, as it seems that fewer items are being sold by Amazon now.

Go to your Amazon account, then "Your orders". Next to each order, there should be an option for "Invoice". At least there is for most of my orders, including a few things bought via 3rd parties.

Go to your Amazon account, then “Your orders”. Next to each order, there should be an option for “Invoice”. At least there is for most of my orders, including a few things bought via 3rd parties

they’re often not there with third party sellers-  you get a ‘request invoice’ link instead for you to message the seller and they’re supposed to email one to you. Sellers usually honour that but sometimes don’t.

When some do you find out they’re not vat registered, or not uk /eu based or they send you a flawed invoice with vat added on top of the sum you actually paid. More than once i’ve had the same situation as the OP with the seller seemingly convinced that an invoice will somehow be available for me on the amazon order page and therefore won’t waste a stamp on emailing one to me.

one thing I’m going to have to learn to do is make all my business purchases individual transactions - if you have an order from several 3rd party sellers in one basket tracking down and requesting invoices gets really difficult as ‘request invoce’ Only navigates to the first item in the basket and ignores the rest

Darcy, they should be in possession of a valid VAT invoice before including it on the return though.  No credible accountant would endorse claiming it and hoping HMRC don’t ask for proof (they do at random - i’d say we get asked once a year roughly, but usually they are more interested in high value invoices) because if they find an error it’s a whole heap of shit, not just involving repaying but penalties and being on the future hit list.

It’s possible there was no VAT (if seller is not registerred).  The correct treatment would be for the charity to repay based on whatever evidence you provide, and simply not to reclaim any Vat on it.  For a very small charity that could be frustrating but unless you were sure there was vat paid then they haven’t lost anything.

Can you not make the bin a charitable donation that you gifted to the charity so they don't need to pay you back?

Is this like a 5 quid or 5000 quid bin? 😆

The seller won’t give me an invoice as they say the order was fulfilled through an Amazon warehouse.

So far this has pinged backwards and forwards about 8 times. I speak to Amazon reps and all they do is raise an invoice request with the seller, which they then in turn say they can’t provide.

Aaargghh! I should have gone to a shop.

Just how expensive was this Bin that it’s worth that much effort to attempt to reclaim the VAT on it!

(VAT that may not even have been paid if the seller isn’t registered)

It was a £20 quid bin.  I'm not that fussed about the cost but I already gift the charity (an MR team) a hell of a lot of my time and, frankly, they can afford the cost better than me!

It doesn't matter too much about the VAT part, I need an invoice of some description for the treasurer to be able to process it.

Why don’t you sell the bin to them? ie make up an invoice of your own for a sale from you to them, then attach a copy of the Amazon order to show that you’ve not added a handling fee!

For what it's worth... We aren't able to claim back vat on my Amazon purchases (for work) even with an invoice due to it not being invoiced to the company. I'd have to setup a separate billing address showing the company as purchaser, not me, so as to be able to reclaim VAT.

Or get an invoice with no purchaser details on it, like a till receipt etc.

This maybe a vaguery of my accounts dept specifically though.

To solve the problem, spend the right amount in a shop, get a vat receipt, take that in.

Don’t let the seller (or amazon) off the hook. If the seller has told you that the invoice is on your amazon orders page and it isn’t tell them they are wrong and they need to rectify it. Even if it was on the order page and you just can’t find it it’s still no excuse for them not emailing you an invoice if they ask for it

you can raise it with amazon too. They seemingly can’t be arsed in most cases mind you- the only action they take to resolve an issue is give you your money back. In which case the MR get a free bin. The seller will know amazon will seek to refund you so that might encourage them to do the 30 seconds work to send you the invoice