The Evening Standard, Clara Margotin, with PA: Eve Williams of eBay UK says an online VAT crackdown must not “unfairly” hit small British firms. John Healey, the chancellor, is expected to change collection, in the Budget. Reuters, 13 October, on The Times: the Treasury declined to comment. Tax decisions, at fiscal events. The Budget, 28 October. It is not law. It is a newspaper report, plus an appeal.

Today, marketplaces collect VAT on sales by overseas firms to UK customers. Some, the Standard says, bypass it with shell companies. The reported plan: platforms would collect VAT for all retailers on them, with annual turnover above £90,000, wherever they are based. The threshold is VAT registration. Up to £1 billion, the reports say, to cut business rates for physical shops. Amazon, in The Times, had welcomed it; about £700 million, their estimate. The Treasury, silent.

Williams, to PA: she wants overseas sellers to meet their tax duties, so domestic sellers get a fair chance. And any change to protect small UK businesses. She has talked to the Treasury about growth, about thresholds that stop it: VAT, national insurance for employees. “Tax the right things.” An eBay report: 31 of 40 areas with the densest eBay small-business activity have GDP per head below the national average. Hidden high streets, she says, if they have confidence and resources.

She asks: the trading allowance, from £1,000 a year tax-free, to £3,000, so people can test an idea. Support for low-value imports into the EU. Ministers and regional mayors, to put small online firms in local growth plans, before 28 October. That is eBay’s list. It is not the Budget.

The government, in June, on GOV.UK: a consultation, to stretch marketplace liability to UK sellers too. HMRC: tens of thousands of firms on platforms, VAT unpaid, hundreds of millions. People selling second-hand goods, out of scope, in the consultation. KPMG summarised the options. The consultation closed on 18 August. What comes on the 28th stays with Healey.

The Treasury building, 2010, is not Eve Williams’s office. Until the Budget, what remains is an appeal and a silence. VAT on platforms is not yet everyone’s.

Image: PAUL FARMER, HM Treasury, 11 December 2010, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The building, not eBay’s office.

Sources consulted: Online tax crackdown must not ‘unfairly’ hit small UK businesses, eBay boss says — Evening Standard; Government backs high street with acceleration of cheap import reforms and crackdown on dodgy online sellers — GOV.UK.