Buzz Accounting
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Accountants for e-commerce and online retailers

A marketplace pays you net of commission, fulfilment, advertising and refunds. We record your turnover gross, show every fee as a cost, reconcile each channel and watch the VAT threshold.

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One month on a marketplace

A seller whose marketplace settlement for the month was £8,400. That is the figure that appeared in the bank, and it is what a lot of people book as their sales.

£3,600 of costs between the sale and the payout

Book the £8,400 and your turnover is understated by £3,600 a month, £43,200 a year — enough on its own to put a seller the wrong side of the £90,000 VAT threshold without knowing it. The £3,600 of costs also disappears, so the accounts show a better margin than the business actually earns.

Worked through at 2026/27 rates from our own calculators, which follow gov.uk guidance checked in July 2026. This is an example and your figures will differ.

Marketplace settlements and turnover

A marketplace pays you a settlement figure: sales, minus commission, fulfilment, advertising and refunds, paid on the platform’s cycle. Booking that payout as income understates your turnover, leaves the costs out of the accounts, and can hide the fact that you are over the VAT threshold.

Shopify, Amazon, eBay, a card machine and a payment processor each report differently and settle on different cycles. We reconcile every channel into one ledger each month.

Why do my accounts never match my platform reports?

Because the payout is not the sale. Every platform settles net of something — commission, payment processing, advertising, shipping subsidies, refunds and sometimes marketplace-collected VAT — so booking the money that lands in the bank as revenue understates both turnover and costs, often by 20% or more. Done properly, each sale is recorded gross and every deduction is booked as its own cost, which is the only way to see a real margin. This is the single most common error in e-commerce bookkeeping and it distorts VAT as well as profit.

Stock and cost of goods

In a product business the closing stock figure is one of the largest single inputs to profit, and so to tax, and it needs counting rather than estimating.

£20,000 of stock bought in March and sold in June.

How should I be tracking stock and cost of goods?

Properly, because without it your margin is a guess. The minimum is a cost of goods figure that moves with sales rather than with purchases: buying £20,000 of stock in March does not make March a bad month, and selling it in June does not make June a good one. That means a stock count at least at the year end, ideally quarterly, and a system that values what is on hand. Landed cost matters too — duty, freight and fulfilment fees belong in cost of goods.

Returns and refunds

A high-returns category needs a provision, otherwise December overstates profit and January understates it when the goods come back. Returns also change what you can afford to spend acquiring a customer.

DecemberSales made, and a provision for the goods expected back
JanuaryRefunds paid out against that provision

VAT on marketplaces and across borders

For a lot of sales the platform is treated as the supplier and accounts for the VAT itself, which changes what appears on your return. Selling into the EU brings OSS and IOSS into it. Both need setting up correctly from the start.

UK marketplaces

Does Amazon handle VAT for me?

For some transactions. Large marketplaces are treated as the deemed supplier for certain sales — particularly imports and sales by overseas sellers — and account for the VAT themselves. That does not remove your obligations: you still have to account correctly for everything from their reports, distinguish deemed-supplier sales from your own, and file your own returns. The reports are detailed and easy to double-count, and sellers who assume the platform has dealt with everything can end up paying VAT twice or not at all.

EU consumers

€150

What are OSS and IOSS, and do I need them?

One Stop Shop lets you report VAT on business-to-consumer sales across the EU through a single return rather than registering in every member state. Import One Stop Shop lets you collect EU VAT at checkout on consignments up to €150, so parcels clear customs without the customer being charged on delivery — which materially reduces refused deliveries. You need them if you sell to EU consumers at any scale. Neither covers stock held in the EU, which is a separate registration question entirely.

Stock in another country

Can holding stock abroad create a VAT registration?

Yes, and it is the most common surprise in this sector. Storing stock in another country — usually through Amazon’s pan-European or European fulfilment programmes — generally creates a VAT registration obligation in each country where the inventory physically sits, from the first sale rather than at a threshold. Sellers frequently enable a programme that redistributes stock automatically and find out months later. Check where your stock is before enabling any cross-border fulfilment option, and factor the cost of multiple registrations into the decision.

E-commerce tax dates

Your busiest trading month and your lowest cash month are usually about eight weeks apart.

  1. Every month

    Channels reconciled to settlement statements.

  2. Every VAT quarter

    Return and payment, one month and seven days after the period ends.

  3. Peak trading

    Stock and cash are both stretched, and the cash forecast matters most.

  4. January

    Returns arrive, against the provision made in December.

  5. Your year end

    Stock counted and valued.

  6. Rolling

    Cross £90,000 of gross sales in any twelve months and registration is due in 30 days.

Source: gov.uk VAT, marketplace and Making Tax Digital guidance, checked July 2026. See key tax dates.

What we do for online sellers

Every channel into one ledger
Shopify, Amazon, eBay, card machine and processor, each reconciled to its settlement statements.
Turnover recorded gross
Every platform fee recorded as a cost, so the margin in your accounts is the one you earn.
Stock counted and valued
A year-end count valued line by line.
VAT across marketplaces and borders
Deemed supplier rules, OSS and IOSS set up correctly.
Margin by product and channel
Which products make money after fees and returns.
A returns provision
Expected returns provided for, so January refunds are matched to December’s sales.

Get a quote

Answer four questions to see the monthly fee. The full proposal is emailed to you.

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Call or WhatsApp 07476 989568 or email hello@buzzaccounting.co.uk

How much does it cost?

Accounts and tax start at £29 + VAT a month for a sole trader and £49 + VAT for a limited company, the fee rises with turnover, and the instant quote shows yours in four questions. For e-commerce the drivers are the number of sales channels and payment processors to reconcile, transaction volume, whether stock is tracked properly, and whether you sell across borders. Four marketplaces, two currencies and Amazon FBA take more work than one Shopify store with Stripe. FreeAgent is included, worth up to £330 a year, and Xero suits most sellers with stock.

Advisory and finance support for growing businesses

Business PulseFrom £375 + VAT a month

An annual budget, a rolling 12-month cash flow forecast, management accounts and a review meeting every month or quarter, on top of your accounts fee.

Outsourced finance teamFrom £750 + VAT a month

Bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, customer invoicing and month-end, done for you in Xero.

Part-time finance directorFrom £2,000 + VAT a month

Peter Allen as your fractional finance director: an annual plan, a cash flow forecast, a KPI dashboard and a quarterly board meeting.

Accreditations and partnerships

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