E-commerce and online seller accounting
Accountants for e-commerce sellers in Edinburgh.
Specialist e-commerce seller accounting for Edinburgh — ACCA-regulated, fixed-fee, with a named accountant on direct contact.
Countify for Edinburgh e-commerce sellers
Local context
that actually matters.
Edinburgh's e-commerce profile is heavier on SaaS-meets-commerce hybrids and premium DTC than pure fulfilment-led operators. The CodeBase cluster on Argyle House and adjacent fintech tenants have spun out a steady run of subscription-commerce and headless-Shopify businesses, where the accounting question is rarely just VAT — it is revenue recognition under FRS 102 for prepaid subscriptions, deferred revenue on annual plans, and R&D tax credit eligibility on bespoke storefront development. The premium DTC side — Edinburgh-based gin distilleries, single-estate teas, leather and craft food brands — leans hard on EU export, which after Brexit means IOSS for sub-€150 parcels and country-level VAT registrations once Amazon stores stock in Germany or France. Edinburgh sellers also reach the £90k VAT threshold faster than they expect because the brand premium pulls higher average order values; we monitor the rolling 12-month figure monthly so registration happens on the right side of an inventory order, not the wrong side.
Sector context
What e-commerce seller accounting actually involves.
E-commerce tax got harder after Brexit and harder again with the marketplace VAT rules. The £90,000 VAT-registration threshold creeps up fast on a growing Shopify or Amazon FBA store; the One Stop Shop (OSS) and Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) regimes determine whether you account for EU VAT centrally or country-by-country; and marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy and eBay now collect and remit VAT on certain UK and EU sales on your behalf — which changes your own returns. Countify reconciles Shopify, Stripe, PayPal and Amazon settlements monthly against bookkeeping, registers for OSS/IOSS where it saves work, claims input VAT on EU FBA inventory, and handles the marketplace-collected-VAT reporting so HMRC and tax authorities see the same numbers you do.
How we help Edinburgh e-commerce sellers
E-commerce seller-specific scope, fixed fees.
VAT registration timing and threshold monitoring
Rolling 12-month turnover tracked so you register at the right time — not so early you give up margin, not so late you trip a backdated liability.
OSS, IOSS and EU FBA VAT registrations
We register you for One Stop Shop in Ireland (typical UK OSS entry point), handle IOSS for sub-€150 imports, and manage country-level VAT where Amazon stores stock in EU fulfilment centres.
Marketplace settlement reconciliation
Amazon, Etsy and eBay settlement files reconciled to your bookkeeping monthly. Stripe and PayPal payout fees split correctly between cost-of-sales and finance costs.
Year-end accounts and CT600 for online stores
Including stock valuation, foreign-currency translation on multi-region sales, and R&D claims on bespoke platform development where eligible.
Run the numbers
Calculators built for e-commerce sellers.
Questions we hear weekly
E-commerce sellers FAQs.
When do I need to register for UK VAT?
When your rolling 12-month UK taxable turnover crosses £90,000, or you reasonably expect to cross it in the next 30 days alone. For most growing Shopify and Amazon UK sellers, the rolling-12-month test trips first — and it includes marketplace-facilitated UK sales where Amazon collects VAT on your behalf, even though the actual VAT cash goes through Amazon. The threshold check is gross sales, not your share.
Do I still need EU VAT registrations after Brexit?
Sometimes. If you ship from the UK directly to EU consumers, you can usually use IOSS (for parcels under €150) or have the customer pay VAT on import. If Amazon stores your FBA stock in Germany, France or other EU fulfilment centres, you trigger a domestic VAT registration in each of those countries — that does not go away with OSS. OSS replaces multiple country-level filings for distance sales from a single EU country, not for stock-held registrations.
How do I account for Amazon marketplace-facilitated VAT?
On UK and EU sales where Amazon collects and remits VAT on your behalf, the gross sale figure appears in your turnover but the VAT element belongs to Amazon, not you. Your own VAT return reports your sales net of marketplace-collected VAT, with input VAT on your costs claimed as normal. The reconciliation matters: HMRC sees the marketplace-collected total separately and a mismatch triggers correspondence.
Are Stripe and PayPal fees an allowable expense?
Yes — payment-processor fees are an allowable business expense, deducted in arriving at taxable profit. The trickier question is where they sit on your P&L: most accounting standards put card-processing fees in cost of sales (because they vary directly with sales volume), not in finance costs. The classification affects gross margin reporting, which matters if you're raising funding or applying for finance.
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