Amazon UK VAT Numbers: 79.4% of Sellers Show One, and Who Shows a GB Number by Seller Country

Most Amazon UK sellers show a VAT number: 79.4% of the 55,660 seller profiles we checked list one, and 96.3% of those are GB VAT numbers. We read every profile in the snapshot we took of amazon.co.uk on 23 to 24 September 2026, then grouped the sellers by declared business address.

The Data

Every Amazon seller profile has a business details section. Many sellers fill in a VAT number there, and it is public. In total, 44,197 of the 55,660 sellers we checked show a VAT number of some kind. The share with a GB VAT number differs a lot by where the seller says it is based.

A small group of sellers declare no address we could place, or an address outside these groups. They are counted in the 79.4% total, but they are too mixed to read as a group, so they are left out of the table.

Why Overseas Sellers Show a GB Number More Often

The gap between the first two rows is the pattern people ask about. Sellers declaring a China address show a GB VAT number 85.0% of the time, against 65.6% for sellers declaring a UK address. Sellers declaring a Hong Kong address are the highest group, at 94.0%.

UK VAT rules give a likely reason. GOV.UK guidance on when to register says a business based outside the UK must register for UK VAT if it supplies goods to the UK, whatever its turnover (checked 25 September 2026). A UK-based business only has to register once its taxable turnover passes the registration threshold. So many small UK sellers can trade without a VAT number at all, while an overseas seller shipping to UK buyers needs one from the first sale.

That reading fits the numbers, but the data cannot prove it. We see what sellers show on their profile. We do not see their tax records, and we do not know why any single seller shows a number or not. Nothing in this post is tax advice. If you sell on Amazon UK, check the GOV.UK guidance or ask an adviser about your own case.

EU Sellers: GB Number or Home Number

EU-based sellers are split. Of the 2,148 EU-based sellers, 63.3% show a GB VAT number. Some show their home country's number instead of a GB one, or as well as one. The mix varies a lot by country.

Dutch, Irish and Baltic sellers mostly show a GB number. French and Italian sellers are the exception: 55.3% of French sellers and 51.3% of Italian sellers show their home VAT number, more than show a GB one. Treat the Lithuanian and Estonian rows with care. They rest on 42 and 38 sellers, so a handful of sellers can move the share by several points.

We cannot say why the countries differ. It may reflect how sellers in each country set up their Amazon accounts, how they ship to the UK, or which marketplaces they started on. Those are guesses, and we have left them as guesses.

What a VAT Number on a Profile Tells You

A VAT number on a seller profile is a statement by the seller. It is useful, but it has limits.

• It is not proof. We did not validate any number. GOV.UK offers a free service to check a UK VAT number if you need to confirm one.
• A missing number is not a warning sign on its own. A small UK business under the threshold may have no VAT number to show.
• The country matters. A GB number on a profile with an overseas address and a GB number on a UK profile can mean quite different set-ups.

If you want the wider picture of where sellers are based, our post on Amazon UK sellers by country covers the full split, and how to contact an Amazon seller directly covers what else the business details section does and does not show.

What It Means for Sellers and Brands

For brands, the VAT field is one input when you review who sells your products. A seller with a declared address, a VAT number and a trading history is easier to deal with than one with blank business details. It still says nothing about whether the seller is authorised to sell your goods. Our guide to MAP monitoring and brand protection covers that side.

For sellers, the numbers show what your competitors put on their profiles. If you sell from outside the UK, most of your peers show a GB VAT number. If you are a small UK seller without one, you are far from alone: only 65.6% of UK-based sellers show a GB number. For the price side of cross-border selling, see our post on ecommerce price intelligence and tariffs.

For analysts, remember the base. These shares cover the 55,660 sellers we found through our searches, not every seller on Amazon UK. And a VAT number shown is not a VAT number checked.

How to Check the Sellers on Your Own Products

If you manage a brand, a short routine covers most of what the business details can tell you:

1. List the sellers who offer your products, from each product's offer page.
2. Pull each seller's public profile and note the declared business address and whether a VAT number is shown.
3. Confirm the numbers that matter to you with the free GOV.UK checker.
4. Keep the results in one sheet and repeat it when new sellers appear.

This gives you a record of who sells your products and what they say about themselves. It is a starting point for a conversation, not a verdict on any seller.

How We Collected This Data

Every figure here comes from the Amazon Seller API, run once for each of the 55,660 public seller profiles in our amazon.co.uk sample. It returned each seller's business details: whether a VAT number was shown, whether it was a GB number or another country's, and the declared business address. We counted the fields and published only shares by country; no seller name, number or address appears in this post. Profiles cost €0.00015 per call, or €0.15 per 1,000 calls, and arrive as rows through the REST API or a CSV/Excel export. Open an account to review the sellers on your own products.

Reviewing the sellers on your own listings? The first 5 free requests are on us, and each call after that is billed on its own. Start here or look at pricing before you begin.