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Marketplaces to collect your VAT from 2027, FBA fee up 2%

Written by the WhatSales team

Marketplaces to collect your VAT from 2027, FBA fee up 2%

Two stories dominate this week: the Budget has confirmed that online marketplaces will collect VAT on larger UK sellers' sales from October 2027, and Amazon's UK FBA fuel and logistics surcharge rises to 2% today. One changes how you get paid in the long run, the other changes your unit economics a fortnight before Black Friday.

The Budget: marketplaces collect the VAT from October 2027

The Budget: marketplaces collect the VAT from October 2027

The Budget confirmed that online marketplaces will collect VAT on sales by UK businesses trading above £90,000 a year on that platform, from October 2027. The existing Online Marketplace Liability rules, which already cover overseas sellers and consignments of £135 or less, extend to UK-established businesses whose goods are in the UK at the time of sale: your sale is treated as zero-rated and the marketplace pays HMRC. Personal sales are not affected. The Trading Allowance also rises from £1,000 to £3,000 on 6 April 2027.

Today you hold the VAT inside the order value and pay it over on your return, which gives you weeks of working capital on every sale. From October 2027 the platform deducts it before paying you, so that cash never reaches your bank. With input VAT on stock, fees and freight unchanged, many sellers will move from paying HMRC each quarter to reclaiming from them, and the payout per order drops by the VAT element.

The £90,000 test is per marketplace, not per business, so a seller on £80,000 at Amazon and £70,000 at eBay sits outside it on both, while a single-channel seller on £95,000 is inside it. Your channel mix now decides which rules you trade under, and comparing channels on gross revenue will mislead you.

What to do: pull the last twelve months of sales split by marketplace, not just the total, and flag which platforms are already over £90,000. Then make sure you are comparing channels on net profit after VAT and fees, which is what /profitability is built to show.

Amazon's FBA fuel and logistics surcharge goes to 2% today

Amazon's FBA fuel and logistics surcharge goes to 2% today

Amazon's UK FBA fulfilment fees page confirms the fuel and logistics surcharge rises from 1.5% to 2% today, 2 November 2026, and that it applies to peak fees as well. Peak fulfilment fees have run since 15 October and continue to 14 January, adding £0.07 to £0.13 per unit on UK parcels and large envelopes, with oversize and low-price FBA items exempt. A 2% digital services fee also applies in the UK.

These charges stack rather than replace each other. The surcharge is a percentage of the fulfilment fee, so it rides on top of the peak uplift, and the digital services fee sits on top again. Per unit it is pennies; across 3,000 units in November it is real money, and it lands hardest on the thin-margin lines you are most likely to discount for Black Friday.

What to do: before you set Black Friday prices, rerun your five weakest lines by margin with the new surcharge, the peak uplift and the digital services fee included, and set a floor price you will not go below. Pulling live fee data through /integrations/amazon stops you pricing off last month's numbers.

Quick hits

  • Royal Mail: the final 107 delivery offices will not move to the DM26 delivery model until 11 January 2027 - First Class and parcels are unaffected, so letter and large-letter dispatches should be steadier through Christmas.
  • Ofcom: overall parcel satisfaction fell from 78% to 75% and Evri and Yodel were worst for customer service for a fourth year - carrier failures reach you as INAD claims and negative feedback.
  • EU: some UK sellers have paused EU sales over the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation that applied from 12 August - switching listings off costs peak sales when compliance may be more manageable than it looks.
  • Shopify: no major POS releases for the rest of 2026, with versions 11.18 and 11.19 limited to bug fixes - nothing changes under your tills during peak trading.
  • eBay: eBay Live broadcast from the London Card Show over the weekend of 30 October to 1 November - collectables sellers getting on live early pick up promotion they would otherwise pay for.

On your radar next week

  • Amazon's FBA fuel and logistics surcharge moves from 1.5% to 2% today, Monday 2 November, including on peak fees.
  • Black Friday is 27 November and Cyber Monday is 30 November. Amazon announced its last three UK Black Friday Week dates on 2 November, 8 November and 13 November, so expect this year's announcement within the fortnight.

Sources

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