How to Generate VAT Invoices for Your Buyers

Whatnot does not provide tax, legal, or accounting advice. This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon for tax, legal, or accounting advice. If you are unclear on whether you have an obligation to issue a VAT invoice, you should consult your own tax, legal, and accounting advisors before acting on the information below.

Feature Overview

Whatnot has launched a new VAT invoicing feature for sellers to automate your VAT invoice generation on the platform!

We know producing accurate VAT invoices is important to keep your business compliant, but can be super time consuming. To save you time and streamline the compliance process, we have built tooling to generate and issue VAT invoices to your buyers directly from within the Whatnot website. This feature is available for all European sellers at this time.

As the seller, please remember it is your responsibility to familiarise yourself with when an invoice is required for a sale and to ensure the invoice is compliant with all applicable VAT laws.

Note, this tooling enables you to generate VAT compliant invoices for your buyers.  For VAT invoices issued for services between Whatnot and sellers, you should continue to contact support to request your invoices. For additional information to assist sellers with their VAT reporting please refer to the order history report available in the financials section of seller hub - Where do I find my order information for VAT compliance?

How VAT invoicing works on Whatnot

VAT invoicing for buyers will be available on a per-shipment level. Sellers can now go to the shipments page in Seller Hub (on web only) and generate an invoice. Once the livestream is complete and the label for the shipment is generated,  the option to generate a VAT invoice will be available.

How to generate a VAT invoice

1. Go to your Seller Hub on web (invoicing feature available on web only), and then the shipments page
2. Click on a shipment that you would like to raise the invoice for
3. Access the VAT invoice generation button from the right side panel
4. Click the button for “generate VAT invoice” (see below) 

Remember that the related livestream must have ended and you must have generated a label for the shipment in order to generate the VAT invoice.

5. A box will pop up for the VAT details. This will automatically pull the buyer and order details such as buyer’s country, item description given at listing, and the item price.

6. While the VAT box will be pre-populated with the standard VAT rate for the seller's country, it will be up to you as the seller to confirm or update the VAT specifics.

Please ensure that you have referred to the “VAT details” section below before creating invoices.

7. Once you are happy with the details to be displayed on the invoice, click “Send Invoice and Download” and then click “Confirm”.
8. The invoice can take up to 20 seconds to generate. Once it has been generated, you will see a message noting that your invoice has been generated successfully.

Once the invoice has been generated, it will automatically be included in the buyer’s order page. The buyer will not receive a notification about the invoice being generated. 

Once generated, a VAT invoice cannot be amended on the Whatnot platform.

VAT details

It is the responsibility of the seller to ensure that all details are correct on the invoice issued, including:

• Item description - this should be a true reflection of the item sold. The item description will be automatically populated with the information given at listing, however it is your responsibility to ensure this information is correct.
• VAT rate - the seller is responsible for the determination of the correct VAT rate. Please note certain items in your country which may be subject to VAT at a lower rate, e.g. food, books, precious metals.

• Notes - please include any applicable notes as required by local law.

Sellers can also bulk edit the VAT details for the items in the order using the “bulk edit” button.

Sellers should review the information above, as well as work with their own tax advisor, to understand their responsibilities (if any) for the issuance of a VAT invoice for their sale.

Other invoicing information for sellers

Invoice payment: as Whatnot operates a live shopping platform, payment will happen outside of the invoice process. Issuing the invoice after the sale will be for documentation and compliance purposes only. The invoice will not have the seller bank details and will contain a message noting “not for settlement”.

Invoice number : Each seller will have their own invoicing sequence maintained. The mapping of the invoice number sequence will be in the following format - "Whatnot seller ID_year_invoice number". 

Invoice retention period: Sellers are responsible for downloading and retaining the invoices issued for their sales. The period of retention for invoices will vary by country. Sellers should review the invoice retention period for their country and confirm obligations in relation to invoice storage with their tax advisor.

To assist sellers with their legal and tax obligations, the invoices will be available in the seller hub (in the shipment panel) for a period of two years.

Credit notes: The seller is responsible for manually issuing any credit notes that may be required where a refund has been processed.

Exports & low value goods scheme: Where EU/UK sellers make certain sales of low value goods the VAT deemed reseller rules will come into play for Whatnot as a platform. In the scenarios below, Whatnot will be responsible for collecting and remitting the applicable VAT on the seller’s behalf. In this case an invoice should not be issued by the seller. 

UK seller → EU buyer below EUR 150 shipment total 

EU seller → UK buyer below GBP 135 shipment total

Second hand goods margin scheme: Sellers issuing an invoice for goods sold under the VAT second hand margin scheme should check the invoicing requirements for their country of location. Invoice tooling designed specifically for the sale of second hand goods under the margin scheme will be available shortly on the Whatnot platform.