Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they treat Amazon as being in the supply chain for VAT purposes in cases where an overseas seller using its full facilities, including warehousing, advertising, taking payment, delivering, customer refunds and questions, evades VAT; and if not, why not.

Under EU law, for an online marketplace such as Amazon to be part of a supply chain for VAT purposes, it would need to take ownership of the goods in question and sell them on its own behalf.

At Budget 2016 the government introduced a new provision that allows HMRC to make online marketplaces jointly and severally liable for the unpaid VAT of their non-EU sellers.