Ep.4 New UK and EU VAT Regulations Explained with Melanie Shabangu of AVASK Accounting

Welcome to the Sprint to Profit Podcast. This is Kirsty and Isaac and we developed this podcast to help highlight the very best strategies on how to grow your Amazon business.

Today we’re talking with Melanie Shabangu of AVASK Accounting and Business Consultants, about US sellers expanding across the water, to the UK and EU. We talk about various factors that could change the market, the reason for expanding, VAT basics and regulations, and the changes in legislation.

Melanie Shabangu shares her expertise to answer questions that we see often from clients and listeners. Melanie is the brains behind AVASK Accountants, with a previous 6 years in practice and 10 years working with SMEs, she places emphasis on being a proactive accountant, understanding her clients and their businesses.

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Talking Points:

• 00:20 - Introduction and Who We Are 
• 02:35 - Melanie’s background and why AVASK was founded 
• 07:00 - Why US sellers should look across the waters
• 07:57 - Where should US sellers start? 
• 09:50 - Will Brexit affect the market?
• 11:30 - VAT (Value Added Tax) basics 
• 19:01 - Changes in the legislation
• 27:09 - Pan-EU Program 
• 31:00 - VAT registration 
• 38:29 - Chinese sellers and VAT compliance 
• 44:50 - Melanie’s contact info
• 45:15 - Recap and Conclusion

Resources/Links:

Our website: www.goteamreal.com

AVASK Accounting, website: www.avaskaccounting.co.uk

Melanie Shebangu email: [email protected]

Tom Meek (Melanie’s colleague), email: [email protected]

Quotes:

01:20 – “Both Isaac and I have doubled and even tripled our businesses by taking our existing products that we were selling in the US market and essentially just expanding those products out across the EU and the UK.” – Kirsty

15:37 – “That’s what we’d always advise is, rather than trying to do this yourself, always work with a professional (like AVASK) especially when it comes to country regulations because it can be a minefield.” – Kirsty

18:35 – “Understand the opportunity in those marketplaces first, before you just blanket go ‘Hey, I’m going to launch everything across all marketplaces.” – Kirsty

07:35 – “I’ve always said that you can’t put your eggs all in one basket, even though you’re doing well in one market.” – Melanie Shebangu

28:40 – “I’ve been using [the Pan-EU program] for about seven or eight months so far and it’s been working pretty well.” – Isaac