Selling From Turkey to the UK: Do You Need UK VAT Registration?

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9 September 2026 – written by Steffen Kemmerzehl – Friendly Assist Accountancy – The Accounting Hub

Selling to the UK can start quite casually. Perhaps you make clothing in Turkey and have received your first British orders through your website. Maybe you sell jewellery, homeware or specialist products online, or you are thinking about keeping stock in Britain so customers receive their orders more quickly.

Then UK VAT comes up. You search online, find the £90,000 VAT registration threshold and assume there is plenty of time before you need to think about it.

For a Turkish business, that can be the wrong assumption.

But Our UK Sales Are Nowhere Near £90,000

The normal UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000, but different rules can apply to a business which is not established in the UK.

Where an overseas business makes taxable supplies in the UK, registration can be required without waiting for turnover to reach £90,000. HMRC calls businesses in this position Non Established Taxable Persons.

Imagine an Istanbul business has sold £12,000 of products to British customers. Whether it needs UK VAT registration depends less on that £12,000 figure and more on where the goods are when they are sold, who buys them and how the sale takes place.

That distinction catches smaller international businesses out surprisingly easily.

A £60 Dress Sent From Istanbul to Manchester

Suppose a Turkish clothing business sells a £60 dress through its own website. The dress is in Istanbul when a customer in Manchester buys it and is then sent directly to Britain.

For consignments worth £135 or less which are outside Great Britain when sold directly to a consumer, special UK VAT rules apply. In many cases the overseas seller needs to charge UK VAT at the point of sale and register for UK VAT.

The £135 figure is not another annual VAT threshold. It relates to the value of the consignment and how VAT is dealt with.

For goods worth more than £135, the normal import VAT and customs rules generally apply instead. A £60 dress and a £900 piece of furniture being sent from Turkey can therefore have different VAT treatment.

What If Amazon or Etsy Already Charges VAT?

This is another common source of confusion. You see VAT on an Amazon, Etsy or other marketplace transaction and wonder whether you still need your own UK VAT registration.

For qualifying goods worth £135 or less which are outside the UK when sold through an online marketplace, the marketplace generally accounts for the VAT on the sale to the consumer.

That can make things easier for a small Turkish seller using a marketplace, but businesses change. You may start on Etsy and later open your own website, or begin by shipping every order from Turkey and eventually move stock into Britain.

As the way you sell changes, it is worth checking the VAT position again rather than relying on what applied when you started.

Sending Stock to a UK Warehouse Changes the Picture

Suppose our clothing business starts doing well. Shipping every dress from Turkey is taking too long, so 500 items are sent to a fulfilment warehouse in England.

The next customer still buys a £60 dress, but this time the dress is already in Britain.

For an overseas business, direct taxable sales of goods located in the UK can create an immediate VAT registration requirement. This is particularly worth checking before using Amazon FBA or another UK fulfilment provider.

If you are thinking about building a more permanent British operation rather than simply exporting individual orders, you may also want to consider whether starting and running a UK company from overseas would eventually make commercial sense.

You do not, however, automatically need a UK company simply because you need UK VAT registration. A Turkish company can register for UK VAT in its own right where required.

Selling to UK Businesses Can Be Different

A Turkish textile manufacturer supplying a VAT registered business in Birmingham may have a different position from a clothing business selling directly to British consumers.

For certain goods worth £135 or less which are outside the UK when sold to a UK VAT registered business, the customer can account for the VAT instead. Larger commercial shipments also bring questions about who imports the goods and deals with import VAT and customs.

This is why two Turkish businesses with the same amount of UK sales can end up with different answers.

What If You Have Already Been Selling to Britain?

This is often the more important question. Perhaps you started with a few orders and did not think much about UK tax. Twelve months later, UK sales have reached £30,000, £50,000 or £70,000 and somebody asks why the company does not have a UK VAT number.

If registration should have happened earlier, HMRC can backdate it. The business may then have to calculate VAT relating to historic sales, together with any interest or penalties that apply.

There can also be a commercial cost. If you sold something to a consumer for £120 and later discover that the £120 should have included UK VAT, going back to the customer months later and asking for more money may not be realistic.

If this sounds familiar, it is worth checking the position rather than waiting for turnover to reach £90,000. Our VAT support gives an overview of the help we provide with UK VAT.

Already Selling in Germany or Elsewhere in Europe?

Businesses which already export from Turkey to Germany, France or other EU countries sometimes assume that Britain will work in much the same way.

The UK now has its own VAT and import system, so EU VAT arrangements do not simply extend to Great Britain. Your existing European setup may therefore be perfectly suitable for your EU sales without dealing with your UK obligations.

For businesses with wider cross border questions, our International and Expat Accounting Services explain more about the international work we undertake.

What Should You Check?

You do not need to become a UK VAT expert before accepting a British customer. For most smaller Turkish businesses, I would start by establishing five things:

  1. Where are the goods when they are sold?
  2. Is the customer a consumer or a UK VAT registered business?
  3. Are you selling directly or through a marketplace?
  4. Is the consignment worth £135 or less?
  5. Who is responsible for importing the goods into Britain?

If you are already trading, we also need to know when the UK sales started and whether the way you sell has changed since then.

Those facts normally tell us far more than simply knowing your annual turnover.

Getting the UK Side Sorted

If you manufacture clothing, furniture, homeware, jewellery or other products in Turkey, your main concern should be finding customers and building a successful business. UK VAT is something that needs to work in the background rather than becoming another project for you to manage.

At Friendly Assist Accountancy, we work with international businesses that need help with the UK side of their tax and accounting. We can look at how your business actually sells into Britain, explain whether UK VAT registration is required and help complete the registration where appropriate.

UK VAT registration for overseas businesses starts from £295 + VAT, with the price agreed before we begin. If you have already been selling here, we can also look at when any registration obligation may have started.

If you need a VAT number, we can help you get it sorted. If you do not need one, knowing that is useful too. You can simply get in touch, tell us where your business is based, what you sell and how your UK sales currently work, and we can take it from there.

Steffen Kemmerzehl
I am a qualified AAT accountant in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Please get in touch if you’re interested in arranging an appointment.

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