UK Amazon and Shopify fee and VAT calculator
Short answer
Enter one product and see what is left per unit on Amazon or Shopify, side by side before and after VAT registration. At the same £24.00 price, the worked Amazon example below falls from £9.39 to £6.13 a unit, and it would take £28.78 to keep the old figure.
One product, per unit
Your figures stay in your browser: nothing is sent or stored. Rates seen 4 November 2026.
Worked example: Amazon
A beauty product sells at £24.00 with no delivery charge. Stock is £6.00, FBA £3.20 and advertising £1.00 a unit, on 350 units a month and the Professional plan. These figures are made up. Amazon's fees are its published rates, and the fee invoice is assumed to add VAT.
| Per unit | Not registered | VAT registered |
|---|---|---|
| Customer pays | £24.00 | £24.00 |
| VAT to HMRC | nothing | -£4.00 |
| Referral fee, 15% of £24.00 | -£3.60 | -£3.60 |
| Professional plan, £25 over 350 units | -£0.07 | -£0.07 |
| VAT on those fees | -£0.73, a cost | reclaimed |
| Stock, FBA, advertising | -£10.20 | -£10.20 |
| Left per unit | £9.39 | £6.13 |
Registering costs £3.27 a unit, not the full £4.00, because the VAT on fees comes back. To keep £9.39 once registered, the price would have to be £28.78. At 350 units a month, this product alone is £100,800 of sales a year, over the £90,000 threshold.
Worked example: Shopify
The same kind of shop sells a £24.00 product and charges £3.50 delivery, so the customer pays £27.50. Stock is £6.00, delivery £3.50 and advertising £2.00 a unit, on 300 units a month, on Basic at £25 a month with Shopify Payments. These figures are made up, and no VAT is added to the fees here.
| Per unit | Not registered | VAT registered |
|---|---|---|
| Customer pays | £27.50 | £27.50 |
| VAT to HMRC, one sixth | nothing | -£4.58 |
| Card fee, 2% + 25p of £27.50 | -£0.80 | -£0.80 |
| Basic plan, £25 over 300 units | -£0.08 | -£0.08 |
| Stock, delivery, advertising | -£11.50 | -£11.50 |
| Left per unit | £15.12 | £10.53 |
The card fee is charged on the whole £27.50, VAT and delivery included, and none of it comes back as VAT here. To keep £15.12 once registered, the item price would have to be £29.64 with delivery unchanged.
The Amazon question to settle on your own statement
Amazon's pricing page defines the referral fee base as the total amount paid by the buyer. Its FAQ on the same page says the percentage is on the price excluding taxes. We could not settle this without a seller login, so the calculator lets you choose.
It matters. In the Amazon example, a fee on the price before VAT is £3.00, not £3.60, and a registered seller keeps £6.73 a unit, not £6.13. On 350 units a month, that is £210. To check yours, divide the referral fee on one order in your settlement by the order total, then by the price before VAT. The one that gives your category's rate is your answer.
The rates used
| Rate | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Professional plan | £25 a month, excluding VAT | Amazon |
| Amazon Individual plan | £0.75 an item, excluding VAT | Amazon |
| Amazon minimum referral fee | £0.25 an item in most categories, none on Grocery | Amazon |
| Amazon FBA surcharge | 1.5% on fulfilment fees from 17 April 2026 | Amazon |
| Shopify Basic, Grow, Advanced | £25, £65, £344 a month, paying monthly | Shopify |
| Shopify Payments, online UK cards | 2%, 1.7%, 1.5%, each plus 25p | Shopify |
| Shopify fee with another provider | 2%, 1%, 0.6% | Shopify |
| UK VAT rates | 20%, 5%, 0% | GOV.UK |
| VAT registration threshold | £90,000 in any rolling 12 months | GOV.UK |
What it leaves out
- Amazon's tiered categories. For bands such as 8% up to £10, Amazon's page does not say if the rate covers the whole price or only part of it. The calculator reads it as the whole price. Electronic Accessories is the one band here that Amazon states by portion.
- FBA fulfilment and storage. They depend on size, weight and season, so you enter your own figure.
- VAT on your other costs. If you can reclaim VAT on stock, delivery or advertising, enter the amount before VAT in the registered case. The calculator uses one figure for both columns, so it can overstate what registering costs.
- Selling abroad, refunds and chargebacks. See who owes the VAT on each kind of sale.
- Whether you should register. This is general information, not advice on your own tax position.
From the unit to the books
The per unit view tells you the margin. The payout still has to be booked: one Amazon settlement, line by line and one Shopify week and month end show how. Octobooks has a connector tool to put an Amazon settlement forward as one journal, and your VAT figures come from your entries. You submit the return yourself: direct filing is not switched on yet.