How much does a TikTok Shop charge?

TikTok Shop charges a platform commission fee of up to 9% of the order value as of 2024, deducted automatically before payout, plus any affiliate commission rate you set, typically 5% to 20% based on our experience reconciling seller accounts. There is no monthly subscription or listing fee, but fulfilment costs apply if you use TikTok's own fulfilment network (FBT). Rates are set per category and have changed more than once since UK launch, so check TikTok's current Seller Center fee schedule before relying on a fixed figure.

Is TikTok Shop commission charged on the VAT-inclusive or VAT-exclusive price?

TikTok's published fee schedule states a commission percentage but does not explicitly say whether that percentage applies before or after VAT is stripped out. Based on the settlement reports we've reconciled for clients, commission and affiliate fees line up with the VAT-inclusive gross figure rather than the smaller net-of-VAT amount, so we use that as our working assumption when reconciling, while your VAT liability itself is fixed by HMRC's rules on the gross sale price regardless of TikTok's fee mechanics.

Does TikTok Shop charge VAT on my behalf?

No, for UK-established sellers TikTok Shop does not charge or remit VAT on your behalf; you remain responsible for accounting for VAT on the gross, VAT-inclusive sale price on your own VAT return. TikTok is treated as an online marketplace under HMRC's rules and can become liable for VAT on sales by overseas sellers to UK customers in specific circumstances, but that facilitator liability does not extend to your own sales as a UK-based seller.

Do I need to register for VAT if I only sell through TikTok Shop?

You need to register for UK VAT once your taxable turnover, based on gross sales before TikTok deducts any fees, exceeds £90,000 in a rolling 12-month period, per gov.uk's VAT registration thresholds guidance. This threshold applies regardless of which platform you sell through, and TikTok Shop sales count in full toward it using the gross figure shown to the customer rather than your net payout.

Why doesn't my TikTok Shop payout match my sales figure?

Your payout is net of platform commission, affiliate commission and any refunds, while your sales figure for VAT and accounting purposes should be the gross, VAT-inclusive amount the customer paid. Reconciling the settlement report against gross sales, rather than recording the net payout as revenue, is the fix most sellers need, and it is the specific error that causes understated VAT returns.

TikTok Shop Fees: What UK Sellers Need to Reconcile

Q: Is selling on TikTok Shop worth it?

It depends on your product margin after fees, not just on the platform's reach. A product with a healthy gross margin, typically 35% or more, can usually absorb the platform commission and affiliate rate and remain profitable, while thin-margin products often cannot once both fees are stacked together on the VAT-inclusive gross price.

TikTok Shop charges UK sellers a platform commission fee on every order, deducted automatically before your payout lands in your bank account. As of 2024 that commission runs up to 9% of the order value depending on category, and it sits on top of any affiliate percentage you set for creators who drove the sale through the TikTok Shop Affiliate Program. Neither fee is optional, both come off before you see the cash, and that is exactly where most sellers lose track of what they actually owe HMRC on the gross sale price.

This guide goes past the fee percentages TikTok publishes and into the part that actually causes problems at year end: reconciling what TikTok's settlement report shows against what your books, your VAT return and your Companies House accounts need to say. If you sell through TikTok Shop as a UK-based ecommerce seller, this is the reconciliation gap we see most often.

What TikTok Shop actually charges you

TikTok Shop's fee structure has three components: a platform commission fee charged on every completed order, an affiliate commission you set yourself if creators are driving sales, and optional fulfilment fees if you use Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT). Unlike Shopify or a self-hosted store, there is no monthly subscription or listing fee, but the commission structure has changed materially since the platform's 2023 UK launch. Fee schedules on any social commerce platform get revised without much notice, so treat every percentage below as accurate as of 2024 and check TikTok's live fee schedule before relying on it for pricing decisions.

Platform commission fee

TikTok introduced UK sellers to a reduced commission rate during its 2023 to early-2024 launch period, then moved most categories onto standard rates. As of 2024, the standard platform commission fee is up to 9% of the order value including shipping, with the exact rate set by product category. TikTok publishes current category-by-category rates in its Seller Center commission fee schedule, and we recommend checking this directly rather than relying on a fixed percentage, because TikTok has revised these rates more than once since UK launch and may do so again after this article is published.

Affiliate commission

If you run the TikTok Shop Affiliate Program, you set your own commission rate for creators. TikTok does not publish a fixed range for this in its public seller documentation, so what follows is drawn from our own experience reconciling accounts for TikTok Shop sellers, not from a stated platform rule: most sellers we work with set somewhere between 5% and 20% of the order value, depending on category competitiveness and target creator tier. TikTok deducts whatever rate you set automatically alongside the platform commission at the point of sale. This is the fee sellers most commonly forget to separate out when reconciling revenue, because it never appears as a distinct outgoing invoice, it is simply missing from the settlement figure.

Fulfilment and other charges

Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) storage and pick-pack fees if you use TikTok's own fulfilment network
Payment processing, which based on the settlement reports we've reviewed appears to be bundled into the commission rather than itemised as a separate line, though TikTok's published fee schedule does not confirm this explicitly, so treat it as our working read rather than a stated platform policy
Refund and return handling costs, which vary by dispute outcome
No monthly subscription fee and no per-listing fee, which contrasts with some traditional marketplace models

Why the settlement report is not your sales figure

TikTok Shop's settlement report shows the net amount paid to you after commission, affiliate fees and any refunds are deducted, not the gross value the customer paid. For VAT purposes, HMRC requires you to account for VAT on the gross, VAT-inclusive sale price the customer paid, not the net amount TikTok transfers to your account, per gov.uk's VAT registration thresholds guidance. Confusing the two is the single most common bookkeeping error we see among TikTok Shop sellers, and it is the specific error this article is written to fix.

There is a second, less obvious question underneath the gross-versus-net gap: which figure does TikTok actually calculate its commission and affiliate fee on. TikTok's public fee schedule states the percentage rate for each category but does not spell out explicitly whether that percentage is applied to the VAT-inclusive price the customer paid or the VAT-exclusive net figure. We have not found a clause in TikTok's published seller documentation that settles this either way. Based on the settlement reports we've reconciled for TikTok Shop clients, the commission and affiliate deductions we see line up with the VAT-inclusive gross order value rather than the smaller net-of-VAT figure. We treat this as our working assumption for reconciliation purposes, not as a confirmed TikTok policy, and we recommend checking your own settlement report line by line against the worked example below rather than assuming it transfers unchanged to your account.

Working from that assumption, take a standard-rated product the customer buys for £100. That £100 is VAT-inclusive, so it splits into an £83.33 VAT-exclusive value and £16.67 VAT. If commission is calculated on the £100 gross figure, as our reconciliation work suggests, a 9% platform commission is £9, and a 10% affiliate commission is £10, both taken from the full £100. Your payout would then be £100 minus £9 minus £10, which is £81.

If you recorded £81 as your sales figure under that scenario, you would have understated turnover by £19 on that single order, and your VAT liability would be calculated on the wrong base. Regardless of which figure the fees are calculated on, you still owe HMRC £16.67 in VAT on this sale, calculated on the £100 gross price, because that liability is fixed by HMRC's rules on the sale price to the customer, not by TikTok's internal fee mechanics. Your VAT-exclusive revenue for profit and loss purposes is £83.33, from which the fees also come off, leaving a net-of-VAT margin figure before cost of goods. Multiply the gap between gross sales and net payout across a few thousand orders a year and it becomes a material misstatement, not a rounding error, whichever basis the fees themselves turn out to be calculated on.

The VAT threshold and marketplace facilitator rules

You must register for UK VAT once your taxable turnover passes £90,000 in any rolling 12-month period, a threshold confirmed in gov.uk's VAT registration thresholds guidance as of 2024. TikTok Shop is treated as an online marketplace under HMRC's rules, which means TikTok itself can become liable for VAT on sales by overseas sellers to UK customers in specific circumstances. For UK-established sellers, accounting for VAT on your own sales remains your responsibility, not TikTok's, and this scoping is worth checking against current HMRC guidance periodically since marketplace facilitator rules are an area that has shifted before.

If you are below the £90,000 threshold and not VAT registered, you still need to track gross sales accurately, because the moment your rolling 12-month turnover crosses that line you must register, and HMRC will look at gross sales including the fees TikTok deducted, not your net payout. We cover this in more detail in our guide to VAT registration thresholds for ecommerce sellers.

Overseas sellers importing stock into the UK to fulfil TikTok Shop orders face a separate issue: consignments valued under £135 are subject to import VAT collected at the point of sale rather than at the border, per gov.uk's guidance on VAT and overseas goods sold directly to UK customers. Sellers importing higher-value stock still need a C79 certificate to reclaim import VAT and should use Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA) to avoid a cash-flow hit at the border.

Is selling on TikTok Shop worth it once fees are accounted for

Whether TikTok Shop is worth it depends on your margin after commission, affiliate fees and any fulfilment costs, not just on the platform's reach. A product with a 40% gross margin can usually absorb a 9% commission and a 10% affiliate rate and still be profitable; a product with a 15% margin often cannot. Run the fee stack against your actual VAT-exclusive product margin before committing significant ad or affiliate spend, because commission and affiliate fees appear, based on our reconciliation work, to come off the VAT-inclusive gross price, not the smaller net-of-VAT figure your margin calculations usually start from.

Final word

The fee percentages TikTok publishes are only half the picture. The part that causes actual HMRC problems is treating the net settlement payout as your sales figure, when VAT and turnover calculations both require the gross, VAT-inclusive amount the customer paid. If you want SCA to check how this applies to your ecommerce accounts, book a discovery call and we will map the cleanest treatment before your next VAT return.