Auction houses and VAT charges

Tealblue

Seems to be a classic case of 'read the T&Cs' and don't buy if you don't like...

VAT is the same whether added to the total or to individual items.

RFW

dlusman wrote: »

Like everyone else I dont understand your complaint about doing Vat on each charge - rather than as a total

To take a worked example :
If your costs are 10 , 20 , 30
then 20% on each would be 2 ,4,6
so total ex-vat value of 60 , total vat of 12

but if you take a single total of 60 then 20% = 12 , so exactly the same

I agree.

From the opening post it's unlikely that the auction house has done anything legally wrong but it is possible.

See if you can find someone who knows something about it to show the invoice to.

The auction business covers a range from the highly reputable to the downright criminal. Unfortunately the difference isn't always easy to spot. Some of the more common names have been known to break the law and some push it as much as they can.

If you are entering goods into an auction you need to always ask what the fees will be and if they are flat fees (eg 15% plus VAT) or if there are any other charges. Additional charges can come in a variety of guises, lotting fees, insurance, storage, etc..

One auctioneer I used to deal with had a £1 lotting charge and you had to specify how you wanted items sold, if you took a box of 100 items and never said they sell as one box they would often sell as individual lots and charge £100 plus fees.

RFW

mrcol1000 wrote: »

If they starting looking too closely to auction houses, I think the whole sector would collapse. Dodgy VAT calculations are just the tip of the iceberg of how some of them operate.

Trading standards have more of an interest than a tax inspector. I've known some dodgy characters in my time, I've been surprised that they're often quite meticulous with book keeping.