Ebay - buying from Europe now..

martindow

I am not sure either.  I have an EORI number which is easy to get as I understood that carriers will require that when exporting.  Getting one is very easy

https://www.gov.uk/eori

Commodity codes will also be required.  Possibly ebay will generate these from an item description or you can look them up fairly easily on lots of sites.  Again I understand that carriers will want these.

It's all academic at the moment as no carrier seems willing to accept European parcels.

RFW

soolin said:
As for selling overseas this looks like a minefield as anything going overseas seems to need HS codes and something called an EORI number which I cannot get my head round. I am currently not shipping outside the UK and have not done so since March on any platform

I sell a paltry amount to the EU so I haven't really gone into it too much. Whilst I could have expanded sales into Europe I've just decided against it because of the hassle for limited return. I have applied for an EORI number but haven't received one or acknowledgement of asking. Presumably everyone is in the same boat and lots of businesses have applied.

Just a little bit on buying goods from EU countries. When we were in the EU I could send goods VAT free to other member states where the person/company I was sending to was registered for VAT in the EU. This worked in reverse too.

As far as I'm aware if the buyer was not VAT registered I sent the item the same as I would to someone in the UK, ie VAT included. In that respect there should be no price increase coming from an EU country regarding their own VAT charge.
If someone in the UK is buying from an EU country then the sender can either use GSP or similar to prepay the charges and then refund a difference at a later date or leave it in the hands of the buyer.
As all the changes regarding the deal and leaving the EU have happened within a few days then that really means no one knows exactly what's happening even though it is actually happening. There are, apparently, more deals taking place that should make it easier. When that happens though is anyone's guess.

As I see it you should now treat buying goods from an EU country the same as buying from anywhere else in the world until we're told different.

To be fair there's only been four and a half years to sort this out so it's understandable that no one knows what's going on....

soolin

I’ve been importing wine and port from Portugal and their announcement has stated that the only difference will be that instead of paying 7% Portuguese VAT I will need to pay 20% UK VAT instead, they seem to think that there will be no handling charge payable on top. I am not taking that at face value at the moment as I cannot expect a Portuguese winery to be 100% accurate on UK requirements, instead I stocked up before Christmas and my last case of port actually arrived yesterday, despite being shown as detained at Barcelona on the 17th December.   They use DHL as a courier, not that that makes a lot of difference. 

soolin

Just out of interest I have added something to my basket on Ali Express and it has added 20% tax to the total. There is a clickable link to explain this, but it is t clickable for me so perhaps hasn’t been written up yet. 

I’ve also just tried looking at buying a widget on eBay.uk that comes from China, and again 20% additional is shown as a tax that is added automatically to the total. 

martindow

soolin said:

I’ve been importing wine and port from Portugal and their announcement has stated that the only difference will be that instead of paying 7% Portuguese VAT I will need to pay 20% UK VAT instead, they seem to think that there will be no handling charge payable on top. I am not taking that at face value at the moment as I cannot expect a Portuguese winery to be 100% accurate on UK requirements, instead I stocked up before Christmas and my last case of port actually arrived yesterday, despite being shown as detained at Barcelona on the 17th December.   They use DHL as a courier, not that that makes a lot of difference. 

I imagine it is up to the carrier, but I would be amazed if they didn't charge a fee for customs clearance and dealing with VAT.  Presumably you have to keep within the importation limits that now apply for alcohol.  How is port treated, I wonder?  It is between wine and spirit in strength.  Phatbear on this site, I think, is a customs officer and would possibly know about these things.

martindow

soolin said:

Just out of interest I have added something to my basket on Ali Express and it has added 20% tax to the total. There is a clickable link to explain this, but it is t clickable for me so perhaps hasn’t been written up yet. 

I’ve also just tried looking at buying a widget on eBay.uk that comes from China, and again 20% additional is shown as a tax that is added automatically to the total. 

They've got up to speed quickly haven't they.  I think this is good as it stops Chinese companies under-declaring and also dealswith the large number of packets that used to get through the system with no import charges being made.  I assume that as you have already paid the VAT, there will now be no further charges once it gets here.

soolin

martindow said:

soolin said:

I’ve been importing wine and port from Portugal and their announcement has stated that the only difference will be that instead of paying 7% Portuguese VAT I will need to pay 20% UK VAT instead, they seem to think that there will be no handling charge payable on top. I am not taking that at face value at the moment as I cannot expect a Portuguese winery to be 100% accurate on UK requirements, instead I stocked up before Christmas and my last case of port actually arrived yesterday, despite being shown as detained at Barcelona on the 17th December.   They use DHL as a courier, not that that makes a lot of difference. 

I imagine it is up to the carrier, but I would be amazed if they didn't charge a fee for customs clearance and dealing with VAT.  Presumably you have to keep within the importation limits that now apply for alcohol.  How is port treated, I wonder?  It is between wine and spirit in strength.  Phatbear on this site, I think, is a customs officer and would possibly know about these things.

Thank you, I am in no hurry as I have restocked and have several cases of wine and port stored carefully in an out building . I thought I would let things settle down and then look into it more. Hopefully it will all become clearer once we all know what we are doing. 

RFW

soolin said:

I’ve been importing wine and port from Portugal and their announcement has stated that the only difference will be that instead of paying 7% Portuguese VAT I will need to pay 20% UK VAT instead, they seem to think that there will be no handling charge payable on top. I am not taking that at face value at the moment as I cannot expect a Portuguese winery to be 100% accurate on UK requirements, instead I stocked up before Christmas and my last case of port actually arrived yesterday, despite being shown as detained at Barcelona on the 17th December.   They use DHL as a courier, not that that makes a lot of difference. 

Wine is in a different category any way so I certainly wouldn't take the word of an EU seller who is probably lesser informed than we are.

I similarly stocked up on a product from Germany. It's actually a US seller with a base in Germany. I can't see the market being big enough for them to move into the UK but may be big enough for them to sort something else out. I don't need to find out until the summer.

soolin

I’ve found this as well 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/listings/default/vat-obligations-eu?id=4650#section1

martindow

soolin said:

I’ve found this as well 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/listings/default/vat-obligations-eu?id=4650#section1

Thanks.  That also half answers my question about selling into the EU.  Ebay will operate a similar VAT collecting service, but according to the document only from July 2021with no mention of th first six months of the year ...