Ebay 20% vat charge

ballisticbrian

I mainly use OMPs but these make interesting reading:
How VAT Is Collected on Physical Items Sold on Etsy – Etsy Help

Changes to VAT treatment of overseas goods sold to customers from 1 January 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Spoonie_Turtle

Doubleshotdamo said:

Just a heads up, as I have been stung. Buy anything on eBay from a seller NOT registered in the UK, and the price you see is NOT the price you pay! Get to checkout and the item(s) price will be 20% more, as of January 1st 2021.
This is due to ebay having to collect the vat. The problem now is all the items are still the same price as last year, so you're effectively paying 20% more! 
And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 
I spoke with ebay and said they need to crack down on Chinese sellers pretending their goods are UK based, because ebay users certainly have not got time to check every seller's registered business country! 

I added something to my basket today, item location London but seller's registered address is in Hong Kong.  There was no additional VAT, so I went back to the listing and at the bottom underneath their address is their GB VAT number   Of ccourse I have no idea whether they were already VAT registered or not.

ballisticbrian

  Of ccourse I have no idea whether they were already VAT registered or not.

Check a UK VAT number - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

bris

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Doubleshotdamo said:

Just a heads up, as I have been stung. Buy anything on eBay from a seller NOT registered in the UK, and the price you see is NOT the price you pay! Get to checkout and the item(s) price will be 20% more, as of January 1st 2021.
This is due to ebay having to collect the vat. The problem now is all the items are still the same price as last year, so you're effectively paying 20% more! 
And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 
I spoke with ebay and said they need to crack down on Chinese sellers pretending their goods are UK based, because ebay users certainly have not got time to check every seller's registered business country! 

I added something to my basket today, item location London but seller's registered address is in Hong Kong.  There was no additional VAT, so I went back to the listing and at the bottom underneath their address is their GB VAT number   Of ccourse I have no idea whether they were already VAT registered or not.

A lot of the big Chinese sellers have huge warehouses in the UK (and all over Europe) where they store goods to speed up shipping in the UK. These goods are already customs cleared in the UK so there is nothing more to pay. They sell on other marketplaces like Amazon too, most people don't want to wait weeks for delivery from China.  

This is why they state ships from the UK. I haven't seen any that claims this when they don't.

Spoonie_Turtle

bris said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Doubleshotdamo said:

Just a heads up, as I have been stung. Buy anything on eBay from a seller NOT registered in the UK, and the price you see is NOT the price you pay! Get to checkout and the item(s) price will be 20% more, as of January 1st 2021.
This is due to ebay having to collect the vat. The problem now is all the items are still the same price as last year, so you're effectively paying 20% more! 
And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 
I spoke with ebay and said they need to crack down on Chinese sellers pretending their goods are UK based, because ebay users certainly have not got time to check every seller's registered business country! 

I added something to my basket today, item location London but seller's registered address is in Hong Kong.  There was no additional VAT, so I went back to the listing and at the bottom underneath their address is their GB VAT number   Of ccourse I have no idea whether they were already VAT registered or not.

A lot of the big Chinese sellers have huge warehouses in the UK (and all over Europe) where they store goods to speed up shipping in the UK. These goods are already customs cleared in the UK so there is nothing more to pay. They sell on other marketplaces like Amazon too, most people don't want to wait weeks for delivery from China.  

This is why they state ships from the UK. I haven't seen any that claims this when they don't.

I have seen people complaining about items supposedly in the UK taking weeks and weeks to arrive - i.e. coming straight from China.  I have personally had two orders cancelled due to 'problems with the warehouse' or just zero explanation, then on their feedback others have complained about items taking forever to arrive.  This was all a couple of years ago, so nothing to do with the pandemic.

Regarding the VAT charge, this was one reason the VAT and customs was changed (and will be in the EU).  Companies registered outside of the UK/ EU to avoid paying VAT, but storing items within the selling territory to avoid import VAT and customs charges.  I can't remember exactly how it all worked.  But that's why overseas companies not VAT registered means the customer is charged the VAT at checkout, on top of the item price.  (Whereas from VAT registered sellers, the customer pays the item price and that's it.)

MrsStepford

Spoonie_Turtle said:

It is better than being stung with import VAT and handling charges if they didn't collect VAT at the time of sale but this bit:

Doubleshotdamo said:

And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 

is not on. That is incredibly annoying!

Checking their business address is actually quite quick and simple though, at least on the full site (which I use on my tablet) - just scroll down to the bottom of the listing and it has their registered address.

I agree something has to be done though, especially as often 'UK stock' turns out not to be.

On Amazon Marketplace, Chinese sellers give a UK address, If there's a problem with their dodgy products, they insist that you send it airmail at your expense to China. I got caught out by a supposedly English company in Croydon. A refund wouldn't have covered the postage. So now I DO  take note of caveat emptor (buyer beware) and look at the returns address before I buy, 

On eBay, I'm only ever buying old books or vintage china. When I look at listings in list view rather than gallery view, VAT 20% extra is shown on the right hand side. I don't know whether that's the same for all categories. 

Back in November, I started buying things eg kitchen mats from Amazon France, china from French eBay sellers, cushions from Spanish and Irish department stores, in order to beat postage snarl ups. I've saved money because the products were cheaper and saved the 20% VAT too. 

I think it's a heavy-handed ploy by government to dissuade people from buying anything from outside UK. Well, it won't stop me. Knock on effect is that prices in UK for secondhand may go up, if importation is problematic. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

bris said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Doubleshotdamo said:

Just a heads up, as I have been stung. Buy anything on eBay from a seller NOT registered in the UK, and the price you see is NOT the price you pay! Get to checkout and the item(s) price will be 20% more, as of January 1st 2021.
This is due to ebay having to collect the vat. The problem now is all the items are still the same price as last year, so you're effectively paying 20% more! 
And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 
I spoke with ebay and said they need to crack down on Chinese sellers pretending their goods are UK based, because ebay users certainly have not got time to check every seller's registered business country! 

I added something to my basket today, item location London but seller's registered address is in Hong Kong.  There was no additional VAT, so I went back to the listing and at the bottom underneath their address is their GB VAT number   Of ccourse I have no idea whether they were already VAT registered or not.

A lot of the big Chinese sellers have huge warehouses in the UK (and all over Europe) where they store goods to speed up shipping in the UK. These goods are already customs cleared in the UK so there is nothing more to pay. They sell on other marketplaces like Amazon too, most people don't want to wait weeks for delivery from China.  

This is why they state ships from the UK. I haven't seen any that claims this when they don't.

Sellers who have stock in the UK but live outside the UK are required to be VAT registered, it's an issue the marketplaces ignored for years because they were happy goods were cheap, HMRC then made the marketplaces liable for lost VAT and they changed their tune and started insisting that sellers who are required to be registered provide a VAT number.

From the 1st of Jan it changed so marketplaces will collect the VAT instead. 

If you see a seller that has stock in the UK but the seller is not you'll see the 20% VAT included note on the listing. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

MrsStepford said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

It is better than being stung with import VAT and handling charges if they didn't collect VAT at the time of sale but this bit:

Doubleshotdamo said:

And, soooo many Chinese firms / people are pretending to be a UK seller, even showing up if you apply the "UK only" filter, but who are not. Then you get to checkout and find the item is more expensive. 

is not on. That is incredibly annoying!

Checking their business address is actually quite quick and simple though, at least on the full site (which I use on my tablet) - just scroll down to the bottom of the listing and it has their registered address.

I agree something has to be done though, especially as often 'UK stock' turns out not to be.

I think it's a heavy-handed ploy by government to dissuade people from buying anything from outside UK. Well, it won't stop me. Knock on effect is that prices in UK for secondhand may go up, if importation is problematic. 

It's actually a switch to the economic activity of the buyer generating taxes for the country the buyer is based in rather than the seller. 

The EU will be doing the same from July, the difference is they will have a central accounting system to allow sellers in say Germany to pay French VAT to the German tax authority who will then pay that money to France.

As we have left the EU I presume the UK government have to do their own thing for collecting taxes at the point sale on goods under £135 and outside the UK. 

nossa_2

I checked tax status of items before buying, both stated goods in UK and both stated VAT20% included in list price, EBAY added another 20% - why should I be over charged when either the seller has been dishonest or EBAY systems overwrite vat status