Sending to Germany via Ebay

martindow

I have a customer in Germany who wants to buy an item that is on my web site.  The price is £12 plus £6 postage (£18 in total) but there will be VAT and a customs clearance fee to pay when it arrives.  Neither she or I know how much this will be.

I was wondering if I could put it on Ebay for £18 with free postage to Germany or £12 for the item and specify £6 as the international postage cost.  Is this possible to do?  If so, I think Ebay would deal with the import costs and give her an inclusive price.

KxMx

You would need to opt into the Global Shipping Programme on eBay if you wanted them to give the buyer an inclusive cost. 

The way it works is you send to the UK GSP hub, eBay then take care of the rest. 

You can offer free shipping, meaning you pay to get it to the hub.
The buyer is charged by eBay for international postage, customs fees etc. 

martindow

Thanks KxMx.  My problem is that I want to be sure that she gets this item at a reasonable price.

 Can I see what Ebay would charge before I actually commit to putting it on Ebay and incurring listing fees?  Ideally I would like to adjust the selling price to determine a total price we would both be happy with.  i suspect this is not possible to do.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Once the listing is on eBay you can change the drop down menu on the P&P tab to Germany to see what the shipping fees will be via eBay's GSP.

I don't know how they work it out but I have an item listed that would be a small parcel 750g-1kg to the UK and eBay would charge £12.26 shipping to a German customer, I assume they would add 19% VAT to the price (whether the shipping fee is set to include that already I don't know). 

If you are VAT registered and have your VAT ID on eBay they may deduct 20% from the item price and then apply the 19% (not 100% sure on this). 

If you set your own P&P that's what the buyer will pay, eBay should still handle the VAT issue and I think there is a code for the address or customs label to show the VAT has already been handled.

The GSP is probably the easiest option for you but not the cheapest for the buyer.

Don't forget eBay will charge you fees (which is 30p + 12.9% for private sellers or 30p + VAT + the category FVF + VAT for business sellers), they'll also charge an extra fee (too lazy to check, shouldn't be more than 2%, again plus VAT if a business) because the buyer isn't in the UK.

If you use GSP eBay will give you the UK shipping fee on the listing to get the item to their warehouse, I assume how much you charge for this will affect the amount of shipping the buyer pays but again not sure. 

If you have a private account your listing will be free. 

soolin

You can still ship direct on ebay , you don't have to go through the GSP , ebay should supply the details for the custom label and I believe they also add the taxes and duty on - but perhaps somewhere one can confirm that as I no longer use anything other than GSP. I know when I have bought from overseas I pay more than I see to cover 20%VAT, and the screen shows me that before I pay. So I assume seller gets the item cost and postage, and ebay get the 20% VAT to pass on. 

martindow

Thank you everyone.  I'm not VAT registered so I don't have that to deal with.

I think I'll abandon the idea of putting it on Ebay - with the fees involved I am not going to make much on this sale to compensate for being able to give the customer a set price.

She may be able to find out what the clearance fee from the German PO would be and the VAT is easy to calculate which would give her a good idea of what extra payment will be needed.   

This was all so easy in the golden age before brexit ...

DullGreyGuy

Irrespective of Brexit the EU abandoned its €22 floor on VAT globally in 2021 else it would have been exempt even with Brexit.

German VAT is 19% and so its just a case of them finding out how much the clearance fee your choosen courier will charge them. Whilst in the UK its generally about £12 on low/mid value packages in some EU countries its massively higher... seen some very high charges in Spain

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

The EU adopted the same principle of charging VAT depending upon the location of the buyer rather than seller.

For VAT registered companies the EU have a central system to report, collect and remit the VAT but I think if your customer in Germany was buying from a non-VAT company in France they'd be facing the same issue of either going through a marketplace or paying the VAT on import. 

Customs are presumably looking out for parcels over £135/155 EUR as there's not a requirement to charge the customer VAT over those amounts but instead for it to be done upon import but whether they have time to check every parcel for small fees isn't something I've seen clarified.

DullGreyGuy

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

For VAT registered companies the EU have a central system to report, collect and remit the VAT but I think if your customer in Germany was buying from a non-VAT company in France they'd be facing the same issue of either going through a marketplace or paying the VAT on import. 

They shouldnt have any issues from buying from a French company thats below the VAT threashold, goods moving within the market that arent subject to excise duty are exempt from any importation costs. This would have been the same pre-Brexit for items being sent by the OP to the continent 

martindow

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

The EU adopted the same principle of charging VAT depending upon the location of the buyer rather than seller.

For VAT registered companies the EU have a central system to report, collect and remit the VAT but I think if your customer in Germany was buying from a non-VAT company in France they'd be facing the same issue of either going through a marketplace or paying the VAT on import. 

Customs are presumably looking out for parcels over £135/155 EUR as there's not a requirement to charge the customer VAT over those amounts but instead for it to be done upon import but whether they have time to check every parcel for small fees isn't something I've seen clarified.

I think in some countries, all businesses have to register for VAT regardless of turnover, so non-VAT businesses might well raise an eyebrow.

martindow

I've just remembered that DPD booked through P2G offer a service where the sender can pay fees, VAT and customs clearance.  I'll try that later, but I expect that the total may be eye watering ...  I'll report back.