VAT on UK to UK sales?

MR1988

Anyone notice VAT added to some of your purchases through eBay? I am trying to figure out why some purchases I have VAT added to the orders and for some I don't. First I thought it would be the seller location, but all were located in UK. Then I thought maybe it's value, but checked some high value orderes and some had VAT added and some didn't. Here are a few examples:

Order A: Coventry, United Kingdom

Total: £101.44

VAT: £0.00

Order B: Maidenhead, United Kingdom

Total: £105.00

No mention of VAT.

Order C: Manchester, United Kingdom

Total: £110.73

VAT: £0.99

Order D : Coventry, United Kingdom

Total: £112.39

No mention of VAT.

Order E: Bridlington, United Kingdom

Total: 156.30

VAT: £1.05

Any ideas why am I being charged VAT on some of these?

Whalie

The small value suggests the VAT on carriage.

DE_612183

some goods are vatable others are not?

https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates

RFW

Whalie said:

The small value suggests the VAT on carriage.

Same. RM has a mix of zero rated and VAT services. If the seller is VAT registered they can use either, although should charge VAT at the same rate as the item being sent. It gets a bit messed up in use but probably explains the difference in charges and whether VAT is mentioned.

DullGreyGuy

Who are the sellers? Businesses or private individuals?

A VAT registered company would need to charge VAT but there is a marginal scheme for secondhand goods, art etc where 16.67% VAT is charged on the difference between what they bought it for and what they are selling it for which could also explain the low values

savergrant

DullGreyGuy said:

Who are the sellers? Businesses or private individuals?

A VAT registered company would need to charge VAT but there is a marginal scheme for secondhand goods, art etc where 16.67% VAT is charged on the difference between what they bought it for and what they are selling it for which could also explain the low values

When I worked somewhere which used the 'margin scheme' it was a condition that the amount of VAT was not disclosed to the purchaser, and simply a statement that the margin scheme had been applied.

savergrant

MR1988 said:

Anyone notice VAT added to some of your purchases through eBay? I am trying to figure out why some purchases I have VAT added to the orders and for some I don't. First I thought it would be the seller location, but all were located in UK. Then I thought maybe it's value, but checked some high value orderes and some had VAT added and some didn't. Here are a few examples:

Order A: Coventry, United Kingdom

Total: £101.44

VAT: £0.00

Order B: Maidenhead, United Kingdom

Total: £105.00

No mention of VAT.

Order C: Manchester, United Kingdom

Total: £110.73

VAT: £0.99

Order D : Coventry, United Kingdom

Total: £112.39

No mention of VAT.

Order E: Bridlington, United Kingdom

Total: 156.30

VAT: £1.05

Any ideas why am I being charged VAT on some of these?

Were all these purchases sent by courier? Is there a common link between the ones which have VAT added?

MR1988

Only "Order B" in my original post is registered as a business. The rest are all private sellers.

Upon further investigation, the VAT seems to be added for the new "Buyer Fee."

The orders I had no VAT on were listings that went live before the Buyer Fee was introduced, while the ones that contain VAT are the ones from private sellers and matches the 20% of the "Buyer Fee."

DullGreyGuy

savergrant said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Who are the sellers? Businesses or private individuals?

A VAT registered company would need to charge VAT but there is a marginal scheme for secondhand goods, art etc where 16.67% VAT is charged on the difference between what they bought it for and what they are selling it for which could also explain the low values

When I worked somewhere which used the 'margin scheme' it was a condition that the amount of VAT was not disclosed to the purchaser, and simply a statement that the margin scheme had been applied.

I can understand why they may want to hide their markup which the VAT effectively reveals @savergrant but legally if the purchaser was a VAT registered entity you would have to provide them a VAT receipt on demand. 

savergrant

DullGreyGuy said:

savergrant said:

DullGreyGuy said:

Who are the sellers? Businesses or private individuals?

A VAT registered company would need to charge VAT but there is a marginal scheme for secondhand goods, art etc where 16.67% VAT is charged on the difference between what they bought it for and what they are selling it for which could also explain the low values

When I worked somewhere which used the 'margin scheme' it was a condition that the amount of VAT was not disclosed to the purchaser, and simply a statement that the margin scheme had been applied.

I can understand why they may want to hide their markup which the VAT effectively reveals @savergrant but legally if the purchaser was a VAT registered entity you would have to provide them a VAT receipt on demand. 

From HMRC page. I draw your attention to the penultimate bullet point;

Selling

When you sell something you plan to claim for under a VAT margin scheme, you must give the buyer an invoice that includes:

• date
• your name, address and VAT registration number
• the buyer’s name and address, or that of their business
• the item’s unique stock book number
• invoice number
• item description
• total price - you must not show VAT separately
• any of the following: ‘margin scheme - second hand goods’, ‘margin scheme - works of art’ or ‘margin scheme - collectors’ items and antiques’

Our instructions from what was then Inland Revenue were that we were never to disclose the amount of VAT to a customer or their accountant. Infringing this would lead to us being kicked off the margin scheme.

savergrant

MR1988 said:

Only "Order B" in my original post is registered as a business. The rest are all private sellers.

Upon further investigation, the VAT seems to be added for the new "Buyer Fee."

The orders I had no VAT on were listings that went live before the Buyer Fee was introduced, while the ones that contain VAT are the ones from private sellers and matches the 20% of the "Buyer Fee."

I would suspect that all of these purchases were made from listings using 'simple delivery'. As eBay contracts the carriage they separate the VAT from the postage price.