eBay now look to add the 20% VAT from EU sellers

[Vinegar Joe]

Krikzz has an official UK importer - RetroTowers (there has always been a mark up though). I picked up a Game Gear Everdrive from them recently but they've been selling everdrives since Krikzz first made them I think.

It looks like they've bumped their prices up recently?

I was sure the Mega Everdrive Pro was closer to £170 not long ago. Of course companies will pass increasing costs on to consumers. Things will get more expensive for them which means we have to pay more. It is to be expected, this is what we voted for.

 

[blast processing]

Whether it's Brexit, the pandemic, bad weather or anything else devious people will use any excuse to put up their prices.

 

[Retroman839]

We left
We got a deal

Sweet deal! paying 20 percent extra ?
What’s the cost of freedom. Erm 20 percent apparently

Mel Gibson said “you can’t take are freedom”
No that’s true but - you can buy it back for 20 percent

I’m sure we got loads of stuff to sell to eu
Because we make loads of good stuff in the uk
We are the corner stone of manufacturing.
Iceland choc ices
Panda pops
Pickled onion space raiders
Opal fruits. Need I go on
Retroman8392021-01-05 23:09:40

 

[Bensonrad]

It’s also the knock-on effect. It is now effecting some UK sellers to UK buyers too.

A Buy It Now item in my watch list has just jumped up 10%. Here is the updated description from the seller...

Unfortunately I have had to increase prices on all my products as from the 1st January international sellers to the UK will automatically addon 20% VAT on all the components I purchase. Previously this was not done for items under £15. This means all the components I purchase for these boards has gone up 20% (This is due to new EU /Brexit regulations)

So the UK seller has now added 10% on his product price because the parts he imports to assemble his boards are costing him an additional 20%.

Ah this is interesting, I asked a UK seller if he had a price in mind for a buy it now (it was £12.95 - rare magazine), I was thinking £15, seller said the ebay rules means he had to charge £19. I thought he was taking the mick, but now I read the above and see what he was talking about, I did end up accepting and buying too. Looks like things may go back to wheeling and dealing on the streets and at boot fairs (if they ever come back). Imagine the loaded boots next time there is a UKVac meet!!

 

[councilface]

#ProjectFear

 

[mlynn]

I still don't get it. The purpose of VAT is to provide revenue income from the sale of luxury goods. These are often resold items which would have been subject to VAT at the time of first purchase, not if sold again by a private seller.

The rules within the UK are clear and I believe are as follows:
1. If the sellers gross earnings from the sale of goods (their business) are above £85000 then they must keep accounts, register and pay VAT on VAT payable goods.
2. If goods are at the reduced rate or tax exempt (e.g. Children's Clothes, Books etc.) then the correct rate of tax must be applied.

A blanket 20% tax is wrong. It is actually illegal to mislabel things that are VAT exempt. Ebay is simply a selling platform, not a means of collecting tax.

Edit:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services
You'd need to ask a tax expert but at a push you could say that arcade machine parts come under "Betting and gaming – including pool betting and games of chance" and are tax exempt whereas an inflatable model of Ursula von der Leyen (fnarr, fnarr) is +20%

mlynn2021-01-06 00:52:36

 

[trev1976]

Think this is bad ? Wait until we all have to pay back all the money that was lost due to furlough through our taxes.

Cant wait and I didn't even get furloughed.

Seems the UK has developed leprosy because we wanted to be independent.

No one wants to be our friend anymore.

 

[Fantazia2]

Ah this is interesting, I asked a UK seller if he had a price in mind for a buy it now (it was £12.95 - rare magazine), I was thinking £15, seller said the ebay rules means he had to charge £19. I thought he was taking the mick, but now I read the above and see what he was talking about, I did end up accepting and buying too. Looks like things may go back to wheeling and dealing on the streets and at boot fairs (if they ever come back). Imagine the loaded boots next time there is a UKVac meet!!

That doesnt seem to make any sense to me, if you are a UK buyer and they were a UK seller the new rules would make no difference to that sale, them saying ebay rules means he had to charge £19 sounds like BS to me, if it was listed at £12.95 they he could sell it at that price as well, no reason why a buy it now would have to be £19.

The post youve quoted mentions a UK seller putting their price up because the components they are importing from outside the UK to build whatever they sell are now having VAT added to them as the £15 lower limit has been removed, so their costs have increased so they are passing this cost on.

Fantazia22021-01-06 01:10:55

 

[mlynn]

>No one wants to be our friend anymore.
No, I think it's there are a lot of chancers out there and some places haven't fully or correctly implemented the new trading prices and conditions yet.

My gran always said when they moved from pre-decimal currency (pounds, shillings and pence, with 240 old pence in the pound!) to decimal currency (100 new pence in the pound) a lot of people exploited the situation and marked things up at inflated prices. It took about a year for things to stabalise. You just have to be wise to it.

If someone tries to overcharge, take your business elsewhere. That'll teach them.

As a side note I bought a replacement drive belt for my Atari ST. The seller has sold hundreds of them but only has 4 left. I'll keep an eye on them and see if they go up when (if) they get more stock.

 

[digweed]

We left
We got a deal

Sweet deal! paying 20 percent extra ?
What’s the cost of freedom. Erm 20 percent apparently

Mel Gibson said “you can’t take are freedom”
No that’s true but - you can buy it back for 20 percent

I’m sure we got loads of stuff to sell to eu
Because we make loads of good stuff in the uk
We are the corner stone of manufacturing.
Iceland choc ices
Panda pops
Pickled onion space raiders
Opal fruits. Need I go on

 

[gunblade]

something is not right here, an external business seller should sell you an item without local tax/vat charges and then at import you should be charged your local tax if applicable and customs duty if again applicable, the import agent will charge a fee for this process

a private seller cannot add local tax/vat unless they are registered to do so

for example previously I buy from donberg in Ireland and items have 21% vat added at point of sale and would then automatically be delivered, now it should be sold to me without the 21% vat and then at entry I pay 20% and whatever agent fee is required

The best way the government could handle this is to lower vat to 15% and enforce a max clearence charge of a 5% of total import value and not a set amount

I expect this issue will be addressed

 

[Fantazia2]

something is not right here, an external business seller should sell you an item without local tax/vat charges and then at import you should be charged your local tax if applicable and customs duty if again applicable, the import agent will charge a fee for this process

a private seller cannot add local tax/vat unless they are registered to do so

for example previously I buy from donberg in Ireland and items have 21% vat added at point of sale and would then automatically be delivered, now it should be sold to me without the 21% vat and then at entry I pay 20% and whatever agent fee is required

The best way the government could handle this is to lower vat to 15% and enforce a max clearence charge of a 5% of total import value and not a set amount

I expect this issue will be addressed

This only happens if the item value is over £135 ex local vat, then the usual customs process applies, i.e. they sell you the item and dont charge local VAT, and then the courier deals with the customs bit and sends you a bill as usual.

The new rules are for order values under £135 where the UK are expecting the sellers in foreign countries to collect the 20% UK VAT and pay this directly to HMRC instead of it being done at the border, and I believe they have to register for this which is why a lot of companies are presently not selling to the UK anymore.

 

[Ropi Jo]

...The new rules are for order values under £135 where the UK are expecting the sellers in foreign countries to collect the 20% UK VAT and pay this directly to HMRC ....

Thanks. I just spat my coffee all aver my keyboard after reading that!

 

[gunblade]

this don't make sense to me, i thought items under the value of £135 were exempt from import charges vat and duty unless they are the usual like tobacco

that what it says on hmrc website

 

[Sbdesign]

...The new rules are for order values under £135 where the UK are expecting the sellers in foreign countries to collect the 20% UK VAT and pay this directly to HMRC ....

Thanks. I just spat my coffee all aver my keyboard after reading that!

The main problem comes from ONLINE MARKET PALCES, to pluck a number out of thin air, we probably loose 80% of the taxes due, on sales from OMP's.

"Online marketplaces (OMPs), where they are involved in facilitating the sale, will be responsible for collecting and accounting for the VAT."




"In addition, for sales of goods by overseas sellers, where the goods are already in the UK at the point of sale, we will move the responsibility for accounting for VAT from the overseas seller to the OMP that facilitates the sale."




SOURCE

Sbdesign2021-01-06 09:48:08

 

[Sbdesign]

this don't make sense to me, i thought items under the value of £135 were exempt from import charges vat and duty unless they are the usual like tobacco

that what it says on hmrc website

2020:

under £15 no VAT / no DUTY

£15 to £135 + VAT / no DUTY (COLLECTED IN UK)

£135+ + VAT / + DUTY (COLLECTED IN UK)

2021

£0 to £135 +VAT / NO DUTY (COLLECTED AT SELLERS END)

£135 + + VAT / + DUTY (COLLECTED IN UK) - NO CHANGE

 

[gunblade]

thats mad, why would anyone want to become a tax collector for a foreign country

 

[Sbdesign]

If you mean why would Amazon/eBay want to?
They make billions from it. Or loose billions if they don't.

Smaller sellers

To gain access to the uk market and broaden sales. (but agree, too much hassle for many, but some will see a opportunity to grow the uk sales to make it worth it, which could be a plus)

Like I was saying on previous posts, I believe most under £15 items come through OMP's, and they are the ones who collect it. It fixes 90 problems, and causes 10.

 

[Fantazia2]

thats mad, why would anyone want to become a tax collector for a foreign country

Looks like they dont, hence why a lot are stopping sales to the UK.

The EU appear to also be implementing the same/similar system but they have delayed theirs until July due to Covid apparently. So we may have been in the same boat if we didnt have Brexit, for buying stuff outside the EU at least.

Easiest option for foreign sellers seem to be to sell stuff on one of the Big Market places (Ebay, Amazon, Aliexpress, etc.) so that the market place does the VAT side, although then they have to pay the Market place fees.

 

[ZedEx48K]

My gran always said when they moved from pre-decimal currency (pounds, shillings and pence, with 240 old pence in the pound!) to decimal currency (100 new pence in the pound) a lot of people exploited the situation and marked things up at inflated prices. It took about a year for things to stabalise. You just have to be wise to it.

Same thing happened when they tried to introduce the Euro here, shops rounded up to the nearest "£1.99" style pricing and made more money.