Selling direct to the EU from the UK

[Lardo Boffin]

Hi all

I sell the occasional zeddy, currently mostly on a well known auction site. I use their global shipping process which is very easy but quite expensive for the buyer.

As well as the computer they pay in effect two lots of shipping (one in the UK to the global shipping centre, and one to take it to the buyers country) as well as, I have no doubt, a handling fee. I also pay higher seller fees for using this global shipping process.

For the EU at least I could send stuff directly (as well as the occasional direct, not via said auction web site sale) and save on fees etc.

But, what do I need to do in order to do this legally? Since Brexit I have only sent gifts to the EU (genuine zero cost items rather than ‘gifts’). Do I need a VAT code and similar? If so is this down to the value of the sale?

Any experts out there?

Many thanks!

Lardo

[Moggy]

Hi all

I sell the occasional zeddy.....

Sorry Lardo, just had to. ( Hides.)

Serious head on, perhaps Rich Mellor may have some ideas re this.

[dr beep]

customs will sent an additional bill for the import of the goods, 7 euro minimum.

[rmbrowngr]

I think the applicable term is a “nightmare”. I’ve been charged VAT for importing goods when it wasn’t due, plus occasionally import taxes for certain goods. I’ll only buy from the UK from Amazon and eBay via its global shipping unless I’m confident the seller knows what they’re doing.

[Paul]

I suggest taking the tunnel and posting in Calais

[dr beep]

friday and saturday I am in the UK and take the tunnel back home.

[jojo]

UK ( GB ) is non-eu !!

so unless the seller is IOSS the buyer pays the bill !!

In my country up to € 75 for a small item i stupiditly bought in the UK

-illegal-import fine ( as the buyer needs to announce the import to the customs office )
-handling fees ( including a ridiculous amount as "stocking-fee" per day )
-import taxes ( based on a phantom-fee-table , see line 1 ) )
-bpost handling fee to get the parcel to their postal services
-the final taxes on top of that ( 21% )


i cry myself asleep every night , as all my sinclair and commodore parts come from the UK

[Lardo Boffin]

The most important parts of my zeddy refurbs come from Germany and although the seller has done a great job of keeping things simple I still feel your pain.

[jojo]

the german seller simply add the costs for non-eu items to the selling price !!

so right now my old-computer hobby has come to a 100 % halt.

spare parts are simply too expensive to make this situation bearable .

i stopped my repair service as the prices i need to charge are beyond my customers price range

i will need to make a car trip to the uk and get the parts delivered somewere around the chunnel area .

[RWAP]

I have now taken the plunge and am in the midst of applying for an non-union OSS number for sales of my own items - I will add a £4 handling charge though, as there is additional paperwork, costs (the cheapest I have found is £660pa), and of course, the paypal fees on the VAT you are collecting on behalf of the EU.

Admittedly this is substantially less than the £2000 + annual fee when the OSS schemes came in!

Someone on facebook whom shall remain nameless, said that they have been simply using an IOSS number on all their packets whether sold via ebay or not - but of course I would not condone that. The chances of it ever being tracked?

I have decided not to implement this at the moment for sales by other sellers through sellmyretro because of how paypal would need to work:

ie.
EU buyer pays me via PayPal for the total amount, plus local VAT and a handling charge
Paypal gets 3.5%. I need to do the invoice
I then pay the seller for the original price and need an invoice from the seller to add to my accounts package
Paypal gets another 3.5%
I then have to do monthly reporting of sales to each country, with conversions to euros on the date of each sale.

So, based on a maximum of £135 sale price before VAT, and using 21% VAT (it can be 29%) - I would have to add a handling charge of around £8 to cover all of the costs

£135 + 21% (28.35) + £8 handling = £171.35
Less Paypal fee £6.00
Leaves me £4 per transaction towards the £660 annual cost, and the extra paperwork / admin

I can look at implementing this once I have completed OSS registration for myself and see how it goes.