Customs Duty to EU buyers - Double Taxation

[sunraycity]

I recently had an issue where I shipped an order to a buyer in France where VAT was charged. Shipped with Stallion and noted the tax info. They were asked to pay duty a second time. Wondering if anyone knew what recourse the buyer has with eBay? I told the client to show the post office that they had paid. The only mistake I may have made was not to include a copy of the invoice in the package. 

Would be curious to know how customs knows if the package has prepaid the duty if they tax ID is not noted on the shipping label if anyone knows. 

[marnotom!]

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@sunraycity wrote:

I recently had an issue where I shipped an order to a buyer in France where VAT was charged. Shipped with Stallion and noted the tax info. They were asked to pay duty a second time.

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I'm confused here.  You say your buyer was charged VAT at Checkout, but then you say your buyer was charged duty "a second time".  Was your buyer charged duty or VAT upon receipt?  What was the value of the item and the value of the item plus shipping?

[sunraycity]

The value of the item was 199 USD (eyeglasses) and no extra charge for shipping.  On the ebay details page it notes FR48878792076 - Import VAT Paid, excluding duties. So maybe there's two levels of tax.

[marnotom!]

Duty and VAT are two different animals. Duty is due on the sunglasses because their declared value is greater than €150.

[recped]

First thing is that you need to include the invoice but that invoice should be in a pouch on the outside of the package not inside. In the early days after eBay started collecting VAT I had a couple of issues of buyers being charged again, after putting the invoice on the outside of the package I have not had a single one.

With Stallion (Post NL) service the customs information is is sent to Post NL who preclear the shipment through customs usually before the package has left Canada. When it arrives in the destination country

 it's usually cleared through customs in minutes. The invoice on the outside which has the IOSS number and shows the amount of VAT already paid is enough to ensure they get processed correctly with no second charge to the recipient (I highlight the IOSS number and the tax amount just to make it easy for customs if they decide to do a secondary check.

The IOSS information does not appear on the actual shipping label unless you make it part of the address, I do not do that but have not had an issue since the very early days.

I'm not sure if it still shows up in the eBay Help pages but at one time it showed information about (the buyer) contacting eBay with evidence of the double charge (invoice/reciept from customs) and eBay would refund the buyer.

[recped]

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@sunraycity wrote:

The value of the item was 199 USD (eyeglasses) and no extra charge for shipping.  On the ebay details page it notes FR48878792076 - Import VAT Paid, excluding duties. So maybe there's two levels of tax.

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Are you positive the buyer was charged VAT on the original order? My understanding is that VAT is only collected by eBay if the order total is 150 Euro or lower, if ovrer 150 Euro both VAT and Duty are collected at delivery from the buyer/importer.

150 Euro = CA$156 so your sale was over the 150 and should not have been collected by eBay.

OK, I just looked up the page with info:

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/selling/vat-obligations-eu?id=4650

I was right about the 150 Euro EXCEPT the 150 Euro limit does NOT apply to France, eBay collects VAT for ANY amount for shipments going to France.

I dug around but could not find the info for buyers on what to do if they are double charged.