Is EBay not collecting taxes in UK?

[rio1953]

I sold an expensive item to a buyer to the UK. He has paid but I noticed that there was no taxes collected by eBay. Don't they collect taxes from that country? I am confused.

 Any of you guys know? 

[marnotom!]

My understanding is that if the value of the sale is over £135, payment of VAT (and duty, if applicable) is due upon receipt of the item:

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@rio1953 wrote:

I sold an expensive item to a buyer to the UK. He has paid but I noticed that there was no taxes collected by eBay. Don't they collect taxes from that country? I am confused.

 Any of you guys know? 

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@rio1953 

Last week I had a low value package to the UK. Total value was under 18 or so. There was the notice about VAT being collected in the address field but in the body of the packing slip no tax had been collected. Not sure what eBay cut off is using but that is what I saw. What you can do is highlight that line and you should be covered(protected). Ebay may be in the process of tinkering and that's what caused the info to not show.  Is it possible the item you sold was tax exempt?

-Lotz

PS. Had a sale today to Australia and VAT displayed on the packing slip with ABN # in address field.

[rio1953]

Lotz, I don't think that the item is tax exempt. It's a collectible Royal Doulton Figurine. 
Now my other problem is insurance, someone reported that Shipsurance doesn't insure Canadian shipped items anymore. I don't trust Canada Post insurance much but what other option do I have. If you or anyone else has a better solution please help me on this. Thanks.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@rio1953 wrote:

Lotz, I don't think that the item is tax exempt. It's a collectible Royal Doulton Figurine. 
Now my other problem is insurance, someone reported that Shipsurance doesn't insure Canadian shipped items anymore. I don't trust Canada Post insurance much but what other option do I have. If you or anyone else has a better solution please help me on this. Thanks.

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@rio1953 

I know others have posted about outside sources for insurance but personally I have never used. I'm starting to wonder if ebay is slowly going through the list I provided them with known defects for eBay Labels. See attached. Extra insurance was included.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Community-eBay-Site-Issues/eBay-Label-Concerns/td-p/496069

Would be good to know that if this is something eBay has accidentally broken whether they will support any claims for unpaid taxes on behalf of sellers. I personally had no issues with customs using Shippo. You may want to contact eBay via Twitter/Facebook and see if you can get a better answer.

-Lotz

[recped]

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@rio1953 wrote:

Lotz, I don't think that the item is tax exempt. It's a collectible Royal Doulton Figurine. 
Now my other problem is insurance, someone reported that Shipsurance doesn't insure Canadian shipped items anymore. I don't trust Canada Post insurance much but what other option do I have. If you or anyone else has a better solution please help me on this. Thanks.

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My "solution" is to never pay for insurance! If you are an infrequent seller of higher value items maybe the "feel good" aspect  makes insurance worthwhile but for sellers who are shipping on a regular basis the risk of loss is incredibly small.

I include a tiny amount, 10 - 25 cents, in my handling charge to cover the rare insurable loss, after 24 years on eBay that slush fund is full of virtual cash, at least 10 times (probably much more) than my actual losses.

In general, insurance is a suckers bet and a total waste of money.

[flipistics]

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@rio1953 wrote:

Lotz, I don't think that the item is tax exempt. It's a collectible Royal Doulton Figurine. 
Now my other problem is insurance, someone reported that Shipsurance doesn't insure Canadian shipped items anymore. I don't trust Canada Post insurance much but what other option do I have. If you or anyone else has a better solution please help me on this. Thanks.

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You'd definitely want to read the fine print. Even if you can buy extra insurance on the item, it may not be covered if it's breakable. For example, I believe with Canada Post the insurance only covers electronics if they're shipped in their original manufacturer's packaging. That might only apply to damage rather than loss claims though, I'm not sure.

[lady.stark]

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@rio1953 wrote:

Now my other problem is insurance, someone reported that Shipsurance doesn't insure Canadian shipped items anymore. I don't trust Canada Post insurance much but what other option do I have. If you or anyone else has a better solution please help me on this. Thanks.

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I used U-Pic a few times for really high priced merchandise I sold. I never had a claim (fingers crossed), so I don't know how their claim process is. But you can visit their website: www.u-pic.com

[reddiveusa_7]

I found the table below (from a another thread) to be helpful when a foreign buyer is subject to duty and eBay is witholding the taxes.  I cannot understand why eBay would not collect the tax for values above the 150 threshold. The only logical reasoning that I could guess is that the IOSS or VAT ID used is unique to eBay. That country would connect their ID and the receiving country would expect to receive those duty funds owing to them from eBay.

Overview: When eBay is responsible for EU VAT

Seller location	Consignment value	Item location at the time of sale	eBay to collect VAT
Anywhere	Up to EUR 150	Outside EU	Yes* Seller to provide IOSS ID to carrier
Anywhere	Above EUR 150 (not shipped to France***)	Outside EU	No**
Anywhere	Above EUR 150 shipped to France***	Outside EU	Yes** Seller to provide eBay's French VAT ID to carrier