Mexico and Tax ID

[chicweb]

Hi guys,

Maybe someone can help me understand or maybe there's a field missing in the orders.

I had an order for Mexico. Now, we need to add the TAX ID for their customs. I couldn't get this info in the order page. Contacted the buyer, no answer. So I had to ship it without this info hoping it will not be delayed too much at custom... Needed to send it so I don't get a late shipment defect and didn't want to cancel it for this reason.

Now, in a recent news, we learned that Mexico TAX ID field is supposed to be mandatory on the checkout... But in the order, I could'nt see that info at all.

So, any one of you already saw the Tax ID info in an order from Mexico? Or eBay is not providing it to us ? Maybe this field is not mandatory as it shoud be?

[chicweb]

Here's the link that says it's now mandatory for Mexico buyers to input their tax id.

https://www.ebay.ca/sellercentre/news/2025-april/vat-mexico

Since I didn't see it in the order (ordered sunday), I guess it was added afterward? Or not working...

[femmefan1946]

From what you show, the Tax ID is mandatory FOR BUYERS.

So technically, this is not your problem.

EBay does not require sellers to know everything about importing to every country in the world.

They even , decades ago, gave us some boilerplate we could add to our listings.

Import duties, taxes and charges are not included in the item price or shipping charges. These charges are the buyer's responsibility. Please check with your country's customs office to determine what these additional costs will be prior to bidding/buying.

If the buyer does not give you their Tax Number, the shipment might be considered Undeliverable, and eBay does not require sellers to refund anything if the shipment is Undeliverable.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/policies/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy/ebay-money-back-guarantee-policy?....

A buyer who does not recieve his item without paying import fees may leave negative FB.

EBay will remove that FB, on appeal, because of their policy that this is the Buyer's responsibility.

That being said.

Be prepared for the buyer to complain.

Be prepared for the buyer to refuse the shipment, rather than pay import fees (see Undeliverable, above)

Be prepared for an INR claim. (see Undeliverable, above)

Be prepared for negative FB. (see appeal, above)

Most sellers will refund the purchase price of the Undeliverable item when they get it back, which can be months later.

Most sellers will not refund shipping costs or any fees they may have incurred for the transaction.

And thanks for the notice.

Best wishes.

[chicweb]

I understand the process is not streamlined as it should.

If I have this info, I will add it to the label. Using Shippo, there's warnings everywhere to input this in the Notes of the label.

devon@ebay can you confirm that the new mandatory TAX ID field for Mexico is implemented in checkout for Mexico's buyers? If so, I could not see it in the order details. Can you confirm it was implemented for sellers to see it too?

It's not very useful if the field is mandatory and filled... but sellers cannot see it to use the info 😉

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@femmefan1946 

@chicweb 

Customs is no longer boilerplate. The requirements are mandatory. They have been mandatory with couriers for years. Not including can cause delays, rejection of import or returns at SELLERS expense. Often more than original shipping. 

Long version of customs form for couriers. Fedex example. Those are required fields

**Declaration Statement(s): I certify that the goods described in this document qualify as originating and the information contained in this document is true and accurate. I assume responsibility for proving such representations and agree to maintain and present upon request, or to make available during a verification visit, documentation necessary to support this certification.

I declare that all the information contained in this invoice to be true and correct.

Name of Responsible Official of Company or Authorized Agent if the invoice certified on behalf of a company or individual:

Concern being if buyer is providing that info does seller have view/access to it so it can be entered correctly? The information may have been collected by eBay but there is no actual way that info is cross referenced that we as sellers are in the loop for.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@chicweb 

Shippo version

[recped]

It's classic eBay, this info has been required for some time, eBay is late in implementing the requirement for buyers to provide it and are no doubt late in getting this field added to the order details.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

@recped 

@chicweb 

eBay is now kinda sortof looking into/addressing as per dot com. See post 10.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Seller-News-April-2025/m-p/35012614#M2544952

[chicweb]

Yes, for the email address (which I also consider problematic).

But they did not aknowledge the tax ID problem yet.

[intimewithmusic]

@chicweb The only reliable and insurable service I found for Mexico is Xpresspost.  The cost made shipping there pointless.  Hopefully that will change.

eBay includes the buyer's email addy for shipping purposes on each order in a coded temporary format.

Is it because you have to click to open it that you find it problematic? The US has requested the email addresses for a year or two.

[chicweb]

This is not about email address..

This is about Tax ID.

[intimewithmusic]

@chicweb 

  Sorry, my mistake.  In your post when you said this

"Yes, for the email address (which I also consider problematic).

But they did not aknowledge the tax ID problem yet."

I understood that to mean the buyer's email address was problematic for you. Pretty sure that was your post but I probably had too much coffee yesterday.

[ricarmic]

TMT (too much trouble). As I wind down the road toward being a grumpy old man I just blocked Mexico. Hardly sold anything there anyway and much higher rate of problems (not losses but communication, impatient buyers for long travel times etc). 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@intimewithmusic wrote:

@chicweb 

  Sorry, my mistake.  In your post when you said this

"Yes, for the email address (which I also consider problematic).

But they did not aknowledge the tax ID problem yet."

I understood that to mean the buyer's email address was problematic for you. Pretty sure that was your post but I probably had too much coffee yesterday.

---

@chicweb 

@femmefan1946 

@intimewithmusic 

@dinomitesales 

devon@ebay 

Something else that needs to be addressed with eBay labels is there is NO option for returns. Standards are RTS - Return to Sender or Dispose. See sample attached from Shippo. Unsure how it looks directly using CP. I do know the default with Expedited/Xpresspost/Intl Priority the default "appears" to be RTS with no option to choose. Rarely now ship with any expedited services but last time I did (to USA) RTS displayed when label printed. (eBay Labels). The reason this is concerning is for any returning shipments seller would be on the hook for shipping and customs processing. In many cases sellers would not want goods back. Just not worth the trouble. (Option is also MIA for domestic shipments.)

This requirement needs to be communicated between eBay and CP's API's.

Note: Sample attached is US to Canada. Blue highlight would be buyers EIN info

[chicweb]

I understand 🙂

Personnally, I enjoy shipping worldwide.

I like the idea of an item bought in the far countryside in a garage, cleaning it, testing it, making sure it's good and shipping it all the way around the world. That's part of the fun for me. 🙂

But I understand that's a lot of hassles.

[chicweb]

True, that's another problem.

But the main problem I have, right now, is with the tax ID.

Emails could potentially be problematic if the custom doesn't want to use the full ebay email. But as I understand, emails sent to this obscure email address are sent directly into the ebay messages of the customer.

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

---

@chicweb wrote:

True, that's another problem.

But the main problem I have, right now, is with the tax ID.

Emails could potentially be problematic if the custom doesn't want to use the full ebay email. But as I understand, emails sent to this obscure email address are sent directly into the ebay messages of the customer.

---

@chicweb Regarding eBay email addresses

They are designed to work only from ebay to eBay as an internal system only. (eBay's way of monitoring anything happening outside of eBay which is a major no no.) You can get a cc if you have a secondary email attached to ebay. If for example you were able to forward to CP or USPS and they they tried to use the mail does not arrive. It goes to eBay purgatory.  If you include a link in an ebay email that mail will also be blocked...dead stop. The several times I have tried to assist with both traces and a damaged shipment the file got closed. When I contacted CP/USPS I was advised that they were able to reach the customer.

[ricarmic]

@chicweb Up until the time Germany changed the import rules, I shipped everywhere and actually felt much the same way, it would have been interesting to ride along with the stuff going to Israel, Gibraltar, Turks & Caicos Islands, etc. My spouse of course thought we should hand deliver stuff to Hawaii too!

At the time the Germany import rules changed I decided to start blocking the TMT countries and that played into my trying to have a better life balance, although I'm not sure I'll ever manage that.  Mexico brings my blocked country count up to 109 now.

The postal strike spurred me put more effort into some non postal/online options which also remove some to much of the non-fun workload from me. One is partly non-postal the other is 100% non-online/non-postal. They don't generate nearly as much overall income but my "hourly rate" is as good if not better, and it's mostly more fun work than the end to end process for the online sites I use.

[chicweb]

I'm also thinking about diversifying my sales channels. With selling only on eBay, there's a problem if anything happens to the platform. I don't want to depend on only one channel. Many projects in mind and in progress. 😉

I think Canada and Mexico should work together to make it easier for shipping. With the current global economy, that would open a whole new market easily to canadians, but the hassle of shipping there is not helping at all. I think the problem is mainly on the Mexico side with their strict rules on incoming shipping.

[intimewithmusic]

@chicweb  @lotzofuniquegoodies 

Hi. FYI: There is an article just out on ecommerceBytes about the tax

ID. Here's a link. 

 https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2025/04/02/ebay-advises-sellers-on-new-regulations-shipping-to-mexico... 

There's also a brief discussion about it on The selling On eBay Radio Show. Here's the link to Episode 112. I think there will be more coverage in Episode 113 that releases on Thursday.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-112-guest-jeff-clark-saying-no-usps-rural-cut/id161088...