Import Tax charged by ebay.ca when exporting to abroad (U.K.).

[williamf6194]

Hi All.  This similar question was asked in 2019, but it just arose again from a recent transaction of mine (255265124214). I have sold an item to a buyer in the U.K. who is naturally expecting that he may have to pay the U.K. VAT of 20% on the item he purchased from me, plus any import duty.  This is not guaranteed as it may slip through for free as a few of my sales to the U.K. have done in the past (lucky for the buyers).  I do not recall being charged this import tax previously. Ebay calculated that the Import Tax on $99.00 Canadian is $21.96 and based their fees on $120.96 Canadian, but the U.K. VAT is 20%. I tried various combinations of exchange rates (if they actually apply?), but do not see how ebay arrived at this amount - seeing as how I am exporting - not importing.  I tried the chat line for assistance, but it wasn't working very well.  The chat agent told me he was busy helping other ebay customers, and apologized, noting that he didn't have time to respond to my query (which I sent to him very politely), as he hadn't received it?  Yet he was able to advise me of this following on from my question to him that appeared on the chat trail of Q and A with his comment following after it  (if this makes sense?).  The site noted that a live agent would phone me back in 1 minute, but I never received a call back.  Is ebay falling apart at the seams?  Any and all advice greatly appreciated.

WF

[marnotom!]

VAT is now being charged on sales to UK customers at Checkout, just as state and regional sales taxes to US customers are being charged at Checkout, GST/PST/HST is being charged to Canadian customers buying from Canadian sellers, and a whole bunch of et ceteras.

My best guess as to what happened here is that the amount of the sale was converted to Sterling before the VAT was calculated, and then the VAT amount was converted to Canadian dollars on your end.  Since currency "buy" and "sell" rates aren't the same, you ended up with what appears to be a slightly wonky calculation of VAT.

Having said all that, I just viewed your listing on the UK site and noticed something rather bizarre.  Let me know if you see the same thing.

[pjcdn2005]

What do you see that’s bizarre?