- Original Poster
- #1
Hello, wondering if we can pick the brains of those who are obviously a lot more familiar with this than ourselves.
A bit of background: We are a non-VAT reg'd UK business, operating on eBay and via our own website, selling small custom made / craft products usually in the value of £10-20gbp, all over the world. About 60-70% of our trade is overseas and EU, so France, Spain, Portugal, Greece.. also a small percentage to Australia, America, Israel.. non EU etc.
Since the start of the year we've been told so many things about what's changing and what we need to do, and then to be told conflicting information.
At the moment we use Royal Mail for 99% of our items, using their online business account (Click/Drop, on a business scale). For those unfamiliar, it basically just pulls eBay orders and website shopping cart orders in, you apply postage and appropriate CN22 customs stuff, HS item codes, apply postage, print labels, then drop it off in bags at the Post Office, and that's that done.
As we aren't VAT reg'd over here, can anyone greatly simplify what's next for us to keep things 'easy'?
It looks like it could be one of the following:
Scenario1: Do absolutely nothing, don't register anywhere or for anything, and send our items with customs completed and HS codes as we do right now, and customer will get a tax/duty bill prior to delivery.
Scenario2: Wait for Royal Mail to introduce a "delivery duty paid" DDP service (which seems to be brewing, but also looks like it's import to UK, not export from UK now that we've looked for a second time at the wording they put out), where we pay more for the service, but the import into the corresponding county is all handled and we either increase our product or postage charges to accommodate this.
Scenario3: Register for this IOSS service in Ireland (I assume people do it there so it's in English and easier to navigate) - then collect the VAT somehow and remit this to relevant country? (This assumes we figure out how to actually collect this pass this money on, from our website/eBay and send it to wherever it needs to go) Does the whole "register for VAT with IOSS" mean anything to a non-VAT reg'd UK seller/business?
The last hurdles seems to be related to registering for this IOSS and how you have to have someone do it for you, eg someone appointed. I didn't want to look too far into that if it's not going to apply to us. Hence a barrage of questions first!
But with regard to Scenario3, we aren't VAT reg'd in the UK as turnover isn't at the threshold, and we primarily sell through eBay and our own website - I assume eBay sort the VAT implications out at their end and the buyer pays it or something?
It's a minefield and causing extreme brain-ache trying to decipher what's the right thing to do - for a non VAT reg'd UK business.
For each thing we read, we read a further conflicting thing elsewhere to say the previous statement is incorrect.
Appreciate any pointers or guidance here.. we've asked Royal Mail as a starting point and will seek proper advice further down the line if we need to, just conscious of a fast-approaching July deadline to get things right.
I am envisaging an enormous mutiny of overseas (repeat) buyers who are being stung with tax bills and import fees otherwise.
Brexit huh? A simpler way to trade.
Cheers
A bit of background: We are a non-VAT reg'd UK business, operating on eBay and via our own website, selling small custom made / craft products usually in the value of £10-20gbp, all over the world. About 60-70% of our trade is overseas and EU, so France, Spain, Portugal, Greece.. also a small percentage to Australia, America, Israel.. non EU etc.
Since the start of the year we've been told so many things about what's changing and what we need to do, and then to be told conflicting information.
At the moment we use Royal Mail for 99% of our items, using their online business account (Click/Drop, on a business scale). For those unfamiliar, it basically just pulls eBay orders and website shopping cart orders in, you apply postage and appropriate CN22 customs stuff, HS item codes, apply postage, print labels, then drop it off in bags at the Post Office, and that's that done.
As we aren't VAT reg'd over here, can anyone greatly simplify what's next for us to keep things 'easy'?
It looks like it could be one of the following:
Scenario1: Do absolutely nothing, don't register anywhere or for anything, and send our items with customs completed and HS codes as we do right now, and customer will get a tax/duty bill prior to delivery.
Scenario2: Wait for Royal Mail to introduce a "delivery duty paid" DDP service (which seems to be brewing, but also looks like it's import to UK, not export from UK now that we've looked for a second time at the wording they put out), where we pay more for the service, but the import into the corresponding county is all handled and we either increase our product or postage charges to accommodate this.
Scenario3: Register for this IOSS service in Ireland (I assume people do it there so it's in English and easier to navigate) - then collect the VAT somehow and remit this to relevant country? (This assumes we figure out how to actually collect this pass this money on, from our website/eBay and send it to wherever it needs to go) Does the whole "register for VAT with IOSS" mean anything to a non-VAT reg'd UK seller/business?
The last hurdles seems to be related to registering for this IOSS and how you have to have someone do it for you, eg someone appointed. I didn't want to look too far into that if it's not going to apply to us. Hence a barrage of questions first!
But with regard to Scenario3, we aren't VAT reg'd in the UK as turnover isn't at the threshold, and we primarily sell through eBay and our own website - I assume eBay sort the VAT implications out at their end and the buyer pays it or something?
It's a minefield and causing extreme brain-ache trying to decipher what's the right thing to do - for a non VAT reg'd UK business.
For each thing we read, we read a further conflicting thing elsewhere to say the previous statement is incorrect.
Appreciate any pointers or guidance here.. we've asked Royal Mail as a starting point and will seek proper advice further down the line if we need to, just conscious of a fast-approaching July deadline to get things right.
I am envisaging an enormous mutiny of overseas (repeat) buyers who are being stung with tax bills and import fees otherwise.
Brexit huh? A simpler way to trade.
Cheers
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