How is your business going to deal with the EU tax policy change from the 1st July 2021?

From 1 July 2021, the EU will implement legislation which shifts the responsibility for collecting VAT for online purchases from sellers to marketplaces such as eBay or Hip Postcard in certain circumstances. (IOSS)

Taken from the HMRC website (UK). Published on the 13th May.
"Sales made by businesses through an online marketplace that is not registered for IOSS has the option to appoint an EU established intermediary to represent them and to account for VAT on their sales through IOSS. Alternatively, where an intermediary is not appointed and IOSS is not used import VAT will be due on importation as it is now"
I did ask Hip admin if they were going to register for IOSS. Still nothing to indicate if this is going to be the case. If it is left to individual businesses or sellers then the VAT charges will be picked up by the buyer before they can receive their order. Although complicated it is my understanding that these new rules apply regardless of the value of item(s) being sold. Low value sales will now come under this new VAT regime regardless of whether you are VAT registered in the UK. If I am wrong then someone please correct me.

Hip Postcard please communicate how you intend to support your sellers?. What are other sellers doing about this issue?.
Our decision is to cease sales to Europe due to the administrative, and extra cost implications of this policy change.

Comments

  • 2 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Hey Tony, this whole VAT thing has essentially destroyed any chance of doing business in Europe and the UK. We have spent several days trying to find a way to efficiently (and with the least hassle) make arrangements to continue worldwide sales but have reached the conclusion that, unless Hippostcard implements a system for collecting and managing the VAT, we shall discontinue sales to the UK and EU countries. In addition to the VAT the shipping costs are also through the roof unless someone has found a way to get around all that. I don't see it and I have labored for the past few days over calculations using just about every scenario imaginable. We use Stamps.com which is a very good program but not being able to ship internationally in our rigid mailers without paying the package/parcel rate makes the cost prohibitive.

    I have reached out to Hip also to inquire what they plan to do regarding the VAT issues. I did get a brief response saying they are looking into it. That was several days ago. I guess we'll see.
  • edited July 2021 0 LikesVote Down
    Hi!

    Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have raised this to the relevant team. In the meantime, please review this help article:

    https://help.hipecommerce.com/support/solutions/articles/14000112928-is-sales-tax-collected-automatically-

    Best regards,
    Anj
    Hip Support

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