Anyone had buyers charged twice for VAT? (Both by eBay and by customs?)

[msau4301]

Just wondering if anyone has been having trouble shipping to Europe since the new VAT taxes? I've heard some people are being charged twice - eBay charges automatically but some are still getting charged again. I know I saw a suggestion of adding the VAT paid # on customs form but also read that some had tried that and it didn't help. About 20% of my sales are international and I'm temporarily holding off shipping outside of Canad and the US. I have one regular buyer from Italy and I'm waiting to see what happens when her package arrives but it's been six weeks now and it hasn't even shown up.

Wondering how this has been affecting others. Thanks!

[tuckhouse2021]

HI-I have run into this before several times but eBay has always refunded my customers when they enquired. I spent a lot of time online googling the issue. I believe it is the postal companies that do not have the IOSS system in place and use a different method for importing and customs. Each country has its own postal and customs systems and not all are alligned to flow seemlessly. 

Postnord is one postal service that I know of that does not recognize the IOSS numbers. The computer systems don't pick up the info engrained in the bar code sytem to show that the VAT charges have already been paid. It may be another form of tax grab for some countries and is also used to deter people from online ordering from other countries instead of purchasing domestically. I do not believe it is done by eBay.

[john_koenig99]

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@tuckhouse2021 wrote:

HI-I have run into this before several times but eBay has always refunded my customers when they enquired. I spent a lot of time online googling the issue. I believe it is the postal companies that do not have the IOSS system in place and use a different method for importing and customs. Each country has its own postal and customs systems and not all are alligned to flow seemlessly. 

Postnord is one postal service that I know of that does not recognize the IOSS numbers. The computer systems don't pick up the info engrained in the bar code sytem to show that the VAT charges have already been paid. It may be another form of tax grab for some countries and is also used to deter people from online ordering from other countries instead of purchasing domestically. I do not believe it is done by eBay.

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@rodriguezx123x

Are you guys sure is double charging of the VAT? Or just duties and fees charged to an order coming from abroad, into Europe? Because that'd be apples and oranges. 

[tuckhouse2021]

HI-Yes. Mine were double charges of VAT but I have not had any for almost a year now. Once I explain to the buyers how to contact eBay they were refunded. It does get difficut with the language barriers but eBay did refund the double VAT. I also know there can be other duties etc. 

Postnord does not recognize the IOSS and most of my shipments ended up with them.

[flipistics]

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@rodriguezx123x wrote:

i am in Europe and i am still being charged VAT twice on a regular basis. In the past ebay always refunded the original VAT but now on my last purchase ebay goes next level with this double VAT charge scam and refuses to repay the double charged VAT.  This is not about my $6 Dollar. This presumably is a Billion Dollar VAT Scam  where Billion Dollar companies taking profit in scaming people with double charging VAT that has only to be paid once! They are doing nothing to get this useless IOSS System running properly for 4 years now because they are making big money in double charging VAT and fees.

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I know here in Canada, people who collect tax (who are GST/HST registered) have to remit what is collected, even if we accidentally overcollect. If we undercollect, we have to remit the missing amount out of pocket. I assume it's the same in most other countries. There's no way eBay is making a bunch of extra money out of this, and they're definitely not pocketing the extra or a bunch of execs would likely be in prison. The fault probably belongs to some of the European carriers not being set up properly to recognize IOSS. THEY might be profiting off it by charging service fees to collect the already-paid-for VAT.

[msau4301]

This is a four year old thread from when eBay first started charging the VAT.

[john_koenig99]

Duplicate deleted

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[recped]

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@msau4301 wrote:

This is a four year old thread from when eBay first started charging the VAT.

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Yeah I noticed you posted on this thread that you started in 2021, thought that was a bit weird.

For those complaining about PostNord / Norway, Norway is not an EU member and has NEVER been part of the IOSS system, they have their own. The code for Norway is VOEC22024926.

I've shipped to Norway using their code and never had an issue.