Shipping to EU

So much for shipping to the EU which has followed England's lead and forcing shippers to collect VAT for them. Not going to happen here.

Dear Stamps.com Customer,   We’re reaching out to let you know about changes within the European Union (EU) that may impact the shipping experience for you and your recipients.  What’s changing?  Effective July 1, 2021, EU member states will collect value added tax (VAT) for all goods entering the EU. The VAT ranges from 17% to 27% depending on the EU member state, not including any applicable duties or fees.  What do you need to do?  To help prevent your EU-bound shipments from being delayed, held, returned, or abandoned, we recommend the following:

• Let shoppers know whether VAT, duties, and fees will be paid during the checkout process, or at some point afterwards. In addition, let them know that if VAT is not paid to you or the online marketplace at checkout, these added costs may exceed the merchandise’s value.  
• Collect the recipient’s phone number or email address at checkout, and include it with every outbound shipment. This contact information helps customs officials resolve issues and collect any owed amounts. 
• Collect VAT during the checkout process and remit monthly payments to participating EU-member states via the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) electronic portal. This requires contracting with an EU-based tax intermediary, as well as IOSS registration, as described on this official EU page:  ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/business/vat/ioss_en  
• Include detailed customs information with every outbound shipment to the EU, to make customs clearance as smooth as possible. This now includes the applicable IOSS number (belonging to either you or your online marketplace), in addition to HS tariff codes, country of origin, customs description, etc. Instructions for including this information will vary depending on your shipping software. 

  Please note that IOSS numbers should not be printed or included on physical shipping labels or customs forms. They will be submitted electronically as you create shipping labels in your shipping software.  Sincerely,  Stamps.com

+1 about the world.
 

+1 about the world.

Any country that requires me to do their work collecting taxes and bounty is out of luck.

JT

BigJohnT wrote:

So much for shipping to the EU which has followed England's lead and forcing shippers to collect VAT for them. Not going to happen here.

My reading of that is that you have the _option_ of charging VAT at the point of sale, so that the deliveries are not delayed in Customs. But if you don't do that, then the charges will be collected at the point of entry to the EU.

Let shoppers know whether VAT, duties, and fees will be paid during the checkout process, or at some point afterwards. In addition, let them know that if VAT is not paid to you or the online marketplace at checkout, these added costs may exceed the merchandise’s value.

That's enough to scare them away no knowing what the charges might be and that is might exceed the cost of the items...

JT

Here it is 19% tax and 10% customs.
When the added "shite" is calculated we end up paying anything from 55 to 80% for small stuff.
Importing a full truck of stuff gets to 35% max with everything included.
Also importing a truck full gets through customs inside of a day in my home town so about 12KM drive both ways once, small stuff i have to drive nearly 200KM both ways, several times till i bump into someone i know that works for customs to get me the package through as otherwise it will take a several days of going there and coming empty handed with excuses like "the person handling your case is on leave" or similar just to rake in more money from storage charges that are 15 Euro plus tax for every day the small package sits there.
What really gets me over the edge is paying DHL 70 Euro and then wasting another 100 to 200 chasing the damn thing when i should have gotten it at home. Even worse, i get small stuff from China all the time at home, only once it got stopped there due to size and weight and once it got lost, but this is all through normal post not DHL. Then again, i can not ship anything using normal post out of here..... go figure...

I shipped a package to Austria and it went to the Bahamas's for a couple of months then back to Miami then on to Austria where it sat in the post office for a couple of months then they sent it back to me, total time 6 months. They never did call the guy and tell him the package was there. I'm glad the didn't charge me storage fees! It's just crazy any more...

JT