Vat on online purchase from UK

L

Lulu Lilli

New Member
Messages
2
I'm planning on purchasing an ornament from a small UK retailer. The item is advertised as costing £398 including UK VAT. It's stated on their website that international customers are responsible for local import duties and taxes.

In light of this I contacted the company to determine if the UK VAT would be deducted from the price. They responded stating that they are obliged to charge me VAT unless I am VAT registered and can provide them with a VAT number, which I am not.

In this case I would be paying VAT twice on the item, firstly the UK VAT when placing the order and then Irish VAT when it's being delivered.

Is this correct?
 
I think the UK retailer is wrong. If they're selling to a non-UK resident and delivering the goods to an address outside the UK, the transaction can be zero-rated. For compliance purposes the UK retailer needs to retain evidence of export — invoice addressed to non-resident purchaser, shipping documents evidencing delivery of the goods outside the UK.

But it may be that the UK retailer doesn't know this, or does know it but has so few export customers that they can't be bothered to set up a system for managing, implementing and documenting the zero-rating of export sales. You can't force them to if they don't want to.

Look for the same ornament from a better-resourced retailer. Or look for a different ornament from a different retailer. Or grit your teeth and suffer the double VAT. Sorry.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have had the same issue.

Some sellers have the systems in place to handle this. But they use their own shipper to prove that it was exported.

Others simply won't amend the invoice.

With one retailer, despite getting a zero VAT invoice, they subsequently charged me VAT and it took me weeks to get them to issue a new invoice.
 
Thanks very much for your replies. I'll enquire about the possibility of zero rating the VAT as they will have evidence of the item being exported.
Unfortunately they won't ship to PO boxes.
 
The parcel forwarders will also charge you VAT and handling charge.

The only solution is to not buy from the UK at all. Only a couple of weeks ago I got changed VAT by An Post on a UK item, even though Irish VAT was already paid on it. There is supposed to be a code for Customs on the package and the sender claimed there was. I rejected paying the VAT a second time, so the parcel was automatically sent back.
 
Last edited:
Towger said:
The parcel forwarders will also charge you VAT and handling charge.
Click to expand...
An Post do this. I made a donation to a UK-based charity and my name was entered into a draw. I won a bath towel. A Post wanted to charge import duty, a handling fee and VAT, the total coming to more than my original donation. I declined the opportunity to be taxed on my support for a recognised animal charity and allowed them to do an Elvis on the bath towel and "return to sender".
 
You weren't taxed on your support for the charity; you were taxed on your importation of the towel that you had won. You could presumably have asked the raffle organisers to send the towel to a friend or loved one in the UK, and no duty or VAT would have been due.
 
Ah, well, there you go. The upshot is that you supported them even more by donating a towel which they could use to raise further funds in a second draw, and you weren't taxed on that support for the charity either! Everyone's a winner!
 
The larger companies (AddressPal via An Post, OOHPod) can't avoid the VAT charge if they forward the parcel to you.

The smaller ones on the border rightly or wrongly do avoid VAT. The delivery address for BorderParcelMotel in Belcoo, Co Fermanagh is a 10min walk down the road from the An Post office in Blacklion, Co Cavan. They receive your parcel in the UK but ship it to you domestically from Ireland.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top