eBay to start charging VAT

[ukclaire]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2968106.stm

"The online auction house eBay has said it will start charging its customers VAT following a new EU law.

According to the new European directive, all internet firms trading in western Europe must now charge VAT on services and products sold from their sites, if the sellers live in a European country.

The auctioneer admitted the move to charge a sales tax could have an effect on its European business, until now one of eBay's fastest growing units.

EBay said it would increase its fees in Britain and Germany to compensate for any loss of revenue from the new laws. "

[V]

Claire

[mr_lister999.]

Yeah, i know, its a bummer. [V] We dont pay ebay enough anyway []

[bholio]

So I would get to pay EU taxes, even though I'm not in EU if I bought from someone in Europe? It would make more sense if they charged based on the buyer. But that would probably be too easy to circumvent.

I wonder how many ebay sellers are going suddenly 'move' to Canada?

[TWINSET]

quote:

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Originally posted by bholio

I wonder how many ebay sellers are going suddenly 'move' to Canada?

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id="quote">id="quote">

I was thinking the exact same thing!

Bholio, as a buyer, you wouldn't pay any more, as ebay don't charge the buyer, but the start/reserve/buy it now prices may go up a bit as a result.

Basically, everyone either has to 'move' to the US/Can/Aust (and face the consequences when they get found out) or just lump it.

I suppose it's no different to any other service, so VAT should apply, it's just that I for one didn't even think before now whether we were already paying VAT or not .

[raemin]

VAT was invented by french [:I][:I][:I] so maybe I could shed some light here :

The VAT concept relies on the fact that this is the seller that collects VAT (i.e asks the buyer to pay for it and redeems the amount to its collecting authority).

The buyer from then on can ask for a refund if :

-> The good is resold (the aim of this is to tax only the accumulated added value, so only the end buyer pays for the VAT).

-> or the good is exported out of the country (not applicable to intra european transactions).

Funny news is that France who invented the concept won't be affected [] by the change as ebay will reduce its fees to compensate for this extra cost

[TWINSET]

quote:

---

Originally posted by raemin

The buyer from then on can ask for a refund if :

-> The good is resold (the aim of this is to tax only the accumulated added value, so only the end buyer pays for the VAT).

-> or the good is exported out of the country (not applicable to intra european transactions).

---

id="quote">id="quote">

Aren't they only charging VAT on fees though? Obviously, these can't be re-sold or exported!

From the same report;

The charges apply to all so-called 'seller fees' when listing on an EU eBay site, including insertion fees, feature fees, final value fees and service subscription fees.

So, reservation fees on goods selling for more than £100 for example, will rise from £1.20 to a charge of 1.2.%; final value fees for vehicles will rise from £15 to £18.