I got stung by an unexpected 'tax' on an ebay purchase from a UK located seller

also in the listing under postage and payments it says

"Price displayed includes VAT at 20%. The final charge may be different depending on the delivery address"

50M Red Adhesive Double Side Acrylic Tape Car Sticker Phone Repair 5/8/10mm | eBay

I just clicked on your link and then on the seller info.

It clearly says the seller is based in China and gives the address.

The item may well be "in the UK"...some warehouse somewhere..but "the item" and "the seller" are not the same thing...and that's surely the wonder of the internet that people in place A can sell to people at place B something that is physically at place Z at the time of the transaction?

.
 
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Seller is VAT registered and item is taxable.

If you check listing now you will see price of £4.50, which means they corrected their error in original listing of £3.75.
when i click on it it says £3.40
 
that's not the item ordered, choose middle one.
it get you :smashin:

I myself wouldnt be happy getting charged tax on the item. im so used after all these years order something cheap from china no additional charges
 
it get you :smashin:

I myself wouldnt be happy getting charged tax on the item. im so used after all these years order something cheap from china no additional charges

But this is not from China, seller can be registered as company in the UK with foreign address.
Fact that is VAT registered points to it.

Problem here was the error in the listing, as Ebay price shown should be final for UK items.
 
But this is not from China, seller can be registered as company in the UK with foreign address.
Fact that is VAT registered points to it.

Problem here was the error in the listing, as Ebay price shown should be final for UK items.
there fore i would query the price i paid with ebay Vat should have already been included
 
Seller is VAT registered and item is taxable.

If you check listing now you will see price of £4.50, which means they corrected their error in original listing of £3.75.
The listing is saying £4.50 now but when I bought it, at the time the listing stated it was in the uk and the price was £3.75, as per my first screen shot.

Im guessing the seller has updated the listing.
 
The listing is saying £4.50 now but when I bought it, at the time the listing stated it was in the uk and the price was £3.75, as per my first screen shot.

Im guessing the seller has updated the listing.
yes they did, you could request refund if you can be bothered for £0.75
 
thats interesting as to my knowledge you shouldnt be paying any import tax on a low value item.

AFAIK Tax relief for imported items worth less than £15 ended at the same time the idiotic new rules that put the responsibility to collect tax on business sellers rather than having the carrier collect it from the customer. That started on January 1st I believe.

In theory every company or platform in the world that sells to UK customers is supposed to register with HMRC and collect UK VAT. Ebay seems to have been doing this for business sellers registered outside the UK.
 
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Surely the price at checkout is the price to pay, regardless any listing errors; the seller can void the sale and invite purchase at the revised/correct price, but not just dump that on the customer without warning?
 
Guess your stuck with it!
 
Apologies if this isn't the correct forum to post as I'm not sure the best area of the forum to post this. Please move to the correct forum if this isn't appropriate here.

I recently bought an item off ebay (double sided tape). I always filter my search to sellers with the item location as 'uk'

So I bought this tape for £3.75 (or at least that is the price listed)

View attachment 1503310

As it's a low value item and the seller has lots of good feedback, I didn't think too much and waited for the item to arrive.

Every now and then I log onto my paypal account to check my balance and to my surprise I see a transaction for £4.50. I couldn't figure out what this £4.50 was for as I don't remember purchasing anything for £4.50.

So I looked into it and to my surprise it was for the tape:

View attachment 1503312

The details show Ive been charged tax I wasn't aware of.

This is the first time I've been charged this unexpected 'tax'

It's not a high value item so I wont bother doing anything but if its based on a percentage then high value items could cost significantly more than the advertised price, so I thought I'd warn others and ask how would I avoid this in the future?

There was nothing on the advert about this hidden 'tax'.

Many thanks
That is simply VAT
 
Ive bought hundreds of items over the years and Ive always paid the 'buy it now' listed price or winning bid... are ebay now listing items exclusive of vat?
 
Ive bought hundreds of items over the years and Ive always paid the 'buy it now' listed price or winning bid... are ebay now listing items exclusive of vat?

Ones with businesses registered overseas now may be. AFAIK they were exclusive of VAT before, but you'd be charged if appropriate by customs when the items entered the country. As I said above, now there's no tax relief on items under £15 and the onus is on direct sellers and online marketplaces like ebay to collect the tax and pass it on to HMRC if the item is worth less than £135, not the carrier at point of delivery. This only started on January 1st.

AFAIK this should only apply to business sellers but I haven't checked in detail. I'm unclear about the situation when a business is registered overseas but the goods are already warehoused in the UK.

The new system is insane, and it has already caused some small businesses to refuse to sell to UK customers as it's not worth it for them to have to employ a customs agent and register with HMRC.
 
How would I know which items are listed with VAT and which are without VAT?

Ive bought music CDs from ebay sellers from the US recently and never paid any more than the listed price.

As far as Im concerned, if an item is listed as in the UK, it's delivered from the UK and I shouldn't pay more than the listed price. The VAT should be included. In this case there was no indication that the VAT was going to be added separately.

I'm not happy with the principle. not the amount..

As expected Ive not received a response from the seller...not even an apology if they messed up the listing.
 
How would I know which items are listed with VAT and which are without VAT?

Ive bought music CDs from ebay sellers from the US recently and never paid any more than the listed price.

I'm really not sure how and when ebay's applying this; it doesn't seem very clear. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that some listings do say that 20% VAT will be added at checkout, but only on the search screen. It didn't seem obvious in the listing itself unless I just missed it.

I think the new rules only apply to business sellers on ebay rather than individual sellers too.
 
Ones with businesses registered overseas now may be. AFAIK they were exclusive of VAT before, but you'd be charged if appropriate by customs when the items entered the country. As I said above, now there's no tax relief on items under £15 and the onus is on direct sellers and online marketplaces like ebay to collect the tax and pass it on to HMRC if the item is worth less than £135, not the carrier at point of delivery. This only started on January 1st.

AFAIK this should only apply to business sellers but I haven't checked in detail. I'm unclear about the situation when a business is registered overseas but the goods are already warehoused in the UK.

The new system is insane, and it has already caused some small businesses to refuse to sell to UK customers as it's not worth it for them to have to employ a customs agent and register with HMRC.

Saves me aswering more poorly.

The changeover caused sudden and unexpected problems for many non-domestic sellers, and for those getting goods shipped into the UK. I had to wait three months to do a return to a Danish company because they didn't have a system in place, but apparently this was due to the system not yet being properly implemented,

But whatever the issues were with customs and tax eBay are quite definite (as far as I know) that the goods should be in the UK if that's what the seller says, so import tax or whatever should be irrelevant and refunded. The final price at eBay checkout should not change. Sometimes customs duty is required, but you pay customs.

The seller seems to be at fault and you could technically dispute the added charge but the initial problem wasn't really of their doing - even big businessess had problems. But if they say the goods are located in the UK and aren't - well, up to you if you want to bother eBay about it. I probaby wouldn't but wouldn't necessarily write it off just like that - on principal, at least.
 
there should be no tax
Yes there should

The rules changed on the 1st Jan.

For orders under £135 for items outside of the UK then VAT is now chargeable but its the responsibility of the seller to collect it unless they are selling via a "market place" in which case the market place has to collect it. The low value goods exemption was removed.

For orders over £135 then the old style rules apply in that the seller charges you net of VAT and VAT is dealt with when the item is imported, most often by the courier who can then levy a fee for doing this for you.
 
Yes there should

The rules changed on the 1st Jan.

For orders under £135 for items outside of the UK then VAT is now chargeable but its the responsibility of the seller to collect it unless they are selling via a "market place" in which case the market place has to collect it. The low value goods exemption was removed.

For orders over £135 then the old style rules apply in that the seller charges you net of VAT and VAT is dealt with when the item is imported, most often by the courier who can then levy a fee for doing this for you.
yes import rules have changed but the ebay listing was incorrect


"Price displayed includes VAT at 20%. The final charge may be different depending on the delivery address"

but it clearly wasnt included in the price so the listing price was incorrect
 
Should I leave positive or negative feedback or no feedback for the seller?

The item is a fantastic bargain price and arrived quickly (so obviously not located abroad), I would buy again if I need more tape (as they are the cheapest) but the seller doesn't respond to emails, may have messed up the listing and I haven't even received any acknowledgement of the error l, let alone an apology.

What would you do?
 
Should I leave positive or negative feedback or no feedback for the seller?

The item is a fantastic bargain price and arrived quickly (so obviously not located abroad), I would buy again if I need more tape (as they are the cheapest) but the seller doesn't respond to emails, may have messed up the listing and I haven't even received any acknowledgement of the error l, let alone an apology.

What would you do?

The same as I do with many things in life...adopt the same primary objective as a horse and jockey faced with Becher's Brook first time round Aintree.
 
Should I leave positive or negative feedback or no feedback for the seller?

The item is a fantastic bargain price and arrived quickly (so obviously not located abroad), I would buy again if I need more tape (as they are the cheapest) but the seller doesn't respond to emails, may have messed up the listing and I haven't even received any acknowledgement of the error l, let alone an apology.

What would you do?
It sounds like the listing was an error when you placed your order, which they corrected shortly afterwards. I would probably leave a neutral feedback. Maybe put in your feedback, Extra VAT added in error but otherwise pleased. I would then message the seller again regarding a refund, as the listing was misleading. If you don't get a response I would let it go.
 

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