Tax invoice import United States
Hello, I need some clarification from the community regarding international tax invoices. I have a business account and to deduct the company’s/business’s costs I need tax invoices. I’d like to buy a product from a professional seller in the United States using the "eBay international shipping" system. At checkout, this system already charges me the duties, VAT collection for import into the EU... in short, the whole customs procedure. From a product value of 1300 euros, the total comes to around 1650, and up to here everything is normal. However, after speaking with customer support, I’m told that I will not be issued any tax invoice if the professional seller does not issue one. Now I’d like to ask something: if eBay acts as the importer and is required to leave a document/proof with customs for import into the European Union, why am I being told that nothing will be issued to me? After all, in eBay’s billing section it also says that if eBay has been tasked with collecting VAT, it must issue a tax invoice to the buyer. All of this seems strange to me, also because I pay the extra 300 euros for a service provided by eBay and it definitely will not appear on the professional seller’s tax invoice, and the strangest thing is that for an import from overseas the buyer doesn’t receive any tax document. I’m attaching a screenshot of eBay’s invoice section
heavenwelkin
·3 years agoGood morning
eBay support answered you correctly, I quote: Speaking with the agents, however, I was told that I will not be issued any tax invoice if the professional seller does not issue one.
eBay will issue an "invoice" in the seller's account that includes all the costs you paid.
You can ask the seller to send you this eBay "invoice," which is not valid for tax purposes, and then you can ask the seller to issue a tax-valid invoice in the name of their company, but it won't include that part of the import costs you incurred.
I had a very quick look and found this:
How do you recover the VAT paid at customs?
In conclusion, the only person entitled to recover the VAT paid at the time of import is the recipient of the goods used in the course of their business who, after registering the customs declaration in the purchases register referred to in article 25 of the VAT decree, can deduct the tax ...
So there should be some workable way to recover this part too, maybe by contacting the customs agency.....
investimenticommerciali
OP3 years agoIt would be feasible if the seller issued the invoice to the company, including the VAT number; otherwise the import costs are not deductible by the company (in the business account you can only add the VAT number if you want to sell, but if you buy with a business account it doesn’t show up.... weird there too). I’m still puzzled by this eBay method, which could be simplified by issuing the customs declaration with the details provided by the buyer at the time of purchase and adding the VAT number in the case of companies, instead of depending on the seller’s willingness, because it is precisely a paid service issued by eBay itself. Thanks anyway for the reply, but I think I’ll turn to other sites for purchases overseas since it’s a non-transparent issue on eBay. Thanks again!
heavenwelkin
·3 years agoTry taking a look at this other discussion on the eBay forum, it might be useful to you.
https://community.ebay.it/t5/Archive-Nuovo-Spazio-venditori/Scusate-ma-l-iva-al-22-nelle-fatture-ebay/td-p/879454
Kind regards.
investimenticommerciali
OP3 years agoYes, I had read this discussion, however as specified before, for those who sell, the VAT is always visible, and it’s eBay itself that prompts you to enter the VAT number. If instead you only want to be a buyer (an option available when creating the business account), you have no way to enter the VAT number anywhere, so it’s pretty useless... it’s on par with a normal account for some random person without a VAT number. The VAT regulations in the European community are pretty much the same, so that wouldn’t worry me. What I really struggle to understand is that for exports from the United States and imports into the European Union, everything is left a bit to chance... I mean, in the end you have to declare something to the authorities both for export and for import, so someone has to provide something tax-related and appropriate in the description in line with the regulations of the two communities (the United States and Europe) and not simply the receipt of what you paid on eBay with no tax value; because I assume the authorities have the right to have all the information in question, otherwise the export/import is not approved and therefore doesn’t pass through customs. Anyway, you’re really very kind and I thank you so much, but unfortunately since transparency on eBay isn’t the issue, I can’t rely, in practice, on whatever the seller feels like doing and whether they want to issue an invoice or not