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VAT not included on item for sale from Poland
Hello everyone.
I’m bringing up this (in my opinion incorrect) handling of VAT charges by a Polish seller who, in the item description, states:
VAT: VAT is not included.
Bayers form Poland and private buyers from EU have to pay 23% VAT, please contact us before purchasing/payment, so we can provide you the invoice.
Commercial buyers from EU will asked to provide us their VAT numer for 0% Invoice (Tax free intra community delivery).
For completeness, I should point out that if I proceed to checkout, the total price to pay shown matches the one visible in the listing (and so that should be the final price to pay).
Since Poland is a country in the European economic area, in reality VAT should be calculated and collected by eBay and already included in the listing price, or recalculated automatically on the summary/payment page (based on the delivery address).
This seller’s “disclaimer” asking to contact them before purchase/payment to get an invoice (which, as a private buyer, I don’t see what I would do with) seems to me at least questionable. Also because for a private buyer in the EU, having to pay VAT afterward seems like a totally made-up thing, and technically I wouldn’t even know how that would be done.
But maybe the seller meant they would send the new total to pay, including VAT? But again, this whole thing seems rather unusual to me, given that eBay collects the VAT, not the Polish seller.
What do you think?
Thanks.
sika700
Mentore2 years agoHello,
it seems to me that the message is already very clear.
Evidently the seller mainly deals with traders and as such it is correct not to pay VAT.
For private individuals, you need to contact the seller, who will send you a payment form with the addition of VAT, which as a private individual it is correct that you should pay, not eBay.
Kind regards.
dfogliaz
OP2 years agoThanks for the response.
I should clarify that I didn’t write that eBay should pay the VAT, but that eBay should collect it (those are two different things), meaning that it should be paid by the buyer to eBay, who would then remit it to the tax authority of the EU country of destination.
Anyway, if I understood correctly, this seller (who mainly deals with merchants) posts listings in such a way that VAT is not calculated/applied automatically (I have no idea how this works on the seller listing side), so that if a buyer with a VAT number from the EU area were to buy the item, they would already see the price without VAT (because of the INTRA-EU/reverse charge issue), without having to request (each time) that it first be deducted from the sale price?
If that’s the case, that explains the unusual nature of the situation, but in my view it opens up a broader issue that eBay still hasn’t resolved today, namely managing/distinguishing business accounts from private ones in order to handle this VAT and invoice (automatic) issue accordingly.
For example, Amazon did it (Amazon Business); prices are shown with and without VAT, and if sold by an EU VAT number, VAT is automatically removed from the price (where possible). Invoices, electronic if issued by an Italian VAT number, arrive automatically (subject to SDI confirmation), etc.
EBay is 10 years behind...
sika700
Mentore2 years agoLet’s say eBay was born for private individuals... while with Amazon, if you want to sell properly, you need to have a VAT number.
They are two completely different realities, and comparing them is definitely out of place.
Kind regards.