It seems like aliexpress is now charging VAT from the 1 Jan 2021 on all orders .
Then they have to pay it back to the UK Gov.
Has anybody else seen this? I could be wrong of course :surprise:
Attachment 29362
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It seems like aliexpress is now charging VAT from the 1 Jan 2021 on all orders .
Then they have to pay it back to the UK Gov.
Has anybody else seen this? I could be wrong of course :surprise:
Attachment 29362
I saw on another forum that it is anything shipped into the UK under £135 total value. The VAT has to be done by the supplier. Hence a lot of them are refusing to ship to the UK as they don't want the hassle or the paper work to collect tax for the UK tax man.
I just bought something from Cloudray laser and they didn't charge VAT at source but it was added upon arrival, as well as duty :-(. I was hoping it would slip through the net but it wasn't to be.
Interestingly enough, when looking at their site and adding stuff to the basket, some items have a tax added but some don't. It didn't occur to me at the time that it might be VAT. It just said 'tax' nothing more. I'll go back in and see if the tax amount equals 20%.
Having to charge VAT at source is coming in for all EU countries on the 1st of July, it's just the UK has already implemented it as part of Brexit.
https://www.pwc.ch/en/insights/tax/n...july-2021.html
The days of evading tax on imports is coming to an end.
Same thing happened here in Australia a while back. We used to get overseas orders under $1000 free of GST (Aussie VAT) but not any more. In theory it helps local suppliers compete which is fair enough. There were some companies that stopped sending stuff to Aus for a while but I think everyone got themselves organised eventually.
There seems to be a limit of £18, below which is not liable for VAT and Import Duty. Unfortunately, this was abused by suppliers understating the value of goods. If the VAT is paid by the supplier, it avoids the VAT collection administration fees and forwarding fees that carriers like Royal Mail and UPS add on. This has to be paid before delivery is completed and can be up to £30 for even a small value order that HMRC has arbitrarily determined to be above the lower limit. (Apparently £15 NOT £18)
Revision
The 1 January 2021 UK B2C ecommerce and marketplace reforms will include: All imported goods purchased are subject to VAT – ending the £15 VAT exemption thresholds, known as Low-Value Consignment Stock relief. Imported consignments of goods not exceeding £135 are subject to sales (supply) VAT instead of import VAT.
https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/v...20import%20VAT.
Just made a small Ali-express order for some connectors and 20% VAT was added.
I came across this because I was waiting to put an order in with Prusa. Anyway this is the message you get with Aliexpress.
From 11PM 31 December 2020, AliExpress is required by law to collect UK Value-Added Tax (VAT) at the applicable rate and remit to the UK tax authority when goods are sold to UK customers (i) where the goods are located outside the UK at the point of sale with a consignment value of GBP135 or less, or (ii) where the goods are in the UK at the point of sale, but sold by an overseas seller. For more information, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-...1-january-2021
This actully works to our advantage for goods over £18 and less than £135 as AliExpress acts as the VAT collection agent not Royal Mail, UPS DPD etc... Because they charge for the service at silly rates.