Living & Selling Abroad from a USA registered account. Local buyers are charged VAT. Help!

[lappytoppy]

I spent weeks discussing this with eBay support, and finally gave up after one night involving 4 hours and 12 transfers to "specialized departments" (yes, that was just one night of the several weeks). I am a citizen of the USA, and my eBay account was registered in the USA. I can not sell from any eBay account that was not registered in the USA (that took 10 days with support to learn). 

So now I live in the EU, my products are purchased and located with me in the EU with Euros, and I sell/ship to buyers in the EU paying with Euros. But because my eBay account was registered originally in the USA, my buyers are automatically being charged VAT. eBay tells me that there is no solution to this, my buyers will always be charged VAT even though it should not apply to them. Furthermore, they say there is no way for me to pay the VAT on behalf of my customers. The result is that nobody will buy from me, I've had a couple of people mistakenly buy from me only to cancel the order with messages like "Why am I being charged VAT if you're in the EU?"

Is anybody familiar with this, is there any solution?

[klhmdg]

You will need to have a new EU account. 

Set up a new eBay account not on the US .com site.

[lappytoppy]

Thank you for responding!

The problem with that is that I am a US citizen, so I do not have any foreign bank accounts or foreign documents. So when creating an EU account, I am not able to verify the seller profile to my knowledge. After a lot of trial and error, it seems that I'm just not eligible to sell from an EU registered account.

[inhawaii]

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@lappytoppy wrote:

I spent weeks discussing this with eBay support, and finally gave up after one night involving 4 hours and 12 transfers to "specialized departments" (yes, that was just one night of the several weeks). I am a citizen of the USA, and my eBay account was registered in the USA. I can not sell from any eBay account that was not registered in the USA (that took 10 days with support to learn). 

So now I live in the EU, my products are purchased and located with me in the EU with Euros, and I sell/ship to buyers in the EU paying with Euros. But because my eBay account was registered originally in the USA, my buyers are automatically being charged VAT. eBay tells me that there is no solution to this, my buyers will always be charged VAT even though it should not apply to them. Furthermore, they say there is no way for me to pay the VAT on behalf of my customers. The result is that nobody will buy from me, I've had a couple of people mistakenly buy from me only to cancel the order with messages like "Why am I being charged VAT if you're in the EU?"

Is anybody familiar with this, is there any solution?

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I looked at one of your items (the headphones).

It says it ships from Texas.

[ckimodog]

@lappytoppy 

As a seller item location is a must.  If you are not in the US, you need to re open an eBay account that shows your actual location and where your items are being shipped from.  It has nothing to do with your citizenship.  Looks like you're drop shipping too.  Good luck with that...

Have a great day. 

[maxine*j]

I am confused.  If the buyers are in the EU, the buyers are paying in the EU with Euros, and the orders are being shipped to them in the EU, why would they not have to pay VAT?  Isn't VAT more or less like sales tax in the U.S., in that it is a consumption tax?

How are you living in Greece without any documentation?  If you documented, you are in Greece on a visa of some sort, right?  Does that visa allow you to work / sell / operate a business in Greece?  (Yes, I know Greece is party to the Schegen Agreement, but that is essentially just a waiver of the 90-day tourist visa and certainly you can't run an eBay business under that.)

I'm trying to complicate your life, but  think you need more guidance than anyone here can give you.

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[lappytoppy]

Haha, yes the headphones I forgot at my dad's house (in Texas) so he would ship those out for me. But otherwise everything is in Greece with me now.

[lappytoppy]

With eBay support's help, I set up accounts on ebay.ie and ebay.de using all of my current information, but both of them asked me to provide an IBAN to get paid. I don't have an international bank account yet, so support suggested I open a Payoneer account for the IBAN. So I did that, and the Payoneer IBAN failed to verify. But no, I'm not familiar with drop shipping. I'm just an IT guy who brought a lot of computers and computer parts to the EU with me, and I am collecting even more as many people I meet here ask me to work on their computers.

[lappytoppy]

I'm definitely not an expert on EU taxes, but my understanding is that at least between Shengen Area countries, there is no VAT. In any case, with my last buyer being charged about $12 VAT on a $40 purchase, eBay confirmed they were being charged for an international transaction by their home country.

But without getting into my life story, yes I've been in Greece for a year now only semi-documented and with no visa. I came here with a US passport due to an illness in the family, and wound up pursuing citizenship. I now technically have dual USA-Greek citizenship, with a Greek national ID, but am still waiting to get my Greek tax number which is required for a bank account.

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

Are you sure that it is not possible for you to open an EU bank account if you live there? Since you are using a US ID all of your funds must be converted to $US so that must be expensive.  

Ypu can use this ID to list on any site. Have you tried listing on an EU site to see what happens with VAT then?  If a EU seller is not VAT registered, doe eBay then collect the VAT. from buyers?  AFAIK VAT is collected whenever an EU buyer makes a purchase. I ‘think’ the difference is that if the seller is EU registered the tax is included in their price but I could be wrong.  Since you live in the EU, does any of the info on the following page apply to you?

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling/vat-obligations-uk-eu?id=4650&st=3&pos=2&query=Your%20VAT%...

@lacemaker3  Are you familiar with how this would work for the op?

[stainlessenginecovers]

Buyers are to pay VAT if the country they live in requires it and has NOTHING to do with where you are.

Live in Greece and Sell to Greece- buyer pays

Live in England and Sell to England- buyer pays

Live in US and sell to Greece- buyer pays

Live in US and sell to England- buyer pays

Live in Greece and sell to Germany, Italy, Ireland, Norway, US etc etc WHATEVER tax that person would pay buying the something at a store down the street, that is the VAT or Sales Tax that the buyer will pay.

[lappytoppy]

Honestly, I am not positive, maybe I can get a bank account here with either my US ID or my new Greek ID. But I think that I need my tax number first in Greece. It is sounding like there's no other solution, so I might as well go into a bank and ask.

I don't live in a city and I don't speak Greek, so it is a challenge for me to figure things out around here! 😅

Also I think that when trying to list on an EU site using my ebay.com ID, it still asked me to add an IBAN to get paid? But I will try again to be sure. Thanks!

[lappytoppy]

Wow, that's quite a key piece of information.. Makes it sound like this whole saga with eBay support was senseless to begin with.

But it was all started due to my first few EU customers complaining, like this message I received "i cannot buy this ssd cause VAT is 11 usd,i'm from Croatia EU..." and the other customer I mentioned getting charged $12 VAT.

I assumed this meant there was something abnormal happening with VAT charges…

[maxine*j]

I'm going to repeat myself: I'm trying to complicate your life, but think you need more guidance than anyone here can give you.

If you were previously in an undocumented status, presumably as a tourist who overstayed, but you are now on the road to regularizing your immigration status in Greece, why would you risk it over this?

If you "brought a lot of computers and computer parts to the EU with me," you raise the question of having imported them for resale without authorization, and in violation of the terms of a (waived) tourist visa.

And so on.

My friendly advice:  Either engage the services of a good immigration attorney there, or pull in your horns for now.

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[ckimodog]

@lappytoppy 

Respectfully...if the are used parts you need to represent them as used in your photos, not stock photos.  Sorry...we all know better here about drop shipping.  Not buying it. 

Have a great day.