Why does Ebay charges me VAT when buying from a seller in the US? (Europe buyers)

[ulfesharpe]

I've come to realise ebay charges me VAT for no reason when I'm selling (as you only pay VAT above a certain threshold)  but it also charges me VAT when I'm buying... from America!

What could be the reasons for this?

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Many countries require their residents who import product from outside the country to pay not only VAT but customs duty.

Ebay charges VAT when they believe the country requires the payment.

Ebay does not employ trickery like false claims of gifts.

[ulfesharpe]

---

@tobaccocardyahoo wrote:

Many countries require their residents who import product from outside the country to pay not only VAT but customs duty.

Ebay charges VAT when they believe the country requires the payment.

---

It's true but in that case VAT is paid over the Customs duty only (not over the price of the transaction). Customs duty is the tax over the transaction (item+shipping+parking). That's why I'm asking.

Also, if my item goes through customs Ebay certainly aren't handing that VAT tax to my country afterwards because it will have already been paid by me to release the item.

[kathiec]

You're asking this on the US site. Since we don't have VAT it's unlikely that anyone here is going to know its ins and outs. I suggest you ask the question in the Community of one of the eBay sites in EU countries, perhaps eBay Spain.

 https://comunidad.ebay.es/

[martin2001]

It's an EU law. When you buy from a non-EU country, you have to pay VAT tax. Until, I think, July 2021, there was a threshold for paying VAT; if the value of the package was less than ca 25EUR, VAT tax was not charged.

For various reasons (one of them was the abuse of the system, e.g. an EU buyer would ask the seller to declare a low value, in order to avoid paying VAT)  this was changed and VAT tax is now payable on every purchase. Another change was that the facilitators (I think that what they call them, i.e. selling venues like ebay etc.) must charge the buyer VAT at the time of purchase, this way, there is no way to avoid paying VAT. Ebay then transmits thus collected VAT to the treasury of the buyer's country.

[lacemaker3]

---

@ulfesharpe wrote:

I've come to realise ebay charges me VAT for no reason when I'm selling (as you only pay VAT above a certain threshold)  but it also charges me VAT when I'm buying... from America!

What could be the reasons for this?

---

@ulfesharpe,

https://pages.ebay.com/vat-eu/

[ulfesharpe]

Thank you, all