US taxes for European buyers
Summary: 11je12je, a Dutch seller, is frustrated about paying US taxes when shipping items to American buyers, as their invoices can't include these taxes due to autopay settings. Several participants clarified that in the US, buyers typically pay sales taxes, not sellers. However, it's revealed 11je12je is dealing with import charges and tariffs from a Dutch postal service, which they must prepay. Suggestions included adjusting item prices to cover these costs or discontinuing sales to the US. 11je12je expressed frustration over the tariffs, referring to them as "Trump-taxes," and considered stopping sales to the US entirely.
Why do I, a Dutch seller, have to pay the US taxes for a buyer from Texas?
I can not send an invoice where the taxes are mentioned.
It is blocked because the buyer pays with autopay without taxes!
I don't understand but it costs me about $20.00 extra.
redmodelt
·2 weeks agoThe buyer paying sales tax depends on if the item is shipped to a forwarder in the USA that is or is not sales tax exempt. Some are some are not. So if the forwarder is not sales tax exempt, they the sales tax would be charged.
11je12je
OP2 weeks ago@lacemaker3 I'm sorry but you dont't understand: I have to pay the taxes when I send the package via a Dutch shipping service. For example, my last package to the US costs me 23.50 Euro insured signed for shipping + 20.67 Euro US-taxes to PostNL. I just want to make an invoice to the buyer with this taxes as extra part of the payment for the buyer. With autopay is that impossible.
lacemaker3
·2 weeks ago · Edited@11je12je , thanks for the additional information. I understand the problem now.
Technically, that is not taxes, it is the import charges and tariffs. When you ship through the post office (PostNL), the sender is required to pay the import charges and tariffs up-front (a lot of Americans are not aware of this, but it is correct). All items that are being imported through the post office have to have the import fees and tariffs paid up-front, so international post offices are requiring that they be paid when (or before) you buy the shipping label.
You're not allowed to charge the buyer for that after the sale, even though the buyer is supposed to be responsible for paying those fees. You're not allowed to charge anything extra after the listing ends, all the charges have to be visible on the listing up-front, and charged automatically. You can't do that with the import charges and tariffs.
You have three choices. The easiest, and perhaps the best, most reliable solution, is to increase the cost of the US shipping by $20 to $30 to cover the additional cost you have to pay when you ship it (or most of it). The amount would vary depending on the price of the items. The buyers will know much they have to pay upfront, and will not have anything to complain about.
Or, you could try using a different carrier (not the post office). Some of them will allow you send the items Delivered-Duty-Unpaid, so the buyer will have to pay the import fees and tariffs before the item is delivered.
There is a major disadvantage to the second option: the buyer will not know how much they will be asked to pay for the import fees and tariffs, and they may refuse to pay. In that case, you will probably have to pay them yourself anyway, and you may not get the item back, and if you do, you may have to pay a lot for the return shipping.
Your final option would be to list the items on your local eBay, eBay Netherlands, and not allow shipping to the USA. Then you would not have to deal with the issue at all.
11je12je
OP2 weeks agoWhen I'm not allowed to charge the only way is to stop selling to the USA.
I am not willing to pay a "Trump-tax/tariff"
I allready pay around $2.50 for a liter benzine/petrol/gas for driving my car because of his hopeless war against Iran.
What a "tool" !
lacemaker3
·2 weeks ago · Edited@11je12je , you don't pay the sales tax for your US buyers. The buyers pay it, but it is included in their total payment so eBay has to subtract it from the payment before you get the money.
You can't send an invoice that doesn't include the tax, because eBay is required to collect it from the buyer and send it to the state. Also, eBay automatically collects the payment, so your buyers can't just not pay and wait for you to send an invoice. Even if you could send an invoice, you would not be able to remove the sales tax because the states require eBay to collect it.
So, for the Seiko Seahorse, the total payment from the buyer would have been approximately:
$399 + $25 shipping +$20 sales tax = $444 total payment
Then, eBay subtracts their fees, and the $20 sales tax, (and the shipping label if you buy it through eBay) and the rest is your payout.
But the amount of the sales tax, about $20, is just a pass-through. (Texas sales tax would be a bit more than that, actually.) The buyer pays, and eBay sends it to the state.
monroe67
·2 weeks agoI don't understand how that buyer, in Texas, "pays with autopay without taxes."
UNLESS he is sales-tax-exempt as a reseller.
Otherwise, like all Texans who buy things on eBay (and elsewhere in the cyber-verse), he would pay
Sales tax on the price of the item and
Sales tax on the amount of postage he paid to you.
And, as mam98031 points out, on eBay, buyers do pay sales taxes.
eBay Sellers do not pay sales taxes on the things they sell on/through eBay.
Can you give some more details?
mam98031
·2 weeks ago@11je12je What kind of taxes are you talking about, specifically?? Tariffs or Sales Tax? Or something else.
If it is Sales Tax, then the SELLER NEVER pays that, the buyer ALWAYS pays that.
If it is sales tax, a buyer can not set up their account with autopay and preclude paying taxes unless they are Tax Exempt and have filed the proper paperwork with Ebay.
Make sure you look at the details closely. If the buyer is paying for whatever taxes are being charged, then Ebay removing that amount of money from their payment to go to the taxes, you are NOT paying anything for the taxes due, it is the buyer.
caldreamer
·2 weeks agoYou should check your listings to see if they indicate "tariff prepaid by seller" or "customer pays tariff before delivery".
If this continues to be a problem I would discontinue sales to US.
toomuchstuffagain35
·2 weeks agoAre you talking about the tariffs?