How to deal with EU buyer having to pay VAT twice

[jayz51]

Hi, 

I am a seller living in Thailand and recently just sold an item to a buyer in EU (France). The buyer paid VAT when she purchased the item as required by ebay. I added the buyer FR VAT number and ebay IOSS in the shipping and shipped via DHL express with a full declared value ($690). However, when the item arrived in France, Frence customs demanded buyer to pay VAT again despite all the info provided to them showing that the VAT was paid for already during the purchase on ebay. Of course, the customs did not believe and buyer refused to do so as she already paid once and now the item is being held at customs. I would like to ask for anyone that was in similar situation before or anyone that has any solution to this as follows:

1. Should the buyer pay the VAT and ask ebay to refund for the second time that she paid? What if buyer refused to do so as she is not confident that she will get a refund, what should I do?

2. If she refused the package, will the package be returned to me and do I have to proceed with the refund? The problem is I live in Thailand, when the package came back, I will have to pay import tax for that too which is like 17% of $690 
3. If ebay cannot refund the VAT that was paid for already and buyer refused to pay the VAT again, what will happen? Do I have to refund the buyer and take the item back?

Any help or advice is highly appreciated as I really would like to get this resolved as soon as possible and wanna help buyer as she already paid VAT so would not be fair for her to pay again. 

Thank you.

[jayz51]

Currently, I cannot find any chat box or phone no. of ebay customer service so It seems that the only way for me to reach out to ebay CS is by email which may never get a reply.

[aqeeqsouq · Accepted solution]

@jayz51 

if you want ebay to refund your buyer the VAT that buyer charged by ebay, here the process as following:

1) After your buyer paid the VAT to the postal service, make sure your buyer got a receipt/invoice.

2) Send your buyer this following link:

https://ocsnext.ebay.com/ocs/mudcwf?deptName=CollectRemitRefund

3) Then tell buyer to upload a scan of the receipt/invoice, with describe the issue (basically describe that the postal service required VAT to be paid again for his specific order number after it had also been paid to eBay).

4) Wait for eBay to respond, hopefully they are able to match your order info and document upload to process the refund, and then wait a bit more for the refund to processed back to the buyer payment method.

Good Luck...

[jayz51]

Thank you for your response! I will ask a buyer if she is willing to do so. I guess if she refused to pay again as what she told me earlier, now it will be complicated.

[aqeeqsouq]

@jayz51 

You welcome.

Good Luck..

[jayz51]

Hi @aqeeqsouq 

After providing buyer all the info above and asked buyer to pay customs again and submit a receipt for a refund from ebay. The buyer ignored it and opened a cause of item not received and now my fund is on hold. What should I do, do I have to refund the buyer and accept the return with the return shipping fee being under my own expenses?

Thank you.

[aqeeqsouq]

@jayz51 

When you shipped his order, Did you wrote Ebay's IOSS number on the package??

[jayz51]

Yes I did.

[fab_finds4u]

Are you sure it is Vat they are asking to pay?

When you use USPS there's no broker fee. When you use UPS, FedEx or DHL they charge a broker fee for cross border deliveries. The buyer owes this fee and they have to pay it before the package is delivered or retrieved.

If they are filing a case of not received you need to reply the fees were paid and show proof and say the buyer is refusing to retrieve the package, that carriers charge a broker fee to cross borders the buyer is responsible to pay.  How can they claim not received when they won't go get it? Then contact eBay and have them decide and not a bot that closes cases automatically.

[aqeeqsouq]

@fab_finds4u 

---

@fab_finds4u wrote:

When you use USPS there's no broker fee. When you use UPS, FedEx or DHL they charge a broker fee for cross border deliveries. The buyer owes this fee and they have to pay it before the package is delivered or retrieved.

---

Yes, they charging broker fee.

I shipped an item via DHL to buyer from France, they charged him €15 EUR for broker only (even the buyer paid VAT to ebay and i wrote ebay's IOSS number on the package label).

Is there way to prevent this (a broker fee) and the double VAT ??!

*by the way, i'm using DHL carrier.

Thanks...

[dertischler63]

thank you for this information, I also had to pay VAT twice because the seller failed to disclose on the documents for export that I had paid it. And their invoice provided to the German tax authority only showed their own internal information, neglecting to list the VAT paid that eBay collected. And failed to provide the IOSS number or any eBay Invoice.. SOOOOO ANNOYING!!! SO now I spent half the day on eBay.com finding NOTHING about this situation, and no direct chance to write or ask eBay directly. When it said to contact eBay it rolled me back to their list of stupid questions for articles.. SOOOOO ANNOYING!!!!! Makes me NEVER TO WANT TO BUY FROM THEM AGAIN!! NO CUSTOMER SERVICE and I was about to start a PayPal claim. Until I found your article here on google search as a last resort. Thanks.. But EBAY NEEDS TO HAVE A REAL CUSTOMER SERVICE OPTION TO DIRECTLY WRITE THEM AS A BUYER WITH A PROBLEM. 

[telecomdude]

It’s very simple! I don’t buy on eBay anymore! After 20+ years spending probably over $ 300k. I was cheated last month on over € 400 in double VAT duties on 8 orders. 

but locally or on Amazon 

[telecomdude]

BUY locally or on Amazon