eBay UK automatically adds 20% VAT onto international purchases. The UK government threshold for paying VAT on any imported items is when they’re valued at £39 and above, but despite this, eBay still adds VAT onto items of any value even if they’re below £39. I still don’t fully understand why, but it will be something along the lines of them protecting themselves from any government claims of not collecting enough VAT from private purchasers.
This automatic payment didn’t get added on eBay until 5 years after Brexit, presumably due to the delays in ratifying all the details after the votes were cast in 2016. (In other words, until things were “properly sorted out”, eBay didn’t act).
Obviously eBay US already have automatic payments for state-level sales tax, so it wouldn’t exactly be difficult for them to implement, but I wouldn’t be surprised that if given the volatile nature of trade/tariff negotiations, and the potential for further tariffs on/from other nations, eBay hangs fire until the waters have settled. And all that is assuming trading cards actually fall within the scope of these tariffs.
Anyway, in regard to implications, what we’ve seen in the UK is:
Increased demand for international middlemen services
General decrease in international purchases from UK sellers
Requests for under-declaring items
Significant price difference in UK-based cards/products. i.e., more expensive.
Now I believe that a key purpose of the tariffs is so that the US can demonstrate its strength as an economic superpower (ie it can be more self-reliant than other countries on its own products and services): to this end, I think the extent to which US TCG buyers & sellers can fulfil their needs internally will dictate impact on their Canadian counterparts. Generally, it’s not unreasonable to suggest the participants in smaller economies will suffer more.
As an EU citizen we pretty much have Import-VAT and Tariffs for every product that is imported from outside of the EU. Import-VAT has to be paid regardless of the value, Tariffs only if it’s over 150€ (gross total). This makes importing cards sometimes really annoying and especially high end cards are therefore usually more expensive compared to the United States. Therefore most of my card purchases are either within the EU or directly from Japan (but even there in the last couple years Japanese sellers adapted their prices and they almost match European ones nowadays). As @Jons_pokestop said, people here seldomly buy cards from the UK, the US or other places outside of the EU. However within the EU it is simply amazing and therefore our domestic market is not just restricted to our home country.
I hope those new Tariffs don’t affect the daily lives of you all that much and that have not to big of an impact on your purchases.
I am not sure if it’s 20% for every EU country. Here in Austria the regular VAT is 20%, therefore import VAT is also 20%. I think for example in Germany, the regular is 19% and therefore their import VAT is also 19%.
It’s basically that you as a customer don’t have tax advantages if you buy from a Non-EU-country (if that makes sense) so that you would have to pay the same taxes if you buy a similar product within your own country/the domestic market.
The thought is that if you buy products from a store within the EU, you pay VAT on it, so to not put EU stores at a disadvantage, you also have to pay VAT on purchases from other countries, as otherwise foreign stores can offer the goods for cheaper as VAT does not apply to exports. There used to be a threshold of 22€ under which you didn’t have to pay VAT for imports, but that was changed in 2021. Officially to protect EU stores and prevent circumvention of VAT charges, unofficially imo probably just to earn more tax money.
Yes exactly. But usually in Europe all prices are displayed with taxes included, while internationally this is not always the case. So you have to be careful when importing products and mustn’t forget to add the VAT if it’s not included in the listed price.
Yes, but the big difference is that if you buy something from a non-professional seller, they don’t have to give the VAT to the state. So, within the EU, the VAT is more or less ‘included’ in the price. For example, let’s say a US Charizard costs $1000. The transaction will be $1000 net for both non professional parties within the EU. However, if you buy the same Charizard from the UK, the US, or any country outside of the EU, the seller will still receive $1000, but the buyer will end up paying $1200 due to VAT (either through ebay or at the customs when Fanatics or else sends a card).
You are completely right but just to give complete picture: Unlike a professional seller, a non-professional seller doesn’t give the VAT to the state. However, unlike a professional seller, he is also not entitled for an input tax deduction.
The only real reason I don’t actively buy from international sellers on eBay is the lack of Authenticity Guarantee. There’s no way I’m spending more than a few hundred bucks on something on eBay without it. The handful of times I’ve bought from Canadian sellers it’s been perfectly fine and the package has arrived quick.
Second hand goods in Italy don’t have VAT on customers and it’s exclusively a cost on the sellers.
I for instance prefer to sell outside of EU despite living there so I don’t have to absorb the VAT cost.
Likewise, I prefer to import into the US rather than Italy so I don’t have to pay the VAT.
Canada - US relationship is negligible when it comes to Pokemon I would assume, however if the US moves forward to Japan and EU there will be BIG changes in the market.
Businesses will shut down overnight unless they’re able to adapt and navigate around these costs, a 20-25% added cost on top of everything you purchase will sink anyone whose main source of product is overseas.
Here is a quick example of a product I import into EU on which I pay VAT and then sell within EU. Haven’t made a single sale in US because the price there is almost half as much, simply because you don’t pay to import these, for now.
Kind of this, but few years ago the treshold of being allowed to import items under 22 Euro VAT free also was removed.
This was done to stop the large flow of Chinese cheap stuff getting into (our) country. (aliexpress/alibaba etc)
The difference (for now) between the USA tariffs and EU VAT is: we have to pay VAT on everything imported, while tariffs seems to be placed on certain groups of items if I understand correct.
And to be more complete, a non professional seller has to put this extra income into his/her income tax files. But a lot of peope “forget” they have to do this.
So while as private seller (non professional) you don’t have to deal with VAT payment/reduction. You sure have to deal with personal income tax.
