Do I need to charge tax when selling printed media abroad?

[Stickerbloke]

Hi. I hope you don’t mind me asking but I’m after a bit of advice. I run a very small online business with a turn over profit well under £10k a year. I’m not vat registered as my income is very low. I wish to post my printed media abroad but unsure if I have to charge tax on my items. I am uk based and wish to sell to Europe and to the states and was wondering if anyone can advise me at all as it’s a total minefield and I don’t want to risk getting it wrong. I love Shopify and my store is growing but think I’m missing a few market places for not posting abroad. Many many thanks in advance

[pompomcupcake]

You're going to have to do you research! At least it's educational...

I'm in the US, also a very small seller and ineligible to register to collect and remit taxes on the yearly sales thresholds most countries require for vat/gst collection. If I did, I could pay off my house, student debt and car lol. (With the exception of the UK, that wants all sellers to register and collect VAT for orders of £135 or less! 🙄 ) 

From the UK Gov website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-exports-dispatches-and-supplying-goods-abroad

From the European Commission: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/buying-goods-online-coming-non-european-union-country_en

You may already know this, since the UK has a packaging registry, but some EU members (and EU-like nations), have eco programs that require businesses to register and pay fees to recycle packaging materials, whether it's one sale or 100,000. Germany is the only one I know that actually truly enforces it, with the threat of fines and packages not actually making it through customs. I believe they charge a fee to register, too. 

Every country has its own unique duty and tax structure, duties (tariffs) can change depending on international trade markets. Canadian consumers have to pay duty and tax on imports over $20 CAD, the US imposes duties on $800+ (it used to be $200) and Hong Kong pays no tax or duties. 

I should note, the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) is a little more forgiving with the de minimus amounts, in case someone reads this from these countries: https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/cn-ad/cn20-18-eng.html

I've done a lot of research of my own, since I don't want to be fined or have an angry customer with a surprise VAT bill. Shopify has an international program that aims to take the headache out of all of it, but it's invite-only.

Anyways, I hope this helps in some way!

[Stickerbloke]

Sorry for late reply all my notifications went to spam folder. Thanks so much for taking the time to give me all that info. I’ll be honest I can’t be bothered with all that crap. I’m selling as a side hussle alongside full time work. I’ll continue paying my taxes on this extra income and leave it as that I think. That’s enough for me to be coping with. 

[Rostislav]

Hi  Stickerbloke,

I  presume that your most immediate international market would be the EU. It is rather uncomplicated there  - register with IOSS special scheme and your items can be supplied under simplified procedure for low value consignments (under 150 EUR). By the look of it (I have to see the store to know more) your items might be subject to reduced VAT (0 -14 percent, depending on the country). IOSS scheme works well with Royal mail (Click and Drop will do ) and with most other logistics companies. 

We can register you for IOSS, do check our site www.easproject.com. Our IOSS fees are transactional ,  you will only pay our fees if you have any sales to EU.

We can set up your store to use IOSS scheme free of charge. 

US is easier and you do not have to bother yourself much. The customs no duties threshold is rather large - 800 USD and US customers are accustomed to pay use tax. 

[Stickerbloke]

Hi thanks for your answer. I think I’m going to leave postage abroad it seems a complete pain the the behind lol. I’ll stick to the uk