How do I correctly set up VAT and sales tax for a global e-commerce platform?

[Eiw]

I’m responsible for a shopify e-commerce  platform for a lifestyle boutique..We are seeking support for matters relating to VAT and Tax set up on the back end. Our business is registered in the UK, but we are shipping most products from Venice/Paris. We are working with artisans from the US, Italy, France and other countries. Our customers are  spread globally, with our primary markets for now being Europe and the UK. 

We have a number of different scenarios arising. 

• How do deal with VAT for Italy and France for example?
• If  product is shipped from Italy, do we apply the U.K VAT or Italian VAT?  - If yes,  how does Shopify knows the difference?
• How does Shopify know when it shouldn't apply VAT on goods? 
• How to deal with VAT/Tax if goods are being shipped from the US?
• As a U.K business we are required to be tax inclusive on the price, but the VAT varies depending the different EU countries we are shipping to. How can I ship to Italy without having the U.K VAT charged automatically on the products? 
• And many other scenarios! 

It would be great to understand if anyone out there offers this type of support. 

[Robin_K]

Hi,

Shopify and VAT handling is unfortunately not a very good match. After the implementation of OSS (One Stop Shop) from July 1st, you can only choose to:

- Either have your VAT correctly calculated within the EU (same price to different countries, regardless of the respective countries VAT rate).

- Or have the VAT correctly deducted from customers outside the EU. 

Shopify unfortunately messed this up properly with this new VAT handling, and I've been trying ever since to get them to realise this and fix it. I must say though, don't expect this to be solved anytime soon. Just making it possible to sell to non EU customer without VAT was something Shopify ignored for rover 7 years before fixing.

I would suggest what we are doing, check if another store platform is better with VAT handling and better fits your needs. Shopify are doing a lot of things very well, but this is a MAJOR flaw which is costing tons of money in lost revenue, and Shopify are in our experience (+5 years as merchants) not taking any feedback from their customers seriously. 

[Rostislav]

Hi, If you have not resolved your problems  (and your problems are numerous !) - We have a solution that works for your situation  , we can support multiple warehouses  with OSS VAT scheme and multiple VAT regsitrations ( like in Italy and France as in your case). Under certain condition we can also support B2B with multiwarehouse and chain supply situations. To provide more precise  offer we need more detailed description of your situation  Our app can be found here: https://apps.shopify.com/eas-eu-compliance. Do get in touch with us by arranging a video meet    https://meetings.hubspot.com/robert662/30-min-demo or via e-mail robert@easproject.com

Yours,

Rostislav 

EAS project Oy, Helsinki, Finland