Can we sell internationally from the UK without registering VAT?

[PolinaTychinina]

Hi everybody! 
We are a budding business and will be selling creams all over the world from the UK.
We are starting a new company in the UK to do this.

Can we sell without registering VAT? We are entering trashhold UK.

But we have a question, can we sell to other countries without this registration?
We now do not understand how to calculate the price of the product, because we do not understand what taxes we will pay.
But we don't want to register VAT.

Do you have any experience with VAT?

[Victor]

Hi @PolinaTychinina,

Thank you for reaching out. You can start selling in the UK without registering for VAT until you meet the thresholds set by the UK government, after which you must register in order to keep selling. The UK government provides more information about what these thresholds are, which at the time of writing are as follows:

You must register if:

• your total VAT taxable turnover for the last 12 months was over £85,000 (the VAT threshold)
• you expect your turnover to go over £85,000 in the next 30 days

If you wish to sell to other countries, each country will have their own rules regarding VAT/ sales tax registration and you must adhere to these tax laws when selling to new countries and regions. Do you know yet where you'd like to sell outside of the United Kingdom?

In terms of setting prices with taxes in mind, you'll presumably be listing your product prices as VAT-inclusive as that's the standard in the UK. You can use our dynamic tax-inclusive pricing feature to charges taxes based on a customer's region, and the price they see will be determined by whether or not you are required to charge them sales tax or not (and if so, how much). 

This feature is part of Shopify Markets, which allows merchants to more easily sell to different countries and regions from a single store. I'd recommend checking our pricing in local currencies features as this is likely something you'll want to utilize when selling to different countries and in different currencies.

I'd also recommend that you consider speaking with a tax professional if you are unsure of your obligations around sales tax and VAT. We are happy to offer general information and Shopify provides plenty of resources regarding taxation on the platform, but ultimately a tax professional is able to provide you with specialized advice and guidance if you need it.

I hope this helps but please let me know if you have further questions.

[PolinaTychinina]

Hello,

It is very informative!

Thank you so much!

We want to sell from the UK to all around the world and you right, that we don't know rules each countries and how we should manage taxes without different registrations.

[Victor]

Hi @PolinaTychinina,

You're very welcome, and I'm glad I could help.

I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the tax laws of each country and region you wish to sell to before you begin accepting sales from customers. For this reason, it might be worth expanding to one region at a time rather than selling from the UK to around the world overnight. 

As you're based in the UK, you could consider expanding to Europe and USA first of all. We have sales tax and VAT guides on the Shopify Help Center for both the European Union and the United States, so you can refer to those to get an introduction on how sales tax and tax registratrion work in those regions.

I'd also suggest checking out our comprehensive blog post on international commerce as it outlines many of the considerations you need to make when expanding your customer base to other countries.

[TeemuEAS]

Hi Polina! 

We are here to help you, you dont have to book a meeting with KPMG 😉 We have EU VAT compliance automation for ecommerce. It is completely automated so you dont have to stress and you can focus on sales. AND, you can get our expertise when you need it! 

The app is here: https://apps.shopify.com/eas-eu-compliance

More on the solution: www.easproject.com 

book a meeting here: https://meetings.hubspot.com/robert662/30-min-demo

[Rostislav]

The rules for VAT registration are a bit more comlpicated than just observing the country  thershold. You also have to consider other aspects of  your busincess environmnet - for example whether or not you import  goods to UK to sell them later to the UK and other countries. 

Have a look on the basic regulations first : https://www.gov.uk/register-for-vat#:~:text=You%20must%20register%20if%2C%20by,you%20go%20over%20the....

Also remember that if you perchase taxable goods in the UK  (you will be billed with VAT anyway, even if you are a small business that intends to work under the threshold without VAT regsitration)  and then  you will not be able technically  to apply 0 rate for export when you sell abroad . I suggest that you consider it carefully before making this decision

www.easproject.com- the best EU and UK VAT complience solution for Shopify.