Feature Request: Integration of Taxamo assure into the checkout for UK companies selling to EU

[amanda_drury]

I'm not sure how to put in a features request - please can someone tell me if this way doesn't work.

I have been looking into how as a small business I can improve the experience for my EU customers of purchasing from myself, post Brexit as a UK business.

Royal Mail have recommended a company called Taxamo assure which acts as a IOSS. They calculate and charge the customer VAT and pay it to the EU on our behalf without us having to fill in the VAT return. They charge £2 for each transaction. It sounds like the perfect solution but unless you are a shopify plus business one cannot get access to the Shopify checkout and do the API integration. The irony is if you are a shopify plus customer you will be big enough and it will be more cost effective to set up your own IOSS.

I have spoken to support about this who have suggested that I put in a feature request. So here it is. If more people can also express an interest in this feature it may have more chance of being implemented and go somewhere to ease the Brexit headache of doing business with the EU.

[SarahFB]

Thanks @LauraECY I was hoping that would be the case 🙂

[SMU]

@SarahFB Yes they are the codes for OBA, my apologies. I should have specified that.

[SarahFB]

Hi @SMU , it's no problem, I really appreciate you drawing it to my attention regardless.  It's such a big new thing for us small businesses to get our heads around, but I am sure it will get easier. I remembered those codes being posted up on Royal Mail somewhere about them being the business account ones.  I did double check there were IOSS compatible codes for Click and Drop and also remember them adding them in an update a while ago!

[Dbaca]

Sweden is correct and it does not matter what country your IOSS is registered in. We are Swedish and have good contact with the Tax Authorities so that is why we register in Sweden.

[Dbaca]

Crossborderit will have some new billing options coming out soon so everything should become more and more smooth for the IOSS shipments with our APP.

[Dbaca]

If you need support with the app you can contact support@crossborderit.com and we should be able to help you.

[SarahFB]

@Dbaca Thank you Damon! I have installed the app, signed up online and completed the onboarding.  I think I now just need to wait for my integration key to finish integrating my shopify webshop platform and the IOSS number itself.  I can't set my shop to charge VAT on EU sales until I have the IOSS number to enter.  From your post on another thread you gave instructions on how to add the app and sign up, I think I have followed them ok.  It does mention about being billed for three months upfront, is that right?

[GuyWilliams]

As a humorous aside this is forcing us to find out all about the nooks and crannies of the EU - we have a small number of orders from Reunion & French Guyana (Africa) and Guadalupe (Caribbean) and guess what?  As French territories, all are part of the EU customs zone (duties) but NOT part of the fiscal territory (VAT/IOSS)... but of course none of the platforms (or shippers!) recognize or understand that so the orders end up exceptions requiring us to do rounds with Shopify, Recharge, CBIT, Landmark etc.  I declared them all French and paid VAT just to get them shipped.  

It also forced me to take a look at our global store clusters and actually figure out currency and language clusters for gAds targeting- it's pretty fascinating actually, totally on the edges of "useful" but now I know that if I target someone in Kirbati they transact in AUD or Gibraltar GBP *or* EUR so I can send them to the right store.   I *never* would have bothered with this, but now I'm crazy optimized for the 100(?) orders a year we get from far flung regions so that's a... win? 

[Investoronspeed]

Hi,

We are a new startup and have the fortune of launching our business right in the middle of these huge VAT policy changes. 😄

I have a quick question on Crossborderit, how is everyone's experience using Cbit and have your products gone through smoothly to customers?

We are registering (trying to, at least) directly with the UK for VAT, but still trying to find the best option for EU VAT IOSS. Taxamo, Avalara etc are all out of our price range

Any answers appreciated

[Dbaca]

This has been clearly on the site since day one and I always include it in our conversations and everywhere. I am sure it is on this forum as well. It has been our price from the beginning. It does not benefit us to fool anyone. You can simply ask to deregister.
My apologize if this was unclear but it has been on the site from the beginning.

[Dbaca]

I am sorry that you feel that this was your experience. We do not sign people up unless they go through the sign up process. It is automated and there are clear disclosures. You may have not known that you were going through the sign up process but if you just drop a mail to info@crossborderit.com and ask to be deregistered we can certainly do that.

[madkitty]

it's not the 1 euro per item that makes you unaffordable its the 24.99 a month that is a big rip off. Taximo is only £2.00 per item and no monthly fees. maybe you should think about maybe charging 2 euros per item and scrap the $24.99 a month. We only send about 8 a month to the EU so your platform is not an affordable option. And may i note that that is 8 sales a month we cannot afford to lose, so why don't you app developers try and make an honest buck instead of trying to rip everybody off 

[Dbaca]

I appreciate the feedback. Our prices are reflected by our costs. We offer an individual IOSS number per customer and do all of the Compliance for each customer. That is really what is in the cost of the platform. We do our best to be affordable. We also have an automated Shopify App so I do not think the two services are apples to apples but I encourage customers to choose the one that is right for them.

[AndrewEvermix]

What a silly, self-centred comment.

[madkitty]

what is silly and self centred about it

[AndrewEvermix]

Silly:
- calling another a business a "rip off" with limited knowledge about their
services
- Signing up for a subscription service without doing proper research
- Advising another business on their pricing model without any knowledge of
the business

Self-centred:
- Assuming your niche needs are the same as everyone else's.

- Calling a service "not affordable" because you can't afford it.

Many (most?) businesses will be sending significantly more than 8 parcels
to the EU each month. Therefore Taxamo's pricing would be more expensive
once you hit around 25orders a month.

The fact you only sell 8 items a month to the EU is your issue, not the
issue of this service provider.

Upgrade your shopify and use taxamo if this is such a ripoff 👍

[SMU]

This forum was designed to help us all navigate this new territory. IOSS has been a headache to say the least. It is new to many, if not all of us.

Personally I have found the forum helpful and Damon and his team from Crossborderit have always answered any emails I have sent across.

We too are only a small UK merchant with a basic shopify plan. We don't do many sales to the EU but we have had to conform to the new IOSS rules as we wanted POS transparency for our EU customers.

I am sure that as we all become accustomed to the IOSS way of doing things there will be more options available to suit our pocket and EU shipping quantity at some point in the future. Until then I am more than happy to stay with Crossborderit. We all have costs and the IOSS has increased our costs as a small business. 

We just need to get on with it, see how it goes and if it doesn't work for you or (me) then we do some research. Until then can we continue to support each other and I appreciate this forum because I have learned alot, so thank you.

[thegreengables]

This would be really useful

[plannerface]

Would really like this ASAP too!

[Dbaca]

https://www.crossborderit.com/ioss
feel free to sign up.

[Ruby_Honnor]

An integration between Shopify and Taxamo is so necessary right now to help small businesses navigate the new VAT changes. Please add this feature Shopify! 

[SMU]

If anyone on here has already signed up to crossborder it please can you let us know how easy it was to do and if you came across any initial issues with it?

Thank you

[Christian48]

I signed up yesterday and got my IOSS number from the Swedish Tax authority today. So far so good 🙂

[SMU]

I have just signed up to crossborderit. 

I am unsure what the update from Shopify will look like with regard to the automatic tax update. My only hope is that they do not apply VAT to ALL countries as it isn't applicable to ALL countries when selling from the UK. We shall have to wait and see what this looks like after July 1st. Perhaps shopify could hop back in here to let us know about the automatic tax update for the VAT in the EU?

[Boo14]

Thanks for all of the info on this thread. This whole thing is just so frustrating! I just thought that I would add that I have just got off of a call with HMRC and was told that they have been advised that there should be a way to register for IOSS on the gov.uk website tomorrow! Apparently it can't go live until the new tax arrangement does! Here's hoping! If not, Crossborderit sounds like a good option in the meantime.

[prispuddings]

Hi there

I just saw your comment about the crossborder it solution and whether it factors into account different vat rates for different countries, as vat isnt due in some countries and some goods have reduced vat rates. Is this all factored into account with the tax calculator provided by shopify or crossborder?

Thanks,

Pri

[LauraECY]

I have to disagree with you here. From my initial research into CBIT the
19.99 EUR per month subscription plus the 1EUR per transaction was very
clear. That was back in June and I have to admit I haven't looked at the
website since.

[Boo14]

I agree, @LauraECY . When researching the various options, I was definitely aware of the monthly fee and the €1 per parcel fee from the outset, too.

[Fanattik]

I am not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to things like this but I was aware of the 19.99 a month, I cant recall if it was said on the contract or on this thread but I remember finding out about it at the very beginning. 

[Nitsa]

Quite a few posts on this thread mentioned it including @LauraECY  " Most are prohibitively expensive but I did find one yesterday called CrossborderIT. They seem to be offering €19.99/month subscription and €1 per transaction"  as well as their response to another user here "Step 2: You will receive an onboarding from PayPal for payment we charge 1€ per shipment and 19.99€ Euro per month for access to our platform."

I don't think it would have been that easy to miss if you had checked through? I'm no apologist for this company, witness my recent argument here with them about their support, and I still find the reply inadequate. However, noticing that people are now saying they are being invoiced without signing up for it would cause me to have further doubts about their operation.

I'm not shipping to the EU because if you look outside this forum you'll find so many problems with the IOSS not working correctly, people being charged twice and very long customs delays. Authorities arbitrarily deciding that the VAT is underdeclared and adding charges etc. It's a minefield.

[LauraECY]

The registration process for Cross Border IT was really quick and easy! Now
we just have to wait for our IOSS number and then see what happens after
that.

[Kirsty_Thomas]

Can I ask how that will work with Shopify - is there an integration at checkout or do you need to file a daily/weekly report?

Thanks

[SMU]

I have just spoken with Damon at crossborderit. Extremely helpful and it seems very straightforward so I am going ahead with this. Thank you Damon for the clarity, really appreciate it!

[amanda_drury]

for the record - I don't accept the solution the member of the Shopify Staff has given to this issue

[Hermine_Makangu]

This is so important i need Taxamo too. 

I had contacted taxamo over the whole month of June. But i found that after i set up an account with them they did reply to me saying that i needed a developer.

We are VAT registered and have distributers in France who are also VAT registered but the IOSS is changing the filing from the quarterly to the monthly which my distributers do not want to be an intermediary for.

I am so shocked that Paypal, Stripe or Paypal themselves have not thought of an alternative to help their customers.