HI Greyhawk,
I have seen it all with dropshippers: you can check them one by one and you will find all the same nonsense in the descriptions of their operations. DSERS puts everything in one place and only looks at the whole situation through supply chain point of view. They clearly have little idea about what they are talking about. Their main business seems to be a dropshipper for Aliexpress and connecting Aliexpress to other platforms as underlying supplier.
But let us look at this in detail.
If you are an underlying supplier to Aliexpress then , yes , Aliexpress is responsible for VAT and has to pay it to the EU tax authorities via their own IOSS registration, Dropshippers/logistics operators that deliver such orders have to quote AliExpresse’s IOSS number at customs. The payment is done via AliExpress’s checkout and it is them who collect money.
But in your situation (you sell through your own Shopify store) it is you who make the sale , it is you who collect the money and it is you, who are responsible for the VAT. Aliexpress acts, in essence , as your underlying supplier and they do not use their checkout.
n that setting they cannot really be responsible. In according to the Article 14a of the EC VAT directive it is you who facilitate the sale.
Dropshippers lie DSERS do not understand that and lead you into breaking the law.
One practical thing to consider here which should make everything right about the underling legislation. You obviously want to mark up the sale of Aliexpress items sold by you?
Imagine you sell the item at 100 EUR . The base for the VAT calculation is your retail price , so you would charge 20 EUR worth of VAT .
Aliexpress sell the item to you at 50 EUR (let us put away inclusion of VAT in that price for the time being) . If , as DSERS claims it, Aliexpress will pay VAT on the sale , how they would know you retail price (that being 100 EUR) ?
If , as it is claimed, that is the case and Aliexpress pays 10 EUR VAT , then you (yes, you) underpaid VAT to EU…
In this setting your relations to the underlying supplier (Aliexpress) should be B2B and dropshipper, when delivering your items to EU, should use your IOSS number and quote 100 EUR as the customs value to the EU customs. Using Aliexpress’s IOSS number in this case is a clear violation.