VAT Registration Query for US Company Selling to UK

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1

Hello Shopify Community,

I’m new to ecommerce and planning to dropship from China to the UK. I’m a USA-based LLC focusing on the UK market due to favorable shipping costs and delivery times. I haven’t sold to the UK before and have questions about VAT registration:

  1. Should I register for VAT now or wait until I reach the £90,000 threshold?
  2. Does this threshold only apply to UK-based companies?

I’ve spent all day researching and found that VAT starts to apply when you reach the threshold, but I’m unclear if this applies only to UK companies or also to non-UK companies selling to UK customers.

My plan is to ship products directly from China to the UK through my website, without using platforms like AliExpress. Can I start selling now without a VAT number?

Thank you for your help!

2

You do not have to register VAT in UK and EU at the beginning, we do have lots of dropshipper clients who sell in the EU and UK from Aliexpress or 1688, to save trouble they chose to pay VAT in advance via courier service instead of register VAT themselves.

in addition, currently the small packages shipping from China to UK no need to provide VAT compared to EU countries, so you can start first with Chinese 3PL who help you fulfill orders from China to UK and EU without VAT registered.