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.

[Dbaca]

If you would like to use Crossborderit you can calculate the VAT with the Shopify setting and it will be reported to CBIT. I cannot speak to Taxamo. You really should calculate correctly since this is considered sales tax and really is collected on behalf of the consuming government.

[fredhatt]

Let’s say I have an item in my store costing £50, and I say this includes shipping and UK-EU VAT. In the UK the pre-VAT price of my item is really £41.67, and to a German customer the pre-VAT price would be £42.02 due to the differing VAT rates. If I only wish to pay the VAT for the German customer then why do I need an app to calculate it at the checkout? Surely German customs will evaluate the parcel for taxes, and charge this to CBit who then bill it to me. I don’t see why it’s necessary to use an app there as I assume CBit aren’t actually sending information to EU customs on a per-order basis (maybe I’m wrong). 

The above scenario is basically what I’m doing now with my courier (who support DDP). I just get a bill every month for how much in handling fees and VAT I owe them. 

[Dbaca]

Yes we need to report the VAT to the German customs. This is including some parcel information. Without IOSS there is a charge by German customs because they do not have the info. So you really do need the app.

[Nitsa]

Has something changed with Germany then ? My information was that their IOSS portal would not be ready until 2022 ?

[GuyWilliams]

@Nitsa 
Has something changed with Germany then ? My information was that their IOSS portal would not be ready until 2022 ?

IOSS is "Import One Stop Shop" for *imports* into EU 
OSS is "One Stop Shop" for *in* EU transactions

OSS will be implemented sometime in 2022- don't confuse the two (although I *assume* they will be similar).  For the second, importers need to comply with IOSS with *is* set up across EU, including in Germany

[Nitsa]

@GuyWilliams  Hi, not confusing the two but there are quite a few reports as in the link below and I know a lot of Etsy sellers were having problems as late as last month.

https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/vat-news/germany-to-miss-ioss-july-2021-launch-date.html 

[cottonorganic]

I too need Taxamo integration for my basic shopify plan. What's the point of only large companies who use Shopify plus being able to do it as they will have their own IOSS number.

Please help Shopify!

[Dbaca]

You can look at Crossborderit. We integrate with everyone. www.crossborderit.com/IOSS

[fredhatt]

Hi,

I’ve been looking into this lately. From some emails with Taxamo, and also reading through their API docs, it’s my initial impression that you don’t really need to integrate their API directly with your checkout. You can use their API at the end of each business day to process all your EU orders that your shop received. Basically as long as you inform the Taxamo backend about the EU orders before they ship it looks like it would be fine. 

The only reason (that I can see) to prefer integrating Taxamo with the checkout would be to get the calculated VAT on each order. But Shopify already calculates the VAT on EU orders if you provide an IOSS number in your store settings. 

The above might be a decent solution - I haven’t tried it yet. The downside is having to remember to put every EU order through their API semi-manually. 

[Dbaca]

Take a look at crossborderit  The app is simple and there are no API's needed. 

[Seanlbow]

is there any actual solid solution for this yet ?

[GuyWilliams]

Sure- scroll up in the thread.  CBIT works fine.  We used it for about 10k transactions before we were able to open a EU 3PL / get our own IOSS number.  

[Seanlbow]

Great , thanks 🙏🏼
.. anybody used eurora as an alternative?

https://eurora-next-js-2021.vercel.app/solutions/pricing/

[jessica0318]

This is really great for us!

[Seanlbow]

Eurora is ?

[Dbaca]

Crossborderit will work for you. You can get a hold of me directly if you have questions.

[Triveda]

This is useful info although dated now as we are just looking into this for our store. We hear CrossBorder has still got a lot of teething issues? Has anyone tried Ship24? 

Or any easy to integrate app for a small business?

[Boo14]

We find CBIT app really easy and efficient.

[Triveda]

That's good to hear Boo14. How long have you been using it? How many orders do you ship to the EU per month? Any issues so far with payments and charges? Just calculating fixed monthly costs for the App to justify integrating it. But I guess it gradually will balance off as EU sales grow.

[Triveda]

Hey Dbaca, just reading your charges:

• Flat fee for all services is €1 per shipment
• Access to Crossborderit's platform for just €19.99 per month for reporting compliance and activities
• Transparent payment processing fee at 3% - Is that 3% of the sales per month?

Thanks