Global expansion, localizing content, and selling in multiple currencies and languages
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.
Solved! Go to the solution
When you calculate the tax and duties at the checkout @Dbaca you must require the HS codes for our products. Where does your app get this from?
Hmm, @Dbaca I don't think that's true - we need the HS codes on all our shipments in order to calculate the duties.
Please can someone advise we are set up on shopify with cross border and all automated.
However if a business customer purchases for item under €150 is there any way they can enter their VAT number so that VAT does not need to be applied and they are resposible for paying the import taxes.
I have just had a sale and now have to refund the VAT we collected, and then go through Cross border to amend
Here's a current summary of the situation as of early March 2022;
You can't register as a UK company at the time of writing, you have to use an intermediary.
Most intermediaries are £1000s per month to use and are not suitable for SMEs due to price.
Taxamo Assure seems to be the best solution for SMEs in the UK as they only charge £2 per item, in addition to the actual duty and tax fees for import.
Implementation of Taxamo Assure by Shopify is only available to Shopify Plus accounts.
Shopify informs non-plus clients to enable International tax collection on all normal accounts and modify the invoices, etc. to include your intermediaries' IOSS details.
When doing this parcels are still being stopped by customs and clients are still being charged VAT and DUTY.
so it seems that the only option for those still growing is either cross-border it which will be at least the 19.99euro charge per month, or pay for shopify plus and be able to use taxamo because you can manually apply the info.
I know I'm from the UK and there will be others that are not in the UK in similar positions so has anyone come up with a resolution that for a business still in its infancy is an affordable option (i.e. not a monthly price fee attached).
After the last Shopify update (yes ! they did finally managed special EU VAT schemes, even though with some limitations) , UK Shopify customers can use IOSS on basic or standard plans for inclusive and exclusive pricing. I want to summarise limitations:
- only IOSS or OSS VAT scpecial scheme (not both);
- you will have issues with reduced VAT groups (Shopify does not handle VAT on shipping in accordance with requirements), but in some cases you may have acceptable solution even for reduced rates;
- you will not be able to use Non-Union OSS VAT Scheme (for electronic services);
- and if you do sell electronic services along with goods , the IOSS 150 EUR threshold will not be calculated properly by Shopify (they do not recognise the fact that IOSS is only for physical goods).
But for most SME customers it is doable especially if you deliver via Royal Mail. IOSS scheme is not complicated to use and it does not require a lot of investments (certainly not thousands of pounds) .
I never supported using single IOSS number (as is offered by some companies) , since it may lead to considereable issues if that "general" IOSS number is misused and in my educated opinion it is in a very much grey area.
We at EAS project OY (Finland) are offereing free IOSS registration (you get your own OSS number) and pay-as-you-go approach (1.25 EUR per IOSS transaction) without monthly fees. IOSS registration can be done within 1 or 2 days with minimum required documents.
In addition, we will automatically take into fiscal calculation returns and discounts (as made in your Shopify store ) , that you offer to your clients - you do not need to change any Shopify settings for that. Here is the link to our app at Shopify: https://apps.shopify.com/eas-eu-compliance
For more complicated cases we can offer solutions that will always calculate reduced rates where applicable, IOSS and OSS parallel use and B2B landed cost for EU deliveries.
Our sales team is always eager to talk to potential clients , do book a meeting at https://meetings.hubspot.com/robert662/30-min-demo or write to us info@easproject.com
Rostislav , EAS project Oy, Finland
Whilst we are waiting for the Taxamo integration for Shopify Basic, which of these solutions is the best for a UK B2C store selling €40 items to the EU:
https://apps.shopify.com/eurora-app
https://apps.shopify.com/eas-eu-compliance
Or any others that are out there?
Stay away from crossborderit. They are putting their monthly subscription up to 99 euros a month at the end of January. We are leaving cbit and are in the process of moving to EAS IOSS Service app on the shopify app store. Seems to be no monthly fees and 1.25 euros per transaction.
Try EAS, I have connected to them and I am very happy about their approach and services . I have spoken to all the three , so my experience is:
1. Crossborderit is much more expensive and they have little idea about the Shopify settings and complicated VAT situations (we sell both from EU and deliver to EU from outside EU).
2. Eurora is expensive and they gave me wrong advice on sales via channels. They also will not support the installation and have a monthly fee of 50 EUR
3. EAS fully supported us during installation , helped with tax settings and location settings. All was done within 2 days from my application. They are the least expensive solution - no monthly payments and only 1.25 EUR per transaction
Thanks for sharing about EAS.
I'm currently with Crossborderit and when I asked them for alternatives to their service once they informed me they were upping their prices they conveniently didn't mention EAS.
But you conveniently omit that Crossborderit will also charge 3 percent on VAT for payments (i.e. from the whole VAT that the shop collects) , so it is not free after 3 shipments a day. Neither EAS (I am sure here) or Evrora (if I remember correctly) charge any percentage fees.
Thanks for the good words, we are working hard to provide an even better service to everyone!
We want to automate the whole process for the merchants, from onboarding to daily operating. Our solution handles simultaneously UK sales for non-UK companies, intra-EU, domestic EU and non-Union, which means our solution is usable when business model changes. More functionalities to come, just watch this space 😉
EAS pricing is simple:
1,25€ per transaction + 6€ invoicing fee but only once your invoice exceeds 30€.
So 10 transactions per month would mean 12,50€ in fees + VATs, which would likely exceed the 30€ and then we add the 6€ invoice fee.
No start or monthly fees. No % fee.
If a % fee is charged, it is by definition not free.
European companies can take advantage of SEPA payments. This means a bank transfer similar to domestic bank transfer. Which in turn means the cost is minimal to zero in most cases. In case of European transfers paying 3% when there is an actually free solution easily available I don't understand.
For companies outside of EU especially the new online banking solutions provide additional, cost-efficient global money transfers.
So yes, a fee is a fee. Necessary or not.
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