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 Replies: 24 / Views: 7,807 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1324 Posts |
Should you buy coins not from ebay, then if they come through the post properly with a customs declaration 20% is charged by the post office before you can have them... and just to add insult to injury they add a flat £8 fee for doing so. I've been caught out once or twice on things from the US, but now it is everywhere. At the moment customs are / were waving things though due to the Brexit disruption, it remains to be seen how long this will last. By adding the 20% at the auction checkout ebay are actually saving you the £8 fee that would be payable along with the 20% on import. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
2891 Posts |
If that's the case - that will pretty well end my coin collecting. Most of my coins come from Asian dealers.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
695 Posts |
Just to add I buy from many dealers from overseas and so far only ebay has decided they are somehow the V.A.T police. I am sorry but ebay are an auction platform they have no legal authority to impose V.A.T charges. But ebay being ebay they do think they are the Law which has in the past cost them a lot of money . Just because they have terms and conditions it doesn't mean it is actual statute law as I have reminded them before to their cost  . They might get away with their antics on the continent sitting all snug and smug in their tax haven of Luxembourg which is kind of ironic lol. But dare they try to impose that on the UK and it will bite them in the you know where. I would actually go as far as saying ebay is complicit with the fraud perpetrated daily on a massive scale on their platform and it isn't a case of the odd isolated incident. Least I remind you that they advertise on British TV and you have to be squeaky clean to get airtime so it beggars belief that they have somehow pulled the wool over the corporate media's eyes. Touting for business to the mass TV audience who will unsuspectingly and without a shadow of a doubt purchase crap/fake items from their platform. I think they need to get their own house in order before they start acting as some kind of Lap dog for the VAT man ( rant over sorry)   |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9796 Posts |
This isn't going to be good, darn it. I just found a dealer in Whales that has a bunch of items I really like and would consider purchasing. I suppose I need to contact them to see what they say. I live in the United States in a state that has no tax on any coins or bullion sales. ebay still charges tax on almost every coin I buy in the USA. It seem they are covering their backsides on the tax side regardless what the individual state tax rules are. "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2135 Posts |
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Rather like the vat on books (also 5% afaik) I thought books were exempt or the VAT rate was 0% in the UK. If you're in the UK, it might be worth writing to your MP to point out that ebay is charging VAT and asking if they're paying it to HMRC. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1324 Posts |
Best to write to HM government - they changed the rules! I've no idea on importing things into the US, the rules I've written about are for importing commercial purchases into the UK. We always had to pay tax (if caught by the post office) for items above £15 from outside the EU, this is the limit that has changed - it's now £0 and as we are no longer in the EU from everywhere. More here; https://simplyvat.com/will-amazon-a...post-brexit/HM government instructed ebay to collect the VAT.... Edited by andyg
04/16/2021 2:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1554 Posts |
On a related note for those living outside the USA, please don't ask American dealers to declare your purchases at a reduced amount or as gifts. Customs evasion is a potentially serious crime.
Edited by Kushanshah
04/17/2021 10:11 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2891 Posts |
I'm sure the Government is desperate for all the revenue it can get at the moment - all governments are - but a 20% hike in a luxury item is just too much for me. 5% is manageable - that's in the normal tolerance of prices anyway - but not 20. And that will be for every coin. This will hit the hobby here. Obviously not all sales are through ebay nor are international - but enough are I think to make the changes felt. I've already had an Asian dealer (who sells almost exclusively through ebay) that I buy frequently from say he has noticed it already. Edited by Bacchus2
04/18/2021 07:22 am
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Increased taxes, be they Value added Tax, estate duties, or increased income tax in the year of sale
all help to discourage the buying or selling of any item in the fine arts market, be they coins, paintings, decorative art objects or whatever.
How may feathers a government can think they can pluck off a live turkey without killing it is a matter of judgement for that government.
Increased VAT would certainly lower the frequency of my coin purchases,
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2135 Posts |
In the UK, if you buy coins from a major dealer (anyone with a turnover of £85,000 or more), you'll be paying VAT on your purchases.
It might be at a lesser rate, if the seller is using a scheme where VAT is charged on the profit, but you're still paying VAT.
We don't see the VAT element when we're buying a TV, a washing machine, or a pint of beer. If you pay £300 for a washing machine, you're really paying £250 + £50 VAT.
I think we just have to accept that the coin price includes some VAT.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2891 Posts |
I thought VAT was only applicable to services, goods that were new or the profit made on selling something on. Ie you didn't have to pay VAT on selling something second hand as long as it wasn't sold for more than the "new" price.
But I guess that's all irrelevant, as importing a coin from abroad trumps the niceties around it being second hand.
I suspect most of my coin buying was from non VAT registered businesses in the past so I never really noticed it as an issue.
Edited by Bacchus2
04/20/2021 09:28 am
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1616 Posts |
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Which is what they used to do with the blanket charges under their Global Shipping scheme.
Used to? They still do. GSP charges way more than the 10% GST owing on purchases into Australia. I ignore ebay listings that use GSP. $30 to ship a farthing at snail pace? It's laughable. I suspect you in the UK are facing what happened in Australia some years ago. With increasing OS sales certain millionaires whined that Australians weren't buying from them because of the 10% GST they had to pay in Australia but not from overseas. To appease them the government decided to implement GST collection on OS purchases. Problem was, how to collect it? Both customs and Aus Post got their backs up and modelling showed that the cost of collecting the GST using these methods would exceed the amount of GST collected. As a solution the government decided to make electronic sales platforms (and I think freight companies) responsible for collecting the GST. Legally they had no jurisdiction over international companies so they could give the Aus government the finger but companies with a physical footprint in Australia (like ebay and Amazon) were soft targets. In Australia you are liable to charge GST if you have an annual turnover of $75,000AU (whether you sell new or secondhand items) so technically, an overseas company that does $75,000 of sales to Australia should pay GST. Never going to happen though. So yes, many OS sellers would be under that $75,000 limit but it's too much hassle for ebay and the likes to weed them out so they place a 10% charge on all OS purchases. The irony is that many items purchased from OS are not available in Aus or are still way cheaper (including shipping) than the same items for sale from Aus sellers so I suspect the introduction of GST on sales platforms hasn't bought droves of punters back to buying from Australian sellers. We are still lucky in that the post office doesn't perform customs duties so most packages ordered directly from sellers don't get charged GST. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1616 Posts |
How does that fit into coin trading? If the coins weren't purchased with legal tender to begin with, will the receiver in the UK still get pinged 20% VAT? What about gifts and parcels sent to relatives? Does the post office try and charge VAT on those? Curious.
Edited by David Graham
04/28/2021 6:57 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1324 Posts |
oddly, I received today a parcel from a friend in the Netherlands - it had been opened at customs and stuck back with purple Home Office border force tape, so it seems they are not waving things through now.
Gifts to the UK are OK up to a value of £39 - after that 20% tax is due.....
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2891 Posts |
I've no idea about gifts and how that is affected. It might be up to the recipient to "prove that it is a gift" though quite how that would work is a mystery. As an update I purchased something from Etsy recently and when I checked the small print found this " Etsy is not obligated to collect VAT on shipments from the EU to Northern Ireland, or on shipments from Northern Ireland to other parts of the UK" I know that we in Northern Ireland have a basically unworkable half in and half out of the EU for trading purposes position but the Etsy disclaimer suggests that they will not unilaterally enforce the 20% VAT rule = presumably because if would be illegal to do so. However ebay are.... I wonder if there is a legal disparity here that ebay are running afoul off? |
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Replies: 24 / Views: 7,807 |
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Posted 04/16/2021 01:44 am
