what will happen with Northern Ireland deliveries after tomorrow?

[hsmith970]

Anyone know if ebay service will be disrupted when it comes to delivering items to Northern Ireland post Brexit?

[liam221165]

Buyers beware, see below answer..

[the-nutwood-collection]

Does your friend have a residential address in Northern Ireland?

[liam221165]

Yes he does..

[the-nutwood-collection]

There was a couple of emails from Optiseller around a month ago. The latest said:

'Starting from 1 January 2021, eBay will have to collect VAT on UK imports and remit it to the relevant authorities. This means that sellers will need to provide the applicable VAT rate used to calculate the gross price of each of the items they list.
'What happens if I don’t do anything?
'If you don’t provide a VAT rate and gross price for each of your listings, eBay will automatically add VAT on top of the listed price.
'Ok, so how do I make the changes?
'Check out our Q&A article on the new VAT rules and our tips to make the VAT changes in bulk on eBay.
Best of luck with the changes and see you on the other side'.

Two problems. First, I am not VAT registered and I couldn't find any information on whether non VAT registered sellers needed to do anything - despite the 'Check out the Q&A article' suggestion in the email. I could put 0% VAT on all my listings - but this is wrong. Were I VAT registered the rate would be 20%. Second, I'm not importing my items and the email speaks of 'imports'.

I don't sell internationally - I have enough problems with UK buyers - so I didn't alter the listings. However, I do sell a fair amount to NI and your post has got me worried.

Maybe I'll put 0% on all my listings, even though it's wrong to do so. The last thing I want is problems with NI buyers demanding that I refund the VAT.

[the-nutwood-collection]

The information you need regarding the import of goods into Northern Ireland can be found at Moving goods into, out of, or through Northern Ireland from 1 January 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

You will need an EORI number with an 'XI' prefix.  This is in additiion to the one you may already have with a 'GB' prefix if you intend to import or export goods to countries (excluding NI) that require an EORI number.  

The packages to NI will need a customs declaration, but it seems that only goods that are 'at risk' of crossing the border to the Republic of Ireland will have other hoops to jump through.  The items I sell are not 'at risk', so I haven't paid much attention to this requirement.  You will also need to look up the Commodity Codes for the items you sell as these will be needed for the declaration.  Best to do this in advance as it can be quite time-consuming to find the right codes.

At the link I have provided there is information on how to join the Trader Support Service.  The TSS issues informational bulletins by email and I have found these very useful.

[liam221165]

eBay have just taken £36 VAT on an order from a friend of mine, after he had  purchased and paid for an  item from mainland UK..

This was not in listing price and charge was taken by eBay from the buyer not the seller???