VAT added after purchase to final BPF

[minniecaldwell]

I won an item on auction and VAT was added to the final Buyer Protection fee.  

My winning bid was £24.34 making a total of £25.75 (incl £1.41 bpf) + postage £3.71 = £29.46 which is correct.  

But when I went to pay it had total £25.75 (incl £1.41 bpf) + postage £3.71 + VAT 28p = £29.74

The extra 28p is 20% of the bpf.

Is this correct that the buyer gets charged VAT on the final BPF? 

If the BPF is plus VAT then I would have thought it should say this before you purchase something?

Both myself and the seller are in the UK and the goods are being posted from the UK.  The item was a set of cake tins and listed as new.

On this occasion it is only a small amount but I would like to know for future purchases and also if this is the case, I would like to make my own buyers aware of this additional cost when I list something.

My order details:

23 Feb at 9:37 PM

Payment Info: Unit price  £25.75

incl.  £1.41 for Buyer Protection

1 item £25.75

Postage £3.71

VAT *£0.28

Order total £29.74

*VAT collected on this transaction based on applicable laws 

[plum993]

BPF:

• Depending on the tax legislation of the country where the buyer is located or where the order will be delivered, local Value Added Tax (VAT), Goods and Services Tax (GST) or similar consumption tax might apply on the Buyer Protection fee instead of UK VAT. We will collect tax when we have an obligation to do so. Any tax collected will be included in the buyer's order total at checkout.

[minniecaldwell]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I can confirm that the seller I purchased from and myself are all in the UK and also the goods were shipped from the UK.   

I haven't seen anywhere that sellers/buyers/goods all within the UK are subject to VAT in this circumstance.

Am I missing this somewhere?

[plum993]

Check the sellers registered address on there profile, as it could be different to the location shown  as there located address on the listing,and could also be a warehouse where they despatch goods from sited in the UK

[papso22]

The bidding page tells you what the seller will receive, (not what your winning bid was from your perspective), so that would be 24.34 in your case.

The BPF calculation based on what the seller gets will give a BPF of 1.69 (VAT inclusive).

Adding the amount the seller will receive, the BPF (inc VAT) and the postage, gets you to what you were charged in total, i.e £29.74.

While for an auction ebay actually work out the BPF backwards from the winning bid, the result is the same as above, so I don't see the problem.

So ebay have told you what the seller gets for the item, what the postage is, and what the BPF is, both net and VAT.

[minniecaldwell]

yes the sellers registered address is in the UK.

no addresses are outside the UK.