New VAT rules are coming! UK sellers face £180 million in VAT registration fees

According to foreign media reports, as the European Union implements comprehensive VAT reforms, British e-commerce sellers will face a total of 180 million pounds in registration fees .

The new VAT regulations were originally intended to stop some unscrupulous businesses from evading taxes; surveys show that the amount of VAT fraud in the UK alone exceeds 7 billion euros per year .

It is reported that the new rules will be introduced on July 1, and even if the UK leaves the EU , British companies will need to comply with the regulations. At present, about 26,000 e-commerce sellers ( accounting for more than 10% of the total number of e-commerce in the UK ) will register for VAT for the first time , and each company will cause the UK to lose at least 8,000 euros per year, totaling about 208 million euros (180 million pounds) .

VAT reform is imperative, so small and medium-sized enterprises exporting to the EU will face some new challenges: the UK will cancel the VAT exemption for small-value goods (no more than 22 euros) for small and medium-sized enterprises, and all goods imported into the EU will be subject to VAT at the tax rate of the country where the goods finally arrive.

Cross-border merchants exporting to the EU currently face three options: one is to register for VAT in the country of sale ( estimated to cost 8,000 euros ); the second is to subcontract the VAT to sales platforms such as Amazon and eBay; the third is to ask the postal department to handle the VAT.

Some experts suggest that since e-commerce platforms usually charge sellers a value-added tax of around 30% of the gross price , companies with more than 150 transactions per year are recommended to register for VAT in the EU.

The implementation of the new rules does not only bring benefits. James Sibley, director of the British Federation of Small Businesses , said that although the one -stop import approach promoted by the European Commission will simplify the export procedures for small exporters , small and medium-sized sellers are still at a disadvantage relative to the single market because small sellers in the UK will lose the tax-free rights for small batches of goods .

Sibley added: I am worried that this new rule will scare away more potential cross-border sellers. So far, several old customers who have been exporting to the EU have stopped shipping to the EU and expect the situation to deteriorate further from July 1 .

To solve this problem, the UK Revenue and Customs Administration said that the government will issue a 20 million pound Brexit support fund to help small and medium-sized enterprises transition to the new EU VAT system . At that time, small entrepreneurs can apply for up to 2,000 pounds to solve VAT and other issues .

U.K.

VAT

Regulations