Tax, duty, VAT, GST, Tariffs on import?

I sell stuff on Tindie. (see www.tindie.uk).

Now, when you get it, if not in UK, your courier may charge you some amount of tax, duty, VAT, GST, tariff, or admin fee on receipt. Pain in the arse, I know.

So could we sort this as seller?

Well, basically, we have no way to know what tax, duty, VAT, GST, tariffs, or admin fees might apply. It is not even a simple per-country thing - it depends what you are selling, and the country, and in some cases even matters what region in the country where you are located. It is simply impossible for us to work this out, even if we wanted to.

And, of course, in some countries (sorry USA), the tariff may change from day to day at the whim of a mad man, so really we would have no clue. 

Even if we knew?

Even if we knew the exact amount you are liable to pay, I have no easy way to "pre-pay" that as sender. Some couriers clearly do this (my experience being EU based VAT), but Royal Mail, which we use, do not seem to have any way - we just have a customs form to complete on sending, and you end up paying the extras on receipt.

Even if we could pre-pay?

But even if we could work out what is due, and even if we have a way to pre-pay it for you, what then?

Well simple, it adds to the cost for us, so we would simply add to the price. Indeed, that could mean more, as setting our price higher to cover such charges probably impacts the charges as they are often a percentage of sale price. So actually, if we could work out what was due, and pre-pay it, it may mean we end up charging you even more that if you just paid in import.

So, tough.

Simple answer is we quote a price, we charge a price, and you get to pay your government any import duty, tax, VAT, GST, tariffs or whatever when it arrives. Sorry.