This is all a bit new to us, as we have traditionally only dealt with UK customers. This started with circuit boards stocked at Amazon, and Amazon just sorted the EU VAT (paying us the VAT exclusive amount as an export) for sales in EU - very slick.
Moving on (after Amazon screwed us over) we started selling on Tindie, and Tindie do not do anything special for EU at all. So all our parcels hit customs, and the recipient had to pay VAT (and admin fee). This is the default if you do nothing special when shipping to EU.
However, when Tindie screwed up badly (will they ever recover?) we started selling on Lectronz. I have to say that they have been great. This led us to start to understand how it should be done.
IOSS
The Import One Stop Shop system in EU means we could get an IOSS number for sending small packages (value up to €150) to EU with VAT paid - this means the customer has a much quicker and more seamless delivery with no hassle from customs. We would have to file returns for this, but pay in one go for all EU.
However, it is even easier when using an on-line marketplace like Lectronz, as they handle all the VAT - working out the right rate and charging the customer and paying the VAT. All we have to do is quote their IOSS number as part of shipping.
We integrated the Lectronz API and the Royal Mail Pro Shipping API so staff can just click "print postage" and out pops the postage label and customs label, simple.
The EU has gone to some effort to make this slick and easy for small parcels going in to the EU. Well done EU.
The new €3 duty
As of 1st of July the EU made things difficult - the exact opposite of the slick and easy IOSS process - adding a new €3 import duty on small parcels value up to €150. This is separate from IOSS, so even with IOSS and prepaid VAT, the recipient gets hassled by customs for €3 duty!
Lectronz moved quickly, and added the feature to their systems to work out the €3 duty, and add to the price, to pay us, so we can post "Duty Paid". I updated the API code and set to send duty paid via Royal Mail Pro Shipping API.
Yay, all sorted, all slick again, albeit €3 more expensive for the customer (thanks EU!).
Well no!
This started off OK, with a few parcels, but then we hit an error where Royal Mail will not do Duty Paid to Latvia. Arg, why not? Lectronz were very helpful sorting a refund of €3 so we send not duty paid and explained to customer.
So I decided to check the rate card from Royal Mail. The rates to EU are a mess anyway - they have a base price and per-kg price. The base price ranges from £4.45 to £7.70 which is not too mad, but the per-kg ranges from £0.80 to £10.85 which is mental.
The surprise is that duty paid is not available for Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and even Spain.
This is crazy - with all EU countries charging this new €3 duty - why the hell do Royal Mail not handle this.
The other oddity is that the extra cost for sending duty paid, where possible, varies wildly - from a more reasonable 50p to nearly £5 in one case. It is daft for a customer to pay an extra £5 to handle a €3 duty.
What have I done about it?
I have done a shipping rate for all Europe countries individually. Yes, tedious.
Where duty paid postage is available I have listed that (with the extra cost) so customers have a choice.
It would help if Lectronz allowed me to code a per-kg rate for some countries - I have asked.
We still do IOSS for EU where applicable.
So yes, sorted for now. And it means a sting of countries have the hassle of paying duty on receipt, and a few others make sense to do that anyway as the extra cost is daft.
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