Items being returned by German customs due to ebay VAT non-compliance
Summary: petermont80 raised concerns about eBay's non-compliance with German customs regulations since July 1, leading to items being returned when VAT, duties, and additional charges were not properly handled at checkout. They explained that despite attempts to address this with eBay support, including providing documentation from postal services and German authorities, the issue persists with rejected shipments. twyngwyn shared a related forum link for further discussion on shipping to Germany.
Since 1 July, our eBay and many other sellers' items have been returned by German customs due to non-compliance. eBay has not kept up with the changes and has been charging customers VAT only, when all items landing after July 1 required VAT + duties + 3 euros per HS Classification.
Germany has now temporarily suspended IOSS for shipments under 150 euros as of July 6th and is no longer accepting eBays IOSS number.
They are only accepting shipments where the receiver pays all VAT+Duties and the 3 Euro per HS code in a single transaction. Prepayment is not currently allowed
Yet eBay is still charging customers VAT at the checkout, resulting in customers then having to pay the VAT + the rest of the charges again at the border.
In addition to being upset, customers then have to go through eBay's lengthy process to get it refunded. Or Germany rejects the shipment, and we are out of pocket on shipping costs and staff time, plus a very upset customer without their item.
We've tried speaking with eBay support and multiple agents and despite providing proof from Australia Post and the German authorities regarding the changes, they deny the new requirements.
Australia Posts International team advised a significant number of parcels have been rejected by Germany in the last few weeks and are now being returned to Australia
Many moons ago, we had a direct eBay number to call, and issues like this would be resolved; last year, similar cross-border changes took eBay nearly 8 weeks to fix.
Any ideas on how to get eBay to acknowledge the issue and sort it quickly?
twyngwyn
·1 month agoFrom the U.S. boards: https://community.ebay.com/forum/shipping-57923/topic/customer-in-germany-wants-to-purchase-item-but-germany-not-an-option-on-ebay-international-shipping-160504/
petermont80
OP1 month agoThanks,
Germany is accepting parcels where the marked receiver pays all VAT duties and tariffs at the border.
Our German customers are still buying through eBay, but eBay is still charging VAT under IOSS even though Germany suspended it on 6 July.
So the customer is paying double VAT when buying via eBay, and they wrongly think it's us, not eBay, collecting the VAT.
Other platforms had this sorted from day 1; it's been nearly 30 days on, and eBay still doesn't even acknowledge it's an issue