Detailed explanation of FBA sellers’ independent customs clearance and tax filing
For the transportation method where the seller clears customs and taxes by himself, the seller needs to pay VAT in the destination country. 2018 is the year of cross-border e-commerce compliance. The British IRS began to sign agreements with all e-commerce platforms on April 25, 2018, requiring sellers who have used British overseas warehouses to register for British VAT (Value AddexTax, value-added tax). When shipping goods, the seller needs to provide the VAT tax number to the freight forwarding company for customs clearance and tax declaration. Although customs clearance and tax declaration are handled by the freight forwarding company, the seller needs to provide the relevant invoice and tax number. The invoices of each freight forwarding company are different.
Sellers who have been operating Amazon’s US and Japanese sites may have been accustomed to freight forwarding companies helping with customs clearance and tax filing, but European countries have complete tax systems. If sellers do customs clearance and tax filing themselves, they need to find a third party in advance. The law firm registers the British VAT tax number and FORI number, and then fills in this information truthfully when shipping. It should be noted that
the seller’s self-cleared invoice must truthfully declare the English name of the product, the total quantity shipped, and the purchase unit price. If the purchase unit price
is 5 US dollars, and the seller writes 2 US dollars, this is an under-declaration, and if found by HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs), you will be fined or even have the goods detained. When choosing the logistics channel for goods sent to the UK, whether to choose UPS, DHL, or TNT, which has strong customs clearance capabilities in Europe, requires negotiation with the freight forwarding company. Or sellers can contact these logistics companies directly, but the price will be relatively expensive. An agent from a law firm can also help sellers file their taxes. When operating Amazon Europe, we often encounter buyers sending emails asking for VAT invoices and VAT invoice templates.
The things that need attention have been written in Chinese, including the English name of the seller’s company, the English address of the seller’s company, British VAT tax number, buyer’s name, buyer’s delivery address, order number, product SKU, Product English name, order quantity, etc. The British VAT tax rate is 20%. This form is equipped with functions. Just write the sales amount directly. You can make it yourself.