Question On Vat Shipment From GB To US

Did a search, but got some confusing results. I purchase items on ebay from GB to US. Is VAT charged just on items purchase amount or is it charged on value + shipping amount?

In other words, do shipping charges get charged a vat?

There should be no VAT charged on an export from UK to USA even if the seller is VAT registered (technically classified as "zero rated"). However, depending on the value and your mailing address, ebay can charge your state/city/county sales and/or use tax.
Steve Taylor

Interesting - I recent bought 3 items on ebay from UK and was charged vat on all of them. But no local US sales tax.

Never paid a vat tax from overseas to US.

Just hung with ebay and asked why I'm paying vat on items from Europe to US.

They said to call my tax accountant. They could not help or direct me to their tax policy for US citizens when buying from Europe.

So do you know how I'd get my vat tax I paid refunded ? ebay was no help

The issue is with ebay and probably a "glitch" in their systems between ebay.com and ebay.co.uk (you didn't mention from which of their websites you bought from) Have seen similar VAT issues in the UK on imports from ebay Europe (wrong VAT import rate applied) which were corrected. Try escalating to an ebay manager or posting a question on their Community board or Facebook page. Good luck, Steve

In the worst case you can claim a credit on your 2024 federal tax return, although the relevant form, 1116, is no fun to navigate.

I bought uk Items on the US site to be shipped to US and was charged VAT. Also I note the sites are different because when I saw in the listing the seller does not accept returns I asked and he said it's listed as he does accept and sent me a screen shot of the listing. I then sent him a screen shot of all his listings on the us site and they all read no returns accepted - which he could not explain.

The standard ebayuk text for overseas sales is "no returns", so he may not have altered it.

Seems onerous to me
That an international seller has to set up same items multiple time for different sites. On US site reads no return - I sent him a screenshot. And on Uk site it reads returns AC accepted- same for all his items. So US and UK site read different things.

But still trying to figure out VAT. Not sure why ebay won't tell the policy? Surely they have to know in order to collect like they did.

So ebay says the tax I'm paying is my local state sales tax - not VAT. Here's the confusing part I cut and pasted as a reply to them,

" The very confusing part is that in the ebay email I get to pay the invoice, tax line is not even shown, but IS included in total. When I hit email link to pay invoice, tax shows as VAT! BUT when I then go to look at paid invoice it shows as tax. This is confusing & misleading - to me at least. Why would a certain tax be show or NOT show 3 different ways?"

As confusing as when I look at the sellers store on my .com ebay account it reads no returns and sent him a screenshot asking to verify. And he then sends me a screenshot from his .co.UK site which reads returns accepted!