Large orders and the VAT

Pikka

Yay! I've just shipped my first large UK order since Brexit. Large, meaning: over £135.
All my previous, much smaller orders contained the following info: "20% UK Import VAT has been paid on this order via the online marketplace Brick Owl Ltd". Also, all the invoices clearly showed that the total price included 20% Tax.

Now, the large order confused me: my prices are automatically 20% higher for this British buyer, but the note mentioning paid VAT is gone – and the tax rate on the Invoice is 0%. So, what happens once this package arrives in the UK – how do the Customs officers know that the VAT has been paid? Also, why the difference between small and large orders?

Lawrence

Are you sure the prices are higher? No VAT should have been charged if it’s over £135.

Edit: there's deffinitely an issue for these higher value orders, I will look into this now.

Pikka

@Lawrence Yes, I've rechecked and all my prices are 20% higher for that particular order.

Lawrence

I've identified the issue that affects orders with a value between £135 and £194, due to how tax is calculated in relation to the maximum tax order subtotal. I'm working to resolve this now.

Pikka

So, does it mean that BrickOwl won't charge me 20% that I already collected and that I own the buyer a refund?

Lawrence

That particular order should now be updated. In that case, it was purely a display issue, where the tax was being charged, but not shown. We still need to identify and resolve some related issues related to multiple tax profiles and the order subtotal limits, and then identify any other affected orders.

Lawrence

Just as an update on this, the issue of both maximum subtotal limits on tax profiles, and multiple tax profiles, has now been resolved.

XS Bricks

@Lawrence I was just coming to ask a similar question, I have a UK order over £300 from Feb 4th and I don't know how VAT was treated as there is no break down. Has the customer paid any VAT on an order this size or not?

Lawrence

No VAT would be collected on an order that size

XS Bricks

Thank you @Lawence All this UK VAT is making my head spin. How does it work from a UK buyers perspective that you add VAT under £135 and not over £135, when they are looking at individual parts and building up their order the system does not know whether the total will be above or below the threshold where it stops charging VAT - so what price do the parts appear to the customer at.