These VAT amounts might differ if you’re a professional seller using smart shipping, but your VAT payment won’t be affected. That’s because we correct the difference when we pay you.

VAT for smart shipping

As the seller, you’re invoiced for the cost of smart shipping, but the buyer pays the shipping costs and we pay the shipping company. This setup means we provide smart shipping as a service to you and you, as the person who ships the object, provide the service to the buyer, who is the person who pays for shipping.

The VAT for each stage of this ‘transaction’ can differ, depending on your and the buyer’s countries.

To make sure your VAT payment isn’t affected, we’ll correct the difference. So we’ll either pay you the VAT amount you need to report and pay to tax authorities or, in some cases, we’ll withhold a VAT amount, which you can claim a refund for from local tax authorities.

Professional sellers in the Netherlands

Lower buyer country VAT

If a professional seller in the Netherlands (VAT: 21%) sells to a buyer in Germany (VAT: 19%), we’ll charge the buyer 19% VAT for shipping at checkout. We’ll deduct the outstanding 2% from the payment to the seller to fulfil our tax obligations. And the seller can claim this 2% back from local tax authorities.

Higher buyer country VAT

If a professional seller in the Netherlands (VAT: 21%) sells to a buyer in Denmark (VAT: 25%), we’ll charge the buyer 25% VAT for shipping at checkout. The seller would need to report 25% VAT to local tax authorities so we add the extra 4% to the payment to the seller.

Professional EU sellers (excluding the Netherlands)

If a professional seller in Italy (VAT: reverse charge) sells to a buyer in Germany (VAT: 19%), we’ll charge the buyer 19% VAT for shipping at checkout. This is the amount the seller would need to report to tax authorities so we add this 19% to the payment to the seller.