In China

From July 1, 2021, purchases in China carry VAT. The European Union activated the mechanism on July 1, 2021 in which all purchases arriving in the European Union will be subject to VAT payment. Until now it was not like that and we could buy on AliExpress or any other online store and it was exempt if the order was up to 22 euros. In addition, there were also other rules: between 22 and 150 euros there was no duty to pay, for example.

What happen? That according to EU data, member countries lose around 7,000 million euros each year due to "VAT fraud" from external countries. As we gathered at the time of the news, AliExpress alone invoices 2,000 million euros in Spain and there are more than 42 million orders a year.

To solve this problem there is now IOSS or, what is the same, Import One Stop Shop. In other words, it is a single window system in which the consumer is going to pay VAT in the purchase process and it is the platform or the online store that must enter it to the Treasury at this window. We do not have to declare anything extra for purchases abroad, but it would be the same as if we buy within the EU, the store managers must do so.

Which stores are affected? At the moment we know that there are many Chinese stores that now include VAT on their purchases, such as AliExpress, Alibaba, DealExtreme, DHGate, Gearbest and many others with which we are familiar. In addition, there is another requirement for them: all those with a turnover of more than 10,000 euros must have a VAT number in the corresponding country.

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Of course, we must bear in mind that the policies may change depending on the store. AliExpress indicates that VAT will be added on orders of less than 150 euros, but when it exceeds 150 euros, the import process will be done in customs with the corresponding tariffs. On the other hand, other companies are committed to shipping from warehouses that are already located in Europe, for example.

In United States

Buying in the United States is usually less common than in other countries such as those mentioned above, but it is also an option. Of course, we generally need to resort to websites that allow us a forwarding service. What is this? Websites or companies that allow you to have an address in the corresponding country in which you are making the purchase. You send your order there and they "pick it up" and forward it directly to you in Spain if that online store does not have an international courier service or the possibility of buying from the European Union. One of the advantages of these pages is that they automatically allow us to calculate the customs payment when receiving the shipment and thus decide whether or not it is worth it.

In the case of buying directly from an online store, it depends. It depends on the store. If you buy directly from Amazon, it will charge you the final price with the corresponding shipping costs, but it does not charge a specific tax for the state in which you made the purchase, for example. But, as we say, it will depend on the store. Most stores will already include what it will cost you in the final price, but it is possible that some websites do not and we have to add the local tax of the specific state.

In any case, orders from the United States also apply VAT following the rule used in China: all orders received in the European Union must have a VAT payment that will vary depending on the type of merchandise or if it has a reduced VAT or super reduced, but it will not matter if it is worth 20 euros or 45. In general, the stores will mark it in its final price.

And customs? We must also pay tariffs, regardless of taxes, but it will depend on the product and not always. In addition, generally we will also have to pay the management fees charged by the agencies, although it will depend on whether we do the management ourselves. It depends on the product and we can check it from the European Commission website in the Taxation and Customs Union section. We choose the origin/destination and the code of the merchandise that we can find if we touch "explore".