All online platforms are charging UK purchasing 20% VAT, aliexpress, etsy or amazon, it doesn't matter if item locates in China or US, as long as it's not in UK, you have to pay 20% on top of that.
It's like UK government forbidden UK buyers to shop overseas, even if merchants are in UK but if it's belongs to overseas seller, UK buyers still have to pay 20% VAT.
That is going to destroy my business if my buyers aren't willing to pay extra.
Time will tell.
I buy a lot of stock off aliexpress 20% on top of what I pay is very expensive and I lose my competitive edge. Having said that, if my buyers can't buy the item directly themselves they may still pay extra. So I guess the government trying to keep buyers shopping within the UK isn't a bad thing if buyers are prepared to fork out more money.
The complete step-by-step guide to get back to selling today!
To be honest I do buy a lot of chinese goods for re-sale. If I have to pay 20% on those purchases now ... i'm dreading the consequences.
I'm in the same boat. I sell a mixture of products including stuff from China and also I dropship a range of items to supplement my physical stock. The company I dropship with are China based but they keep their stock in the UK. Annoyingly they are now charging me 20% VAT on products that are already in the UK, meaning I have had to increase my prices and have lost about 70% of my dropship sales in the past week! I ordered new stock from China yesterday and there was no price difference though, so maybe the physical stock isn't affected for some reason
What I'd like to know is whether the new %20 UK VAT regime is properly working yet on eBay.com. In other words, for each transaction, is eBay collecting the tax on the transaction from the buyer, and sending it to HMRC, without problems or hangups?
Problems such as: inadequately disclosing the 20% rate to the buyer before or during the transaction; double taxation occurring when the item passes into the UK through UK Customs, etc?
Re: UK VAT new policy from 2021 
