Play.com and VAT

Our man in Havana

Safest option is to order from amazon.co.uk unless the value is below €22.

alanceltic

Lads look at the bigger picture, it not the state thats ripping you off its PLAY.com, in light of the fact that EU taxes arent harmonised and wont ever be each country has the right to charge whatever vat they wish....i used to work for an online retailer so have some knowledge of this minefield.

The irish govt has the right to charge vat on all goods and services supplied within this state, its perfectly OK for anybody to send NON contraband goods but they should be declared for IRISH vat (and duty if appropriate, eg cigs and booze) regardless if there has already been vat charged in another jurisdiction, the govt wont normally go after goods shipped from the UK but they could as these goods only have 17.5% vat paid (to the Uk govt) when the localised vat should be 21% paid to the irish govt as the supply of goods has occoured in the irish state and the irish govt is loosing valuable tax revenues which it would ordinarily gain from a high street sale. I think a common sense approach has been adopted up to now with EU countries as its swings & roundabouts with goods imported & exported (the flip side is an irish supplier charging irish vat on a supply of goods to the UK for example) but the thing is if Play are exporting from a jurisdiction where there is no local vat (as with cdwow hk) PLAY get to keep the full price as they dont have to give 21% of the sale price to anybody and pocket this amount, I wouldnt have a problem with not paying the govt this vat if they were passing it on to the customer but they arent so fcuk them.

On another issue I would be interested to hear what the credit card companies have to say if you were to raise a chargeback request on the grounds that the contract wasnt fulfilled, ie you never got the goods, this seems fair grounds in my opinion to get a full refund via your card issuing bank and if this happens quite regularly im sure the card companies wouldnt waste too much time telling PLAY to get their gaff in order or be blacklisted from shipping to Ireland.... Im all for getting stuff on the nett and promoting ecommerce and even have a few orders in the pipeline but I think Play are creaming a nice little earner at Irish customers & the Irish govts expense, typical imperilastic attitude if you ask me, might just find myself a new online supplier for all things DVD/GAME

subway

alanceltic wrote:

Lads look at the bigger picture, it not the state thats ripping you off its PLAY.com, in light of the fact that EU taxes arent harmonised and wont ever be each country has the right to charge whatever vat they wish....i used to work for an online retailer so have some knowledge of this minefield.

The irish govt has the right to charge vat on all goods and services supplied within this state, its perfectly OK for anybody to send NON contraband goods but they should be declared for IRISH vat (and duty if appropriate, eg cigs and booze) regardless if there has already been vat charged in another jurisdiction, the govt wont normally go after goods shipped from the UK but they could as these goods only have 17.5% vat paid (to the Uk govt) when the localised vat should be 21% paid to the irish govt as the supply of goods has occoured in the irish state and the irish govt is loosing valuable tax revenues which it would ordinarily gain from a high street sale. I think a common sense approach has been adopted up to now with EU countries as its swings & roundabouts with goods imported & exported (the flip side is an irish supplier charging irish vat on a supply of goods to the UK for example) but the thing is if Play are exporting from a jurisdiction where there is no local vat (as with cdwow hk) PLAY get to keep the full price as they dont have to give 21% of the sale price to anybody and pocket this amount, I wouldnt have a problem with not paying the govt this vat if they were passing it on to the customer but they arent so fcuk them.

On another issue I would be interested to hear what the credit card companies have to say if you were to raise a chargeback request on the grounds that the contract wasnt fulfilled, ie you never got the goods, this seems fair grounds in my opinion to get a full refund via your card issuing bank and if this happens quite regularly im sure the card companies wouldnt waste too much time telling PLAY to get their gaff in order or be blacklisted from shipping to Ireland.... Im all for getting stuff on the nett and promoting ecommerce and even have a few orders in the pipeline but I think Play are creaming a nice little earner at Irish customers & the Irish govts expense, typical imperilastic attitude if you ask me, might just find myself a new online supplier for all things DVD/GAME

there ripping us off by charging us less?
i like that logic....

what do you mean by imperialstic atitude?
that the brits are raping our land with cheap dvds?

holly_johnson

This thread explains a lot...
I am trying to buy some items from Play in sterling (it's cheaper than buying in euro even after conversion), and when I go to the checkout it says it can only deliver to a UK address.
When I place the order in Euro, it's fine!
I've emailed them but no reply. What a load of rubbish!

Does anyone have any good alternative sites that should be ok to order from?

byte

subway wrote:

i think youve got the wrong end of the stick,
play ship from jersey
they pay vat to the uk when shipping to the uk
they dont pay vat to anyone when shipping to ireland

they are not in the uk, they are the channel islands.

up until recently they didnt pay vat to the uk government either,
but they have now come to an agreement with the uk.
they arent coming to an agreement with the irish goverment as we dont have anything to hold over them the way the uk could regarding trade etc.

looks like our governemt just wants to make sure we dont get anything cheap so now we pay the vat which more than likely covers the cost of the staff who check the packages.

Ah right. Now I getcha! Thanks for clearing that up for me.

nlgbbbblth

are they retaining the packages and sending the letters first?

or sending the letter afterwards?

edit: I see they're hanging on till you pay them.

subway

yep,
and its causing massive delays for play deliverys.
i usually get my items about 2-3 days after the "your item is posted mail"
im waiting over almost 2 weeks on some books

jackdaw

they can't hold books though ? books have 0% VAT no ??

subway

im guessing that anything comes in from play.com is getting redirected to the "checking company"
once its confirmed that VAT isnt paybale the item is forwarded.

seems like part of a tactic to annoy plays users into not using them.

event

does anyone know if its the same with cdwow.ie?

blastman

Ar$es!! I only just ordered something from another Jersey crowd last night before I saw this. And the cost was over 18 sterling too, unusually for me. OK, Play might be taking the mick with the Irish government, but if we weren't being stiffed so much in the first place, they wouldn't be so popular here.

holly_johnson

I'm worried about stuff I ordered from Amazon in the States too. Hopefully I might slip through the net!

rubadub

Dunno where this £18 is coming from? maybe UK law? it is €22 here, though I get plenty of stuff openly stated to be worth more and have no bother. The play packages are easily identified. 2 things bother me about play & cd-wow etc, and they could sort it.
1. if you use a discount code it is not taken into account on the price stated on the package, so the price is nearly always higher, (I trust everybody uses the always available vouchers on cd-wow at least.)

2. "free postage", this is bull****, does the postman deliver it out of the goodness of their heart???, the post is obviously included into the price, so again the product is valued artificially high. If they did the old ebay seller scam, i.e. charge €50 shipping & handling and €1 for the item you would have less hassle with customs. The customs can charge you duty and vat on the value of the goods AND the stated shipping costs. BUT play and cdwow never disclose the shipping costs on the packages! so they cannot charge. Even if they did disclose it they could have a massive "handling" fee so they could fix it so your shipping and item combined is never over €22.
It is in their own interest to do this and I cannot see how it would be against the law, unless below cost selling is illegal in jersey or something.

andyeire

event wrote:

does anyone know if its the same with cdwow.ie?

cdwow.ie are ok they post from Luxemburg

robo

holly_johnson wrote:

I'm worried about stuff I ordered from Amazon in the States too. Hopefully I might slip through the net!

Well I got caught by them a month ago and so did a friend of mine. They are clamping down thats for sure :mad:

samo

andyeire wrote:

cdwow.ie are ok they post from Luxemburg

Not everything from .ie is posted from Luxembourg - some stuff comes from Singapore and Hong Kong as well unfortunately.

Scheherazade

If somebody sends you an Amazon.com package from the States or Play.com from Jersey as a gift, they shouldn't be showing the price of the item on the package, right?

So is the tax bill sent to the person who bought the gift, or do you have to pay tax even if you weren't paying?

If you don't have to pay, can you send gifts to yourself?

Our man in Havana

The Revenue are well aware of the gift scam.

RobertFoster

So, it's best to get all Christmas presents from CD Wow at this stage is it? Given that Play stuff is being delayed and you're likely to get charged customs?

Our man in Havana

But you equally liable to get caught by CD Wow aswell.

Scheherazade

Bond-007 wrote:

The Revenue are well aware of the gift scam.

What if it wasn't a scam, but a genuine gift?

That's a bit embarrassing to have the price of your gift written on the package, and have the recipient pay taxes on it.

Ciaran500

How can they justify the €5 admin fee. Surely we should be given a chance to pay and declare the item before they force that on us.

Our man in Havana

They have to make money.

ruprect

Scheherazade wrote:

What if it wasn't a scam, but a genuine gift?

That's a bit embarrassing to have the price of your gift written on the package, and have the recipient pay taxes on it.

good question. Some of those shops did used to gift wrap for a small fee. I doubt the price would have been on it.

andyeire

Bond-007 wrote:

But you equally liable to get caught by CD Wow aswell.

Just rang CDWOW the guy on the phone said that they have stopped using Luxemborg for posting stuff and it will all be coming from HK from now on .Does anybody know if this is really the case .I had a delivery from them last week (PS2 game) that came from Luxembourg.I have 3 Play parcels held by customs that i was goimg to reorder from cdwow but that seems like a waste of time now.Is anybody using an online retailer that posts from europe 'all the time'.

Our man in Havana

I have had 2 packages from CD wow via HK that have arrived quickly and without incident. Prehaps they are just targeting the Jersey suppliers for now?

dts

I recived four items from play on Friday without any problems? What happens if you dont get what you have paid for? Do Play send you another copy? Do you have to pay the charge or is that up to play to sort out?

andyeire

Did the parcel have a value of over 22 euro.Whats supposed to happen if it is over 22 is the customs hold the parcel and send you a demand for vat .Only after you pay this do they release the parcel.Is anybody getting parcels of over 22 euros in without getting vat demands (from Play or CDWow HK).

dts

I got a pink DS 150euro with no problem. Also a couple of DS games that are all over 22euro. Just in case I have canceld my order for two wii games from Play and ordered them with cdwow instead.

GerardKeating

jackdaw wrote:

EU free trade etc...

Jersey/Guernsey/Isle of Man are not in the EU...