AliExpress and Irish Tax

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117733866#Comment_117733866

To be clear, a carrier's clients are not the people who receive packages, but the people who send them.

But you're right that it doesn't matter that the tax has already been paid. What matters is that the information supplied to An Post by the people sending the parcels indicates that the tax hasn't been paid. An Post is not going to ignore that.

Even if An Post knows that there is are agreed arrangement in place between Aliexpress (on behalf of merchants) and the Revenue for the payment of tax, that just tells An Post that tax ought to have been paid already on any package it receives from Aliexpress; it doesn't tell An Post that the arrangements have operated as agreed and that the tax has been paid.

The labelling or documentation that comes with the package should include information confirming the payment of the tax. If it doesn't include that, one obvious explanation for that is that that the payment arrangements, despite being agreed, have not been operated. if a merchant hasn't complied with the part of the arrangements that deals with the labelling of the package, why would An Post assume that he have complied with any other part of the arrangements?

autumnalcore

Someone on reddit has pointed out that its probably an issue with caino super economy

The tracking number on aliexpress appears as S000XXXXXX but then it gets a real and different tracking number later on in the process.

An Post can't match the package as the tracking number is different.

So hopelly 3 of my packages will be fine.

blackbox

AliExpress sometimes give the option of having the goods shipped from an EU warehouse - e.g. France or Spain.

This should avoid the issue, but I wonder does it?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117736287#Comment_117736287

In addition, it's not An Post's call. They are acting on behalf of Revenue and have no say in whether they pursue payment or not.

autumnalcore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117736637#Comment_117736637

I don't often use those because they are usually more expensive and dion't arrrive any faster.

But when I have ordered items that were supposedly located in Europe they shipped from china anyway bar one.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117736637#Comment_117736637

for the majority of items this isn't an option

10000maniacs

The AliExpress warehouses in the Netherlands, UK (it's like the Irish did Brexit, not the UK, LOL), Spain, Russia and France don't ship to Ireland in almost all cases. Even the XHData website which ships all those Tecsun, Radiwow and Sihuadon radios directly from Spain doesn't ship to Ireland. It's as if Ireland does not exist on the map to Aliexpress. If you order something from Aliexpress to Ireland, it is shipped from China to the Netherlands and re-labelled there with your Irish address and resent from the Netherlands to Ireland. That's why your package takes so long to arrive. This could be also the reason why the IOSS number is not visible to Irish customs. The old label is completely covered with the Irish address label in the Netherlands.

U.P.O.

I bought an item for approx €6.50 including shipping on AliExpress. I paid tax in AliExpress for a total of €8

When it arrived i got a bill of approx €6 from An Post. They valued the goods at €11.50~ (no idea where they got that figure from) so said i owed approx €2.50 tax plus €3.50 handling fee.

I rang them the next day, spent ages on hold only to be told to email another email address with my invoice and the tracking number etc...

Just after i sent the email my package arrived. I hadn't paid any fees.

The next day they replied to my email saying i needed to pay the fees or they could not release the package (which they had already delivered the day before). No acknowledgement of the invoice i had sent them showing the tax paid or no explanation of how they came up with the figure of €11.50

Anyway, i have my item, and i didnt pay anything to them.

Its going to be a PITA going forward though.

autumnalcore

Mine arrie suspiciously quickly after paying, maybe if I had just waited it would have come like yours 🤔

head82

After back and forth emails with An Post and getting nowhere, I gave up. I wasn't paying them their €3.50 + 60c VAT as value of packet was only around 3.50. I figured they'd send it back and I'd claim a refund. So I order same items again (this time from a different AliExpress seller).

And what lands thru my letterbox yesterday?.. you guessed it, the original package!

Happy to have received it but what an absolute waste of everyones time and effort.

timple23

I won something on ebay and I'm being asked to pay vat at checkout, seller is not with the ebay global shipping programme.

califano

It looks like my parcel got held up but I didn't receive any customs notification to that effect only an Ali Express notification that it got held at customs. I have the Invoice from Ali Express app with VAT listed as paid at €0.56.

I have written to ecommchargequery@anpost.ie and attached the invoice. So I will see how it goes.

I have in the meantime I have just written to the seller re were they given an IOSS ref.

If you order something and it ships from Czechia instead of China, do An Post still get you?

autumnalcore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117763789#Comment_117763789

No guarantee its ships from Czech Republic if it really does then probably fine.

autumnalcore

My refund saga continues, was given an escalation number last week, followed up today was told I have to mark the item received before they can deal with it. Marked the item received now I get please click 'chat with an agent now' but no matter how many times you load the page there is no button anymore. If you try to send an email it say you have already contacted them and should get a response within four hours yada yada.

Definitely swings and roundabouts to avoid refunding. Seller has offered to send me equivalent amount of goods as a gift but no guarantee it wont get hit again. Sigh.

autumnalcore

Now they are telling me to wait until after buyer protection ends and they will refund "if its approved"

So its gone from 'no problem we'll refund you' to after 3 weeks and multiple repeats of the same loop we might refund you.

I'll just refuse the next onee not worth it.

autumnalcore

Well aliexpress appear to have held or recalled 6 of my packages some ordered on different days, cancelled the original tracking numbers I was issued, and bundle them into a single postnl package which is great. Hopefully the problem is resolved.

jean2014

This is the response that I received from the An Post today:

"We are not in a position to amend the electronic declaration sent from the sender/sending retailer.

I have advised previously that the error is with the sender/sending retailer due to no IOSS number being sent on the electronic declaration submitted. 

This is not a mistake on An Post and we cannot release your item until Irish customs is paid.

You will need to claim any refund at source with Ali express as they haven't sent the item as paid at source. 

Kind regards 

E-Comm-charge Query Team."

My question is, I have already passed on AliExpress IOSS number and AliExpress invoice/order number to An Post, together with parcel tracking number and An Post Reference number, how difficult is for An Post to find out whether VAT has paid or not?

Since An Post is washing its hands out, is there a way to contact Revenue directly to receive an confirmation that VAT has already paid, then pass it on to An Post to release the parcel?

Yes, the electronic declaration may not submitted correctly by the sender or it might be caused by label was damaged by covered other labels. The item was ordered on 4th July, shortly after new IOSS policy enacted. The guidance was not very clear at that stage, similar mistakes might happen in the future, is there no mechanism in place to deal with that in Ireland?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117776325#Comment_117776325

It's not up to An Post nor Revenue to rectify an error by the sender. The changes were well known before the enactment date. You need to pursue a refund from the sender.

I'm not ordering anything until this rubbish gets sorted out in a generalised manner by Aliexpress and their sellers

not worth the hassle

the July change has cut out all sorts of options for buying lower value items online really that could come in heretofore with no "inspection" - e.g. ebay, all the other sellers not in the one-stop-shop system (most of whom never will be either) based not just in China but in the US, UK etc

most people seem to think that the problem is with what the seller puts on the outside of the item on the label in normal written number form but as the An Post reply says it's about the electronic submission that the buyer does not see

"We are not in a position to amend the electronic declaration sent from the sender/sending retailer.

I have advised previously that the error is with the sender/sending retailer due to no IOSS number being sent on the electronic declaration submitted. "

I understand from reading elsewhere that this can take the format of the IOSS number being put into a barcode or the more modern format square codes (QR codes) on the label that can be scanned and that is counted as "electronic declaration"

Carriers like An Post or anyone else don't actually want to be dealing with manual IOSS numbers at all on items as they don't want to be manually typing them it obviously dealing with huge volumes of stuff

So if something doesn't have the IOSS number in the QR Code or barcode then An Post will stop it and send you a request for VAT along with the inspection fee

Even if you pay twice it’s still cheaper than anywhere else you’ll get something. If you can even get it elsewhere.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777537#Comment_117777537

Yes but it's paying an post 3.50 on top as well as the vat makes it worse and with low value items make no sense

So say a two euro item with vat is 2.46

Now with an post 3.50 inspection fee and double vat it's a total of 6.22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777564#Comment_117777564

Don't get me wrong I hate being done by an post for the 3.50, but can you get the item elsewhere for 6.22 or even at all?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117777611#Comment_117777611

if you search on amazon uk there are a lot of the aliexpress items on there.

a lot of them available (many not I'm sure also) at same or less of Aliexpress price + double VAT + An Post inspection fee.

Furze99

Good luck with contacting An Post - their level of customer service is very, very poor. You may write but don't expect a reply.

I've had reason to do this from time to time regarding postal items & parcels returned to me despite having the correct postage and being despatched from a local post office. These items get 'lost' in the system and/or they don't deliver them for some reason, so they just send them back. At which point you have to pay the postage again and send them off a second time. You can supply receipts and tracking numbers and so on, but they obviously are completely understaffed for this and your emails or letters of complaint just get binned.

If An Post were a private business with that sort of attitude to their customers, they'd be gone in short order.

yes An Post are taking the "minimal customer interaction" line to be sure

although here it does seem to be the sellers not having the Aliexpress IOSS included in the QR Code or whatever

so An Post entering into a back-and-forth discussion on every cheap piece of tat coming in from China is probably a bit much to be expected

10000maniacs

You would expect better on the An Post side too. It seems they never do anything but the minimal to cover their own asses at the expense of the customers who they know have already paid the VAT.

Kat1170

DHL is almost always a postage option if anyone really wants to pay through the nose for dire customer service and then pay €15+ administration fee because, "Oh, sorry about that, but we're a different branch of DHL and f**k you ". It'll make An Post seem like a breeze.

Kat1170

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784643#Comment_117784643

But they don't know you've already paid VAT. Your package could come from anywhere outside the EU and contain anything. If it doesn't have the correct details ref. VAT they don't know from whence it came, nor if correct fees were paid. Nothing got to do with them. It's the sellers and Ali's fault 100%

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117784643#Comment_117784643

They're doing what Revenue tell them must be done. You're complaining about the wrong business. It's all down to the seller. Why would anybody else waste resources on this?