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Photo: Michael Gstettenbauer / imago images / Michael Gstettenbauer
Anyone who discovers a supposed bargain on the Internet - for example a cheap CD from a dealer in the USA - can experience nasty surprises: Sometimes the additional costs for customs declarations, for example, significantly exceed the actual price of the goods.
The EU is now taking action against this.
For online purchases from non-EU countries such as China or the USA, new rules have been in effect since Thursday.
In essence, the effects can be described as follows: Everything will be a little bit more expensive because taxes will be levied in the future.
At the same time, however, there is no risk of very high additional payments.
Specifically, the new rules mean that in Germany 19 percent VAT will be added to goods with a value below the previous exemption limit of 22 euros.
Seven percent is charged for books or groceries.
For example, if a CD from a US mail order company previously cost 20 euros, taxes will now be charged at 23.80 euros.
Separately levied customs fees will only be charged for a value of 150 euros or more.
Many overseas traders took advantage of the exemption limit
The new rules are intended to provide better protection for customers from unpleasant surprises. Anyone who had previously ordered products from third countries had to reckon with extra costs for registration with customs by the transport company. This should be omitted with immediate effect and the stated price should also be the final price. In order to make it easier for companies to sell to other Member States, they can register on a portal that makes it easier for them to record and settle VAT.
With the new regulations, the EU wants to prevent retailers from non-EU countries from being able to undercut their local competitors. So far, traders based in the EU had to pay sales tax on all their goods, while the exemption limit of 22 euros applied to imports from third countries. “We think that some consumers should accept slightly higher prices. Because they guarantee fair competition, «comments the tax expert of the German Trade Association (HDE), Ralph Brügelmann.
In the past, the exemption limit was also abused for tax fraud. Some retailers labeled packages with a price of less than 22 euros, even though a much more expensive product was included. This means that VAT was not paid automatically. Customs only got hold of the machinations through controls. The EU Commission estimates the damage to the EU state coffers from such loopholes at seven billion euros annually.
In the future, it should no longer be "that someone declares something as a baby monitor for fifteen euros and ultimately has an iPhone in it," says Brügelmann.
But you also need more controls for that.
The EU also wants to ensure that taxes are paid at the point of delivery of the goods.
From now on, an EU-wide threshold of 10,000 euros applies, above which retailers have to pay VAT.
Until now, individual threshold values had applied in every EU country.
In future, the tax will only be settled with a tax office and distributed to the EU countries in which the dealer made sales.
beb / dpa