Effective 1st December 2008, the standard rate of VAT in the UK will be 15%. This rate reduction from the previous rate of 17.5% was announced by the UK Government in their Pre-Budget Report on 24th November.
We’re making changes to eBay.co.uk so that the site’s ready for the changes, and we’d like to advise those affected by the rate change on how to amend their listings. Sellers should review all their listings to determine whether they need to amend their VAT information. Please consult with your tax advisors or HMRC for specific guidance on how this change affects you.
If you do need to amend your listing here’s what you need to do:
Current listings with no bids or sales made yet:
If a listing has had no sales, sellers can edit it according to revision guidelines at http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/edit_listing.html
Current listings with bids or sales made:
If the listing has already had sales, you can:
- wait for the listing to end then edit it, or
- end it manually, then edit it.
Whether you wait for your listing to end naturally or end it manually, the quicker you relist the ended listing, the less your recent sales score for that listing will be affected.
‘Change in item description’ factor removed from recent sales score calculation
Changing your item description will no longer affect your recent sales score, so if you need to change the item description to reflect the new VAT rate your recent sales score will not be affected.
We’ll be updating the FAQs at http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/find/bestmatch_faq.html to reflect the change.
We’d like to remind you that there will be no change to the application of VAT on your eBay selling fees. Your contractual relationship is with eBay Europe S.à r.l, based in Luxembourg and the rate of VAT there (also 15%) will still apply where applicable. For more information on how VAT is applied to selling fees please visit http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/account/vat-local.html
With strong competition and early discounting coming from the high street this Christmas season we know buyers are now, more than ever, being attracted to great value bargains.
Regards,
The eBay Team
