VAT on postage fees from private sellers by EBay

VAT on postage fees from private sellers by EBay

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VAT on postage fees from private sellers by EBay

If a private seller sells an item on EBay, where the sale price and postage are listed separately, that that its not a sale of an item with included postage
EBay do not charge a fixed commission, but a percentage of the sale price, called Final selling fee.
As I understand it the essence of VAT is for goods and or services provided. A private seller adding postage to an item he
Is selling, for the sole purpose of recovering the ACTUAL cost of posting the item to the buyer, should not have to pay fees
On the postage element, as this reduces the postage amount provided by the buyer to actually post the item, especially as EBay
Calculate ( usually wrongly ) the postage amount, then reduce this amount with fees.

Back to VAT....so as EBAY aren't actually offering or providing the postage as a service or goods then I believe this
Postage should NOT attract VAT.

Charging fees on the postage, is bad enough, makes selling on eBay difficult, but charging VAT on the postage is, I believe
Wrong.

Would appreciate comments.

Thanks

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Out of my mind
By runningmate
21st Mar 2015 13:39

The service provided by EBAY

As you say, "EBAY aren't actually offering or providing the postage as a service or goods".  They are not charging for postage - they are charging for providing a platform on which goods are offered for sale.

Therefore EBAY's charges attract VAT at the standard rate.  How EBAY calculate the amount of their charge is not relevant to the VAT treatment of them.

RM

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