This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for advice. Please speak with a tax professional if you have any questions about your tax obligations.

If your business on BrickLink sells goods in any European Union (EU) country, you may be required to register for and collect Value Added Tax (VAT).

Most EU countries allow you to register for VAT online, through the local tax authority’s website.

If you are a seller who is selling items from and to the UK, you may need to obtain an Economic Operators Registration and Identification number (EORI number). To see if this applies to you, please visit this website.

The following three situations will normally trigger mandatory VAT registration:

1. If you are an EU established seller and your business is trading over the legal thresholds defined by your home country, you must ensure that you are registered for VAT. The thresholds vary between EU countries and are currently anything from 0 GBP to 85,000 GBP in UK. In practice, you are required to register for VAT as a UK seller only after you have made over 85,000 GBP sales within 12 consecutive months.

2. You must register for VAT immediately in the EU country where your goods are located. There is no minimum threshold and this rule also applies for sellers from outside of the EU with inventory pre-deployed in the EU.

3. If you sell a lot of goods located in one EU country to private buyers in another EU country (distance selling), you may also be required to register for and collect VAT in the country of your buyer if you exceed specific thresholds for that country.

For orders where the item total value is less than or equal to £135, BrickLink will collect VAT from buyers on orders shipping into the UK that are dispatched from outside the UK. This excludes orders shipping to Northern Ireland that are dispatched from the EU.

The UK VAT rate is 20%.

• BrickLink will collect and remit VAT on orders up to a value of £135 imported into the UK and sold to consumers. There will no longer be a VAT exemption for small consignments up to £15.

• If the buyer is a UK VAT-registered business and provides their valid UK VAT registration number, the responsibility to account for VAT will switch to the UK VAT-registered business customer.

• UK VAT will be added during the checkout process or at the receipt of the final invoice and will not be included in the item price.

• Where BrickLink is responsible for collecting VAT on orders sent to a UK delivery address, this amount will also be shown separately at checkout.

UK order threshold

Northern Ireland order threshold

• When sellers receive the VAT invoice for an order, sellers will need to print the VAT invoice provided by BrickLink to include with their parcel. The invoice will need to be included with the customs paperwork to indicate the VAT has been sufficiently paid for. Three ways to include VAT invoice with your parcel:
  1. Recommended: Use a “Documents Enclosed” pouch that is designed to be attached to a box for shipping packages

  2. A clear, plastic wallet or envelope is suitable as long as it is taped down so that the customs documents do not shift in transit

  3. Standard envelopes taped down to the side of the package with “Customs" written on the outside of the envelope are also acceptable, but please ensure the envelope does not obstruct any barcodes on the shipping label.
  • Note: Only the latest VAT invoice and credit note will be available for download on BrickLink. Sellers should keep the invoice and credit note that is sent to their email.

  
  

• If you are a non-UK seller and you want to sell goods to UK buyers, you should opt-in to BrickLink’s on-site payment method.



How VAT appears on order detail page when BrickLink collects VAT



Quotes received page column has been updated to Tax BL collected.



Amount shown in that column is tax (VAT—for UK orders or US sales tax—for US orders)



When seller hovers over amount, it will show where the tax is from. This example shows that BL collected 20.00 USD for a UK order.



This example shows BL collected 0.78 USD for an order shipping to CA.

When issuing refunds for a specific item, sellers should first initiate an Order Item Removal Request (OIRR) via the BrickLink system. To initiate an OIRR, navigate to Order Item Removal Request and to enter in the order ID for the order needing items removed. Then click on Edit Order button.

After entering the order info, sellers will be taken to a page listed with all the items on that order. For the items that need to be removed, sellers may select either Delete item, which will remove the entire lot from the order, or Subtract quantity, and input the quantity which need to be removed. This will reduce the quantity of the lot. Once the seller is done selecting all the items to be removed, click on Verify Changes button.

Review changes and select reason. Then click on Submit request.

After submitting the OIRR request, the buyer will then need to approve request in order for the items to be removed from the order. BrickLink suggests that the seller contacts the buyer to instruct the buyer how to approve the OIRR request.

Once buyer approves the request, the seller should issue refund on the refund page.

We encourage sellers to use our refund feature to ensure the correct amount of VAT gets refunded. The refund page can be accessed from the Issue Refund link on the order detail page.

On the refund page, there will be a refund calculator that helps see how much money will be refunded from the seller and how much VAT will be refunded from BrickLink.

This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for advice. Please speak with a tax professional if you have any questions about your tax obligations.

VAT in the EU is a tax on consumer spending. It is collected by VAT-registered traders on their sales within the EU territory and passed on to the national tax authorities via VAT return filings.

Starting in 2021, there will be significant changes to the collection of VAT on items imported into the UK and NI, as well as certain shipments within the EU. We've outlined below how these will affect BrickLink buyers.

While BrickLink is preparing for these changes, if you buy from international sellers in the UK or EU, you should expect to see additional charges on your order.

The UK VAT rate is 20%.

From 1 January 2021, the UK has introduced a new model for imports to ensure goods from outside of the UK are treated in the same way as goods already in the UK.

The changes at a glance:

• BrickLink will collect and remit VAT on orders up to a value of £135 imported into the UK and sold to consumers. There will no longer be a VAT exemption for small consignments up to £15

• In cases where the seller is a non-UK business and the goods are already in the UK, BrickLink will collect and remit VAT for goods sold to consumers within the UK, regardless of their value

• All prices on BrickLink will be displayed inclusive of UK VAT when logged into a UK account

• Where BrickLink is responsible for collecting VAT on orders sent to a UK delivery address, this amount will also be shown separately at checkout

For orders where the item total value is less than or equal to £135, BrickLink will collect VAT from buyers on orders shipping into the UK that are dispatched from outside the UK. This excludes orders shipping to Northern Ireland that are dispatched from the EU.

UK order threshold

Northern Ireland order threshold

When a package ships internationally, the package may be subject to additional import taxes, customs duties, and/or fees imposed (e.g. handling fees) by the UK. These charges are typically due once the package arrives in the UK. You, the buyer, are responsible for paying these additional costs.

Buyers in the UK will see VAT exclusive prices for item listings from shops outside of the UK. The final VAT will be calculated and shown as an additional field at checkout.

Buyers will see VAT in a separate column in the store cart as shown below.

Sellers not supporting orders <£135

UK buyers will see this notification when buyer is in a store where BrickLink needs to collect VAT if order is under £135, and seller does not offer on-site payment.

How VAT appears on the order detail page when BrickLink collects VAT

BrickLink will provide refunds of VAT when applicable. It is recommended to work with the seller of the product(s) instead of off-site methods to receive full refunds.

When sellers submit Order item removal requests, buyers should review submission on the Order Item Removal Page and approve or deny request.

When a seller submits a request, buyer will receive an email of request. From that email you will be directed to the Order item removal request page. You can also access the page here. Make sure you’re on the Request for me tab. Scroll to the order ID and you will see all the items Seller requested to remove. To approve/deny, click on the dropdown menu and select approve or deny. Once you complete selecting for each item, click on Approve or Deny selected request(s) button. You will see a green box for items you approved, or a red box for items you denied.

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