How to fulfill orders shipping outside of the UK to the UK?

Please note that the information provided in this article does NOT constitute tax, legal, or other professional advice.

Starting December 31, 2020 11:00PM UTC, all orders shipping to the UK  will be affected by changes to UK VAT announced by HMRC (the UK government tax authority) on goods sold to UK customers, effective once the UK leaves the EU VAT system on January 1, 2021. To help Wish and merchants comply with the changes to UK VAT, Wish will require additional fulfillment information from merchants for all relevant orders placed by UK customers after December 31, 2020 11:00PM UTC. 

The standard UK VAT rate will still remain 20%. Starting January 1, 2021, Wish will automatically add VAT for all domestic and international UK-bound orders on top of the customer-paid product price and shipping price. Therefore, please ensure that the product price and shipping price you provide do not already include the VAT amount. 

For orders that are shipping domestically within the UK, the following new fulfillment requirements below do not apply. 

UK Fulfillment Changes (effective December 31, 2020 11:00PM UTC)

Please see below for a detailed list of changes and relevant information regarding order fulfillment (applicable to UK orders shipped from outside of the UK). Please note that Mainland China-based merchants shipping UK-bound orders with the Advanced Logistics Program or Smart Logistics Program do not need to take any additional actions per UK fulfillment requirements below, as WishPost will take care of the necessary actions for these orders.

For all other types of UK-bound orders:

• For orders whose *expected customer-paid product price for the corresponding consignment is less than or equal to £135 (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes), Wish will calculate, collect, and remit VAT directly to the UK tax authorities. No merchant actions are required. 
• Orders whose *expected customer-paid product price for the corresponding consignment is greater than or equal to £135.01 (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes) will be flagged as “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” in the Merchant Dashboard. This means that merchants are responsible for remitting the VAT amount to the freight forwarder who will then remit the VAT to customs on behalf of customers (in this case, the VAT amount will be remitted to merchants by Wish when merchants receive payments for relevant orders). For this type of order, it is important for merchants to utilize specific WishPost channels (applicable to merchants shipping orders from Mainland China; see details below) or UK-bound Confirmed Delivery Shipping Carriers (applicable to merchants shipping orders from outside of Mainland China; see details below) that provide Delivered at Place Plus (DAP+) service, as only carriers providing DAP+ services can pay the VAT amount due at the border to customs on behalf of customers.

* Note that Wish applies the “Pay Customer VAT “PAC-VAT” required” flag to individual Order ID in Merchant Dashboard, and assumes that 1 Order ID = 1 consignment/package. Therefore, the expected customer-paid product price for the consignment = the customer-paid product price for the individual Order ID. See more details below.

Please note that all merchants shipping orders to the UK will need to declare ship-from location for UK-bound orders by indicating the origin country/region when fulfilling an order through the Merchant Dashboard or via API. It is important that merchants provide the correct Origin Country/Region information when they are fulfilling the orders, as Wish will determine the VAT remit type for merchants’ UK-bound orders based on their Origin Country/Region.

Merchants providing inaccurate information when fulfilling orders may be in violation of various fulfillment policies, as listed in the Merchant Policy, "Fulfillment."

Fulfillment requirement for orders flagged as “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required”

Orders whose expected customer-paid product price for the corresponding consignment is greater than or equal to £135.01 (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes) will be flagged as “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” orders in the Merchant Dashboard. Merchants are required to use specific carriers that provide Delivered at Place Plus (DAP+) services to fulfill this type of orders. Carriers that provide DAP+ services can pay VAT on behalf of customers to customs, so long as the merchant remits the VAT to the + carriers.

This flag can be seen for relevant orders next to the Order ID under the Overview Table in the Order details page (see screenshot below):

This flag will also be visible under the Orders > Unfulfilled Orders or Orders > History page. See below for an example shown in the Orders > History page:

The DAP+ carriers providing DAP+ service will differ for merchants shipping from Mainland China (WishPost) and for merchants shipping from outside of Mainland China (non-WishPost) merchants.

Please note the following action items for merchants shipping “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” orders from different originating locations:

1. For merchants shipping from Mainland China using WishPost:

Merchants are required to utilize one of the following WishPost logistics channels that provide DAP+ services to fulfill this type of order:

• EQ-Express Parcel GC
• EQ-Express Parcel SC
• CNE-Standard Express
• CNE-Economy Express
• CNE–Priority Express
• CNE–Standard Express-B EU

WishPost will take care of any other fulfillment requirements (detailed below, as these additional requirements are only relevant to non-WishPost merchants shipping from outside of Mainland China and outside of the UK) for UK-bound orders on behalf of merchants shipping from Mainland China using WishPost.

2. For merchants shipping from outside of Mainland China and outside of the UK:

Merchants must select a Confirmed Delivery Shipping Carrier for UK-bound orders that will provide DAP+ services when shipping this type of order. For a full list of Confirmed Delivery Shipping Carriers, please see here.

In addition, merchants must also include the customer-paid price of the order when generating a shipping label with their selected DAP+ freight forwarder. The customer-paid price can be found in the Merchant Dashboard and via API. Please see below for details on how to locate this information. 

Finding customer-paid price in Merchant Dashboard

1). Navigate to Orders > Unfulfilled Orders or Orders > History page. In the row of the relevant UK-bound order, access the Order details page:

You will find the customer-paid price (i.e. Total product price + Total shipping price, per Order details screenshot above) and total VAT amount in the “United Kingdom fulfillment requirements” section on the Order details page.

As previously mentioned, merchants are responsible for remitting the displayed Total VAT collected amount to UK-bound Confirmed Delivery Shipping Carriers offering DAP+ services for “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” orders. The Total VAT collected amount will be remitted by Wish to the merchant when the merchant receives payment for their order; merchants may then pass the VAT amount to their selected shipping carrier, along with including the customer-paid price when generating a shipping label.

2). Your new required fulfillment information can also be accessed by clicking the link under the Ship to column on either the Orders > Unfulfilled Orders or Orders > History page.

A popup modal with shipping information will appear, including the Total order price, Total product price, Total shipping price, and Total VAT collected amount for the order. As mentioned above, customer-paid price is (Total product price + Total shipping price), which must be included when generating a shipping label with their selected DAP+ freight forwarder. Total order price is (Total product price + Total shipping price + Total VAT collected amount), which does not need to be included in the shipping label.

By clicking the “i” icon next to “Total product price (GBP)” and “Total shipping price (GBP)”, merchants will see the tooltip below: 

By clicking the “i” icon next to “Total VAT collected amount (GBP)”, merchants will see the tooltip below:

Finding customer-paid price via API

The following API endpoints will now return relevant new UK VAT information, including information on new fulfillment requirements for UK-bound orders, such as the customer-paid price, so that merchants can properly fulfill relevant orders via API:

• GET /api/v2/order
• GET /api/v2/order/multi-get
• GET /api/v2/order/get-fulfill

For more details, please see our Merchant API documentation page here.

How does combining packages affect VAT for UK-bound orders?

Please note that the value of a consignment will increase when combining multiple orders into one package/consignment. If you choose to combine several orders into one package, and the combined total expected customer-paid product price is greater than or equal to £135.01 for the corresponding consignment (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes), you will then be responsible for remitting VAT to freight forwarders on behalf of customers (even though individual orders are not flagged as “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required”). As such, we strongly recommend that merchants not fulfill orders together if combining orders causes the total customer-paid product price of the consignment to be greater than or equal to £135.01.

Please note that the “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” flag is placed on individual Order IDs in the Merchant Dashboard, and does not take into account combining packages. Specifically, Wish assumes by default that 1 Order ID is equal to 1 consignment/package. Therefore, if merchants combine multiple Order IDs into one package/consignment, causing the total customer-paid product price of the entire consignment to be greater than or equal to £135.01, merchants will still be responsible for remitting VAT to freight forwarders, even if the individual orders' customer-paid price is less than or equal to £135 and do not have the “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” flags shown.

For more information on how to fulfill orders, please see here.