Shipping to the United Kingdom

This article is for merchants based outside of the United Kingdom (UK) shipping to the UK.

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

Wish automatically adds 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 does not already include the VAT amount. 

Note:

• For domestic shipping orders within the UK, the following fulfillment requirements do not apply (learn more about tax settings for UK domiciled merchants). 
• UK and EU merchants shipping refurbished electronics within the UK and EU, please see the Guide for Selling Refurbished Electronics to learn about VAT margin schemes. 

UK-Bound Orders Shipping From Outside the UK

VAT requirements vary based on product price and where the order ships from.

• When 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 calculates, collects, and remits VAT directly to the UK tax authorities. No merchant actions are required. 

  • Mainland China merchants shipping UK-bound orders with the Advanced Logistics Program also do not need to take action since WishPost handles necessary actions for these orders. 

• When expected customer-paid product price for the corresponding consignment is greater than £135 (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes), orders are flagged as “Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required” in the Merchant Dashboard (see below). This means that merchants are responsible for remitting the VAT amount to the freight forwarder who then remits the VAT to customs on behalf of customers. (In this case, the VAT amount is remitted to merchants by Wish when merchants receive payments for relevant orders.)

Orders Flagged "Pay Customer VAT “PC-VAT” required”

For this type of order, it is important for merchants to use shipping carriers that provide Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) service, as only carriers providing DDP services can pay the VAT amount due to border customs on behalf of customers. 

• Mainland China merchants: Use WishPost carriers, such as
  • EQ-Express Parcel GC
  • EQ-Express Parcel SC
  • Sunyou European Express Parcel

WishPost handles UK-bound order fulfillment requirements on behalf of merchants shipping from Mainland China using WishPost.

• All other merchants: Use UK-bound Confirmed Delivery Shipping Carriers  

In addition, merchants must also include the customer-paid price of the order when generating a shipping label with their selected DDP carrier. The customer-paid price is found via API or in the Merchant Dashboard (see Customer Paid Price, below).

Wish applies the “Pay Customer VAT “PAC-VAT” required” flag to the individual Order ID in the Merchant Dashboard assuming one Order ID = one consignment/package. Therefore, the expected customer-paid product price for the consignment = the customer-paid product price for the individual Order ID.

This flag is found on the  Orders > Unfulfilled Orders or Orders > History page. You can also see it via Order ID > Order details page > Order overview.

All merchants shipping orders to the UK must 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 determines 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."

Customer Paid Price

As noted earlier, this can be found via API or the Merchant Dashboard.

API Steps

Use the following API endpoints to return UK VAT information, such as the customer-paid price:

• GET /api/v3/orders

See the Merchant API documentation for more details.

Merchant Dashboard Steps

1) Navigate to Orders > Unfulfilled Orders or Orders > History page.

2) Locate and click the relevant UK-bound Order ID.

a. Another option for viewing is to instead click the link under the Ship to column, which returns a similar result to what is shown below.

3) Scroll down Order details to “United Kingdom fulfillment requirements” to find the customer-paid price (i.e., Total product price + Total shipping price, per Order details screenshot above) and total VAT amount. Click the “i” icons for tooltips that explain each row.

Combining Packages (VAT Impact)

Please note that the value of a consignment increases 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 £135 for the corresponding consignment (excluding all other customer payments such as shipping, insurance, and taxes), you are 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 do not fulfill orders together if combining orders causes the total customer-paid product price of the consignment to be greater than £135

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 one Order ID is equal to one 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 £135, 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.

Read more on how to fulfill orders.