USA,Europe & United Kingdom Shipping
As of 1st July 2021, Flexo is no longer able to ship to USA, Europe & the United Kingdom.
Flexo desires to sell its products globally but certain Governments have introduced new VAT regulations commencing the 1st July 2021 for eCommerce business (B2C). These Governments have taken away the minimum VAT thresholds and forced small and large eCommerce sites to now collect VAT, and in some places Duties, at point of sale. We think this is very unfair for small boutique businesses such as Flexo and the reasons are as follows:
- Flexo will now incur substantial compliance costs associated with Flexo having to collect varying VAT tax & in some places, duties from the customer at the point of sale. For example, in the US there are up to 16,000 possible tax rates depending where the product is delivered to.
- There are a number of complex tax issues such as:
- When a customer buys a product in one location but chooses to send it to another state or country
- Payment of tax and duties have to be in the currency of the country and Flexo is left to manage currency fluctuations as there is a time delay in tax & duty payments. This is a risk Flexo is not willing to take.
- Both the EU and UK have varying thresholds for when to collect VAT tax and if the value of the goods are above these thresholds you do not collect tax at point of sale and another system is then in place.
- If you do not have a fully integrated IT system, tax rate changes are a nightmare.
We feel disappointed for our customers as we are pushed out of the global market because we are too small to take on the cost burden of this new legislation. It appears the big players can afford this new tax compliance cost structure and the smaller players in the market get penalised as the compliance cost is a fixed cost. For more information please see this PDF.
Find a Flexo stockist near you here or get in touch with us with any questions or queries you may have.