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GAME.UK and the VAT tax
Magic Pink
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
Tur-Boner-FedRegistered User regular
I'm in the US and trying to order a game from GAME.UK and it's charging me the VAT tax. Is this right?
Magic Pink on
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They will have included it in the price already. In the states you have variable taxes so you don't include them, in the UK VAT is always the same, so we include it in prices in the majority of cases.
I have no idea if that applies to goods purchased in the UK from outside the UK. In principle I think you should be able to, but I doubt there's a simple way to go about it.
What sites aren't applying VAT?
The Rules.
I think some of the big retailers have sites "based" in the Channel Islands, so may be able to escape all or some of the VAT rate that way
Pretty much all of them do. Also a lot of mail order contact lens places. There's a VAT exemption for goods below a certain value being imported to the UK (about £15 or so think) that was intended to protect the Channel Islands horticultural industry (really) but also conveniently means that you can send the average CD or DVD from there to the UK without incurring VAT.
No they aren't. The other places have the exact same price and GAME has a seperate listing for VAT charge. If the cost is included in the price then GAME is charging it twice.
This is more likely just the result of Game being generally overpriced.
It's probably the Channel Islands thing, since some experimenting reveals that if you put something in your basket that costs around a tenner (thus being less than the exemption threshold) then they list the VAT but don't apply it to the total. Play and the like presumably just do this invisibly as they don't list VAT separately on their "basket" page.
Their help pages say: "Standard VAT is charged, where applicable, on all orders shipped. You are responsible for claiming back any VAT that you feel is due to you from your local tax or customs office."
Funnily enough I was talking about VAT today at work. From talking to HMRC it seems that it is, in general, extremely difficult to arrange a transaction in the UK where VAT is not charged. Those times when it happens generally involve vast sums of money and the direct involvement of HMRC, or freaky import/export arrangements involving shipping agencies and bonded warehouses. If VAT doesn't apply to you (if say, you're a business, etc) then it's generally on you to pay it initially and then claim it back.