IOSS – What is it?

In July 2021, the legislation changed from having a 22 Euro threshold on goods entering the EU, to a 0 Euro threshold. This means that all shipments entering the EU are now liable to VAT.

What does this mean to me?

This now means that in order to trade with the EU, and to avoid your customers having to pay VAT and admin charges on the doorstep, you must collect VAT at the point of transaction.

To simplify what would otherwise be a very complicated process (involving 27 different VAT rates, and having to submit this VAT to 27 different countries)- the EU have put in place an International One Stop Shop. This means you can register with an EU based intermediary to support you in collecting and paying VAT, cutting through the complexity.

Newsstand have done the homework for you, and are able to explain simply and effectively the options you have, as well as providing out of the box solutions.

Sounds great – what are my options?

1. You could register for the IOSS, which is an EU led, International One Stop Shop. You would provide us with your IOSS number and we send shipments through a ‘DDP’ postal stream meaning duties have been pre-paid. There are many companies that provide IOSS support. Registering for the IOSS will give you complete freedom in selling magazines and products on your own platform.
   

2. You can register with a pay as you go service, like Taxamo or Cross Border IT, which will provide you with an IOSS number, and support you in collecting the VAT on your checkout. With this solution, you pay for what you use which might work out as a cheaper solution if you have smaller volumes of customers in the EU. As above, you would provide us with your IOSS number and we send shipments through a ‘DDP’ postal stream meaning duties have been pre-paid. This allows you to continue to sell your magazines and products on your own website.
   

3. You can send your EU customers to the Newsstand website as we are IOSS registered. We will host the transaction, collect and pay the VAT, and simply give you 50% of the cover price via your monthly invoice. We’ll pay the shipping costs and the customer data ‘becomes ours’. Shipments would go via the ‘DDP’ postal stream, and this saves you the work of registering with an IOSS intermediary.
   

4. We can build you a White Label website, where we host the transaction on our server, handle the EU VAT headache, give you 100% of the fixed price you set, and charge you fulfilment as usual. The set up cost is £250 and the white label is a great looking ‘checkout’ function – it is simple but effective. You would simply direct your EU, or all of your traffic to this website, and we will do the rest. Here are a few examples: 

5. Do nothing! If this all sounds too much to tackle, then you could simply do nothing, and send your shipments with out any duties collected, meaning your customer would face the charge, plus an admin fee slapped on by customs, when receiving their magazine. This is a poor customer journey – and would not be recommended! At the very least, you could direct your EU customers to the Newsstand website instead of having a poor journey, or cease trading with the EU.
   

If a white label, or sending your traffic to our website is of interest, then please contact jo@newsstand.co.uk.

If you register with the IOSS, or a pay as you go service, please drop jo@newsstand.co.uk a line so that we can confidentially assign this number to your account.