From July, 1^st 2021, we will pay VAT on your behalf if you are:

• A seller established outside of European Union (no matter if the goods are already in an EU warehouse)
• A seller shipping his goods from a non-EU country, no matter where you are established.

• We will collect VAT instead of the sellers mentioned above

We will then deduce it from the amounts we will distribute to them (at the same time and in the same way as the commission). In order for us to calculate VAT, you will have to indicate the usual shipping location of your parcels in your seller’s preferences and reconfirm it for each order.

• Suppression of €22 threshold for imports: VAT will be applied from the 1^st euro

No parcel will pass customs without information on who will pay VAT on it. You need to clearly show on the parcel and on customs documents the VAT number we will give you to allow customs clearance.

• For the parcels which come from a country outside of European Union: a customs declaration will still be necessary

A reconciliation of figures will be done between customs and VAT declarations so there must be no difference of values between customs declarations (made by the seller) and VAT declarations (made by Rakuten).

*Parcel value excluding shipping costs

In accordance to new VAT rules in force since July 1^st 2021, electronic marketplaces like Rakuten are directly liable for VAT with respect to certain types of sales made through them.

Since this date, there have also been several other important changes:

• the previous VAT exemption for imported goods which value do not exceed EUR 22 is no longer available;
• the VAT regime of intra-EU distance sales of goods has been harmonized within the EU and provides with the taxation in the customer’s Member State above an overall turnover threshold of EUR 10.000 (assessed at the level of all Member States);
• implementation of a new VAT regime applying to distance sale of goods which value do not exceed EUR 150 and which are imported from outside the EU directly to EU customers.

The reporting and payment obligations regarding the VAT regime of intra-EU distance sales of goods and the regime of distance sales of imported goods may be fulfilled, on an optional basis, with new electronic portals (“OSS” and “IOSS” portals).

For this purpose, Rakuten, which is registered at the IOSS portal, provides sellers with its IOSS number in the cases where Rakuten is liable for VAT according to the new VAT regime applying to distance sale of imported goods, in order to avoid that VAT would be charged upon the importation of goods into EU.

A taxable person for VAT purposes is a person who independently carries out economic activities on a regular basis:

• carrying out an economic activity on a regular basis: all activities of producers, merchants, or service providers (including liberal, agricultural, civil, or extractive activities) that are not carried out on an occasional basis.
• independently: the person must not be placed in a subordinate position and must carry out the economic activity under his or her own responsibility (for example, an employee cannot be a taxable person for VAT purposes).

A VAT person who sells goods in the frame of its economic activities is subject to VAT: it has to collect VAT from its clients (i.e. VAT is added to the sale price paid by the clients) and to pay it to French Treasury.

For example, in the case where your activities would be to purchase mobile phones from suppliers and to re-sell them daily to customers, it is likely that you should qualify as a VAT person. In the case where you are an individual who exceptionally sells an old dishwasher, you should not qualify as a VAT person with respect to this sale.

• Assessment of the State in which you are established:

By principle, the State in which you are established is the State where you have established your business. The place where your business is established results from several concrete elements (eg. place of the registered office, place of directors’ meetings, place where financial activites are carried out. In case there would be a discordance between different elements, the place where your business is established will correspond to the place where are taken the key decisions regarding the management of the business. For exemple, a sole mailbox in France should not lead to consider that the business is established in France.

By exception, for a given transaction, you could be seen as established in a different State from the State where your business is established in the case where :

• you have in this other State a permanent establishment which has a sufficient degree of permanence and a structure able, from a human and material resources point of view, to carry-out a services activity; and
• this transaction is carried-out from this permanent establishment.

• Impact of the place where is established:

By principle and subject to specific situaitons, the place where your business is established is not taken into account in order to assess whether a supply of goods is subject or not to VAT in France. For example, you would be liable for VAT in France in the case where you sell goods located in France to French clients, regardless the place where your business is established.

By exception, the place where your business is established is taken into account for the sales made via Rakuten. With respect to the domestic sales and the intra-EU disance sales made via Rakuten:

• in the case where you are established in France or in the EU, you will be liable for VAT and will have to collect VAT on such sales;
• in the case where you are established outside the EU, Rakuen will be liable for VAT and will have to collect VAT on such sales.

The place where your business is established will also have consequences on filing obligations and VAT deduction / reimbursement (i.e. filing obligations, procedures and deduction mechanism could differ depending on whether your business is established in France, in the EU or outside the EU).

• You have a VAT number in France : are you considered to be established in France?

By principle, the mere fact that you have a VAT number issued by a Member State should not have any consequence on the determination of the place where your business is established.

By exception, French tax authorities should consider that you should be deemed to be established in France with respect to sales made in France in the case where:

• you have a permanent establishment in France which has a VAT number; and
• you report such VAT number on the invoices provided to French clients.

Such presumption could be reversed if it is evidenced that your permanent establishement did not take part to such sales (i.e. such sales were made from the place outside France where your business is established or where you have another permanent establishment).

• You are established in a French overseas territory: what is your place of establishement for the purposes of the new VAT rules in force since July 1^st, 2021?

In the case where you are established in a French overseas territory (Guadeloupe, Martinique, La Réunion, Guyane et Mayotte), you are considered as established outside the EU with respect to the new VAT rules which are in force since  July 1^st, 2021.

Since July 1^st 2021, as a professionnal seller, you are still liable for VAT with respect to the sales of goods to non-professionnal customers made via Rakuten in the following cases:

• in the case where you are established in France or in the EU, you are liable for VAT regarding intra-EU distance sales of goods and domestic sales of goods to customers in the EU;

• regardless the place where you are established, regarding goods which value is exceeding EUR 150 and which are imported from outside the EU into another EU Member State and then delivered to a customer in France, you are liable in France for VAT on the delivery of the goods to the customer;
• depending on local rules in each Member State, regarding goods which value exceeds EUR 150 which are imported from outside the EU to France or another EU Member State and then delivered in another EU Member State, you could be liable for VAT in the other States Members;
• regardless the place where you are established, depending on local rules in each Member State and on specific customs schemes, you may be liable for importation VAT in the case where you import goods from outside the UE into a warehouse located in the UE prior to any sale.

To be able to assess whether one of the situation above is applicable, Rakuten has to collect specific information from the sellers [renvoi à la question / réponse sur les informations à communiquer à Rakuten ou renvoi à la question / réponse « You are a professional seller outside EU and you sell goods located outside EU whose value does not exceed EUR 150 to a French client via Rakuten »].