Welcome to my world of DOUBLE TAXATION

But at least if the seller uses eBay's GSP the buyer pays the customs charges up front so there are no surprises. Not sure about the delays though.

In Gibraltar the customer or his agent has to make the customs declaration to HM Customs Gibraltar.

In the case of small packages arriving by post this entails attending the Post Office Customs counter and paying the requisite duty.

So how can it be done up front by someone not in the country?

For this reason I avoid anyone making these spurious claims.

Found this info on the topic...

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"This import charges thing looks for all the world to be an illegal and fraudulent misrepresentation. eBay clearly implies that you are paying for VAT (or GST as we call it in my country) but eBay is in breach of the relevant taxation law by failing to provide a valid tax invoice, and we are therefore being prevented from being able to recover taxes as we are legally entitled to do. It is illegal for eBay to charge for VAT/GST and refuse to provide a valid tax invoice. And it is fraudulent to imply that a charge is to cover taxes that it does not cover. So whichever one this is, eBay appears to me to be breaking the law. Perhaps they have a white-shoed lawyer that has worded this charge in a way that they believe is not a breach of the law, but if so then they are true scumbags. I have emailed eBay several times on this point, respectfully seeking an explanation of their position in law and trying to get to the bottom of it. But eBay refuses to provide any justification or explanation other than to repeat what appears to me to be a misrepresentation, which just makes them look guilty to me. Since eBay is being so evasive about this, probably the best idea would be to report this practise to your local tax department and trade practises department to get clarification, or to request that they investigate this eBay practise. And don't buy from any seller that adds this charge."

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Archiv.../td-p/26776246

Because if you use eBay to buy something from the UK from e.g. Spain and the seller uses GSP you are charged up-front at checkout by eBay and the seller doesn't receive this money.

A while back DHL in Spain rang me up and confirmed my NIE, name, and address for an online purchase (not eBay) from outside the EU before paying up-front for me (at no extra charge because it was included in the checkout total) so such a thing is possible in Spain.

Similar to the way that DHL or TNT or whoever pay UK customs up-front for a parcel from abroad then deliver later I guess. Although in the UK's case these are extra charges on top of checkout charges.

Whether they are acting are agents for the buyer or something else, it happens. Apart from, as you've now clarified, in Gibraltar.

When in business I used DHL many times to deliver VAT free goods from the UK generally via Spain

Plus other couriers for goods of suppliers both in and outside the EU vat free
.

I don't see how that affects Spain and UK customs allowing up-front payment by couriers and eBay collecting import charges at checkout, which is what you said couldn't be done in spite of the screenshot above showing that eBay do precisely that.

The 'import charge' is Spanish VAT @21% and you pay that on the total cost including postage same as the 20% paid shipping into the UK.

What I said could not be done was the collecting of Gibraltar Import Duty
.

And if the the thread's about UK to Spain (see under the screenshot), where's the spurious claim?

The thread is about Ebay

The clue is in the thread title