Austrian Retail Association - Handelsverband raises alarm: every year 560 million Chinese parcels reach Europe without import VAT

CountriesAsia-Pacific ♦ Published: December 21, 2017; 14:54 ♦ (Vindobona)

More than 10 percent of Austrian retail sales are already generated online, which corresponds to around € 6.8 billion. The problem: half of this online turnover does not arrive at the domestic market, but flows abroad. Particularly problematic is the crossborder business with Asian traders and platforms, especially from China. Currently, 560 million parcels per year are sent to the European Union via Alibaba (AliExpress). 97 percent of these shipments are completely dutyfree and VATfree in the EU and a large part of the remaining 3 percent, at least without import duty.

Austrian Retail Association - Handelsverband raises alarm: every year 560 million Chinese parcels reach Europe without import VAT / Picture: © Vindobona.org

This massive tax evasion is made possible by the EU VAT exemption
for postal deliveries from third countries under € 22 value of goods
and by the duty-free limit of € 150. Many Asian online retailers use
these exemptions with all legal and more or less legal means, for
example: deliberately and actively declaring parcel shipments wrong.
For example,…

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