VAT & import charges

Some orders show a VAT line. Here’s what it is, when it applies, and why — for the most part — it isn’t your problem to handle. Plain terms, current system. This is a guide, not tax advice.

Why some orders show a VAT line you don’t receive

On certain sales the law makes the platform — not you — the party responsible for collecting VAT. This is the “deemed supplier” rule. When it applies, metal.club adds the VAT on top of your price, collects it from the fan, and sends it to the tax authority.

Note

That VAT was never your money and it’s never our fee. It doesn’t come out of what you’re paid, and it isn’t revenue for the platform — it passes straight through to the tax office. You keep your full price (less the normal platform fee); the VAT rides alongside it.

Digital sales to UK & EU fans

For a download (or the digital club) sold to a fan in the UK or EU, the platform collects the VAT. This applies from the very first sale, with no threshold, and regardless of where you’re based.

Digital sales to fans outside the UK and EU (for example the US, Australia, Canada) have no platform-collected VAT today — nothing is added.

Physical goods & imports

Physical records and merch are mostly not the platform’s VAT job. The one case that is: when goods cross a border into the UK or EU — you’re a seller outside that region shipping in — and the order value is under the low-value threshold (£135 into the UK, €150 into the EU). Then the platform collects the import VAT at checkout so it clears customs cleanly.

Above that threshold, the platform does not collect it — the fan settles any import VAT/duty with the carrier on delivery, in the normal way. A domestic sale (you and the fan in the same country) is your own affair, as always.

Shipping from local stock — the advantage, and the honest caveat

If you hold stock inside a fan’s region — say a UK warehouse serving UK fans — that order never crosses a border. No import VAT at the threshold, and no customs bill or delay for the fan. That’s the point of setting up a shipping origin close to your fans: it removes the friction that makes people abandon an international order. Setting up origins and per-item rates is covered in Shipping & origins.

Important

The honest caveat: shipping locally removes the border, but it doesn’t always remove the platform VAT collection. If you are not established in that region (for example a US label shipping from a UK warehouse to UK fans), the law still makes the platform collect VAT on those in-region sales — with no threshold. If you are established there (a UK-based seller, UK stock, UK fans), it’s your own domestic VAT and nothing to do with the platform.

The “import charges may apply” line fans see

When an order ships across a customs border into the fan’s region, they see one plain line at checkout: “Ships from [country]. Import charges (customs duty/handling) may be collected by the carrier on delivery.”

It’s there for honesty — so a fan isn’t ambushed by a customs bill they didn’t expect. It is not a charge you or the platform adds, and it only appears when the goods genuinely cross a border. Local (in-region) orders show nothing.

Where you see the breakdown

Any VAT collected on your sales is itemised on your statement, separately from your earnings — so you can always see it was collected and passed on, never taken from you.

One separate item there for UK-based sellers: the platform’s own fee is a UK service, so 20% UK VAT applies to that fee (not to your sale price). It shows as its own line. Sellers outside the UK don’t see it.

Note

This describes the current position and isn’t tax advice. Registration and rules evolve; this page is updated when the engine changes. If a VAT line on an order confuses you, it’s almost always the deemed-supplier rule above — the law collecting it, not a cut of your money.