When selling abroad forces you to register for VAT or GST
The pattern across markets: sell through a marketplace and the marketplace usually owes the VAT/GST for you; sell direct and the obligation lands on you at a defined trigger. Direct sellers: the UK requires HMRC registration to charge VAT on consignments ≤£135 (no minimum turnover); the EU offers IOSS (via an EU intermediary for non-EU sellers) to collect VAT at checkout on ≤€150 consignments; Australia requires GST registration once your Australian turnover passes A$75,000. Each trigger below is cited to the tax authority.
Marketplace sellers: mostly covered, not always
The UK makes the online marketplace the deemed supplier for ≤£135 imported consignments — it charges and remits, and you stay out of HMRC's net for those sales. The EU does the same for marketplace-facilitated imports under IOSS. Australia puts the obligation on whoever runs the platform once it crosses the A$75k threshold. The residual traps: goods already warehoused in the destination country, sales above the thresholds, and your own-site orders — those flip the obligation back to you.
Registration isn't only a legal question — it's a channel-choice input. Some small DTC sellers deliberately route UK and EU orders through marketplaces precisely to avoid carrying registrations, accepting the referral fee as the price of not running tax compliance in three jurisdictions.
Common questions
- I sell tiny volumes to the UK from my own site. Do I really have to register?
- For consignments ≤£135 sold directly to UK consumers, yes — the seller charges UK VAT at the point of sale and that requires registration; there is no de-minimis turnover for this scheme. Routing UK sales through a marketplace moves the obligation to the marketplace.
- Does IOSS require a fiscal intermediary?
- Non-EU sellers generally must appoint an EU-established intermediary to use IOSS — factor that service cost against carrier-collection pain and cart abandonment.
Official sources behind these numbers
- For consignments of goods with a value of GBP 135 or less sold directly to UK customers, the overseas seller must charge and account for UK (supply) VAT at the point of sale and register for VAT with HMRC; import VAT is not collected at the border for these consignments. HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2021-01-01
- When overseas goods in consignments of GBP 135 or less are sold to UK customers through an online marketplace, the marketplace (not the seller) is liable for the VAT. The marketplace is also liable for VAT on sales of goods already in the UK when sold via the marketplace by an overseas (non-UK established) seller, at any value. HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2021-01-01
- The Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) lets sellers declare and pay VAT at point of sale for distance sales of goods imported from third countries in consignments of intrinsic value not exceeding EUR 150; without IOSS the customer pays VAT at import plus possible carrier clearance fees. European Commission (DG TAXUD) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2021-07-01
- An electronic interface (marketplace/platform) that facilitates a supply of goods imported from a third country in a consignment not exceeding EUR 150 to a non-taxable person is the 'deemed supplier': it is treated as having received and supplied the goods itself and owes the VAT on the sale. European Commission (DG TAXUD) · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2021-07-01
- A business (including non-resident sellers/platforms selling low value imported goods) must register for GST when its GST turnover is AUD 75,000 or more (AUD 150,000 for non-profits). Australian Taxation Office · verified 2026-07-21
- GST applies to sales of low value imported goods (customs value AUD 1,000 or less) to consumers in Australia; the overseas merchant, electronic distribution platform (EDP) operator, or redeliverer must charge GST at the point of sale and remit it to the ATO. Australian Taxation Office · verified 2026-07-21 · effective 2018-07-01