We recently had an order from a customer in the United Kingdom. Our fulfillment person held the order out of concern over customs/tax issues.
To make a long story short, the UK has no minimum escape hatch, requires us to collect and remit a 20% Value Added Tax which we have to hide in our quoted price, and we have to set up an account with the tax man.
Treasurer Bill Sornsin tried to set up an account with the following results:
"Ok, I just got halfway through the VAT account registration process.
Not only do they want me to upload passport and two other forms of identification, they've made clear we MUST file quarterly VAT returns even if there was no UK VAT revenue. AND if they see two or more "nil" returns they suspend or "examine" your account. I'm unwilling to sign up for that hassle in perpetuity for a UK sale every other year. Please express our regrets to the member that the UK tax authorities have made this untenable for small businesses overseas."
The problem lies with the UK government, which obviously does not care.
With regret, we have refunded the customer his money and cancelled his order.
We have also changed the store shipping settings to NOT quote shipping to the UK, which means that the order will not process through the store.
Membership processing is unaffected.