Merchants selling across borders often miscalculate taxes because they skip product classification, ignore customs duties, and forget to tax the duties themselves. Wrong numbers lead to delayed shipments, destroyed goods, and killed sales.
As a merchant, you focus on selling your goods. But what about delivery? Is that the end of the sale, or is it the start of the headache? Do you ever have goods delayed by customs? Or delivered with extra taxes, duties, and fees? Do you know why this happens? First, for cross-border sales, you must calculate tax in the buyer's country. That calculation must use the correct tax rate for every product, so you need to know the correct product classification for every product and in every country. Incorrect product classification equals incorrect tax. Second, some sales require customs duties to be calculated. Do you know how to calculate the customs duties for every product in every country? Or does your platform turn a blind eye to customs duties? Third, if you charge for shipping, you need to add tax to the shipping cost. It must be calculated using country-specific rules, and when the cart contains multiple products with different tax rates, tax on shipping gets even more complicated. And what about tax on duties? When customs duties are added, then you must also calculate tax on customs duties. If you don't allow your buyer to pay the correct tax and duty at checkout, they'll be required to pay at delivery. They will receive a demand for missing tax or duties, along with extra handling fees, and the handling fees and delivery delays often kill the deal. Customers refuse the delivery. Carriers return the goods, maybe with more handling fees. Or customs simply destroys the goods if they're left undelivered for too long. So, you can identify the correct classification for every product in every country, then calculate the correct tax, the correct duty, the correct tax on shipping, and the correct tax on duty. Or you can just let ePal do it for you while you focus on selling your goods. Visit or search ePal Global and simplify cross-border sales with a click.
