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Yes they can ignore the VAT if they operate outside of the EU. It's up to the importer to pay the tax in that case. National posts and delivery companies have a standardized procedure for it. It's done in the same sweep with duty fees.

And even if the seller is based inside the EU they don't necessarily need to care about VAT - the limit is around 100k EUR yearly revenue (varies by state).

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> Yes they can ignore the VAT if they operate outside of the EU. It's up to the importer to pay the tax in that case. National posts and delivery companies have a standardized procedure for it.

Yes, but... there is usually some "processing fee" for the customer when it is done this way, so it depends on what they are selling. For instance, if they are selling $10000 items, then yes, the customer probably won't mind too much a $30 processing fee additional to a VAT of about $2000. However, if they are selling $5 items, the post office will still ask its $30 processing fee, even if the VAT is only $1... And, the customer will scream murder, refuse the parcel, etc.

Yes they do that, but you have an opportunity to "do it yourself" - which amounts to just signing a paper they give you and paying. But perhaps that varies by state too - where I live this postal fee is 5 EUR only and they don't charge it for items under 20 EUR.

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