Hi I am an American with a direct sales scrapbooking company that just expanded to Belgium. I was wondering how sales tax licences and shipping from the usa worked. Any sites on the web with info on direct sales rules for Belgium?
Thanks, scrapbunny
Hop Into Scrapbooking with scrapbunny.com

(If you own the company yourself skip the next 2 paragraphs.)

Does scrapbunny.com have any form of organisation in Belgium? - If it's an MLM enterprise it may already have the beginning of a sales network in Europe/Belgium and you may be obliged to work through that. If so, your import problems will be easier but you will be controlled - to some extent - by the company.

You may wish to contact scrapbunny.com to ask them whether they will allow *you* to set up the European or Belgian arm of their company - If they do, it could mean more money for you as, if it's an MLM organisation, everything would come under you. You would, however need professional help to set up an import agency because if the company is going to trade through you and if there is likely to be a rapid expansion, you can't afford any late-stage 'glitches' or problems with Belgian customs.

If it's going to be a relatively small operation and you don't anticipate cash-flow problems, then you may find that import taxes will be handled by the shipper (I'm thinking DHL/FedEx rather than USPS.) The company sending you the merchandise will have to complete a customs declaration and the shipper will clear the merchandise through Belgian customs and present you with a customs bill on delivery. You will, of course, have to declare your enterprise to the Belgian tax authorities (so that they can obtain VAT and the myriad of other Belgian taxes from you - but you'd have to do that for any enterprise, whether you were selling imported goods or not.)

If you are considering importing merchandise through an APO/FPO/diplomatic mail service - don't. It's against the terms of use of such a service and you are likely to land yourself in a deal of trouble.