Service to the European Union has been Discontinued

Sadly, we are discontinuing our sales to the EU, per the reasons outlined below: 1) Our local state sales tax rate is 9.5% We are currently not collecting this on our sales at checkout and are paying it out of pocket since we are still a small business; however, that will likely change in 2022. This rate is collected from ALL sales, no matter the buyer's location. Illinois is only one of 3 states in the USA to tax online sales like this.

2) Our payment providers are now extracting a 19% Value added tax (VAT) to all sales going to the EU as of July 1st. This means we are taxed twice (9.5%+19%) by virtue of being based in Illinois.

3) We have been subsidizing our shipping to the EU by undercharging, which considerably increased our costs roughly 20% on EU sales. Our business is too small and packages too light to contract with international shippers, and the United States Postal Service is not funded by the federal government, thus our rates are not competitive with socialized shipping found in other nations. Additionally, USPS service has been horrible to international shipments in 2021, and we have seen shipping times increase over 300%.

In conclusion, after including additional payment processing fees, it is costing us roughly 50% more in costs from double taxing and shipping to sell to EU customers. We thank you for your past support, and look forward to more favorable economic climates for international trade in the future.