Traveling and selling Merchandise

I'm not sure that anyone here is going to be able to advise you, since this site is for vacation travel, which is very different from business. Are there other vendors with the tour who could advise you?

You may as well go straight to the source for your business questions, but my gut feeling is that if you "are about to depart", you probably waited too long to address the issue. If the net value of your merchandise excedes a certain amount, you will need to it, and unless you have all the paperwork already lined up, that's going to open a can of worms. It's also a complicated issues because you plan to conduct business in several different countries, each of which have their own tax regimes. Finally, Switzerland isn't a member of the EU, so they likely have their own mutually exclusive regulations. "What steps do we need to take to cross each border?" None, because border stations, for the most part, no longer exist (the UK being an exception). Your problem is going to be when you try to set up and conduct your business.

Tom's post was "edited" by the website software. He meant to say that you will have to d e c l a r e your goods for sale when you enter the various countries.

"will be traveling with a music festival (Warped Tour) as a vendor inside arenas" Shouldn't the festival organizers be able to answer your questions? If not, then as mentioned above, can you check with other vendors? The only help you're likely to get here is on your last question about recommendations or suggestions of places to stop based on your itinerary.

I would talk to the organizers as some others have mentioned, I would assume that they have arrangements in place (otherwise there may be many more issues you are getting into!) and you may fall under them, or they can help you obtain visas and import/customs documents. That said though, unless they have things in place for you, a few weeks is probably not enough time to discover what needs to be done, understand it well enough to take action, then obtain the necessary paperwork. To just show up, bring items in for sale, then sell them, basically violates customs/import laws, work laws, Visa requirements, Tax laws (You likely would need to collect and process VAT) and I am sure I am missing several things. Plus while there are EU regulations, each country still retains control over many aspects, with the UK being a notable difference. My advaice would be tread carefully.

You haven't mentioned getting a visa - not sure if that is because you already have all that in place, or because you were unaware. For the UK you would need a working visa to sell goods; entering even as a business visitor does not allow this. Regarding goods you would go through customs each time you enter and leave the EU, so on arrival in Germany, into Switzerland, then back into the EU in Austria. There are no routine customs to deal with for your internal EU movements and that includes the UK.

Well the first thing to keep in mind is that Scgengen agreement is about the free movement of people not goods. So you will need to have the appropriate import licences etc... Next you need to deal with any work permit issues, again this is by country. Then there is the question of having the correct local vendor licences. It does not matter to them if you are inside or outside the arena, if you are in their town, you'd better have the correct permits. And of course there is also the issue of VAT and income tax clearance... With such little preparation, I would not be at all surprised if they deport you before your tour is over!

As others stated, you should contact the organizer to see what you need. Also contact the U.S. State Department. They may be able to advise you on where to go for information on necessary visas and sales in those countries and what procedures are required to conduct business overseas including requirements on transportation of your sale goods. I would not be surprised if you are required to fill out certain forms for the countries you bring the items into and maybe even pay a fee for importing. Depending on the country's laws, some of this may need to be done in advance. In the U.S., some states require you to collect state sales tax and require you to have a tax identification number issued from the state Department of Revenue. You may have similar sales tax and income tax issues in the countries you visit. So make sure you know all the national, state, regional and local licenses, fees, taxes, visas, VAT and other things you will need to file/pay for/take care of. If the state department cannot direct you to answers, I would recommend consulting an attorney who knows something about overseas business ventures and both U.S. and overseas tax laws. Make sure you have all the correct visas, licenses, tax ID numbers, etc. before you go.

Tiffany, As the others have mentioned, your trip likely won't be considered a normal "tourist visit" in any of the countries you're visiting, as you'll be engaged in employment-related activities. I've found that the U.K. especially tends to be fairly strict about that sort of thing. Their Visa stamp on the Passport states "Leave to enter for six months: Employment and recourse to public funds prohibited". As you're "about to depart", I'm not sure what to suggest? Good luck and happy travels!