A real pain in the @ss even as limited to import to UK...it will again help the big companies whilst small-medium companies like mine would struggle. (for a while) I contacted 22 approved Custom agents on Monday, all flat out with work and would not take any new customers..all this whilst we had 2no full lorries ready to leave. Now it looks, we finally managed to find an agent, still shit loads off paper work and extra tasks for the haulage company. Sure, it will sort itself out within couple of weeks, not so easy after 40+ years of common market to all of a sudden* be out. * sort of we had 4 years to get ready...with a deal signed in the last minute. :-(
It is pity that UK voted as they did. I live in Finland and have been buying a lot of stuff from UK. Now because of these changes I try to avoid UK as much as I can. What I have read it gets more expensive and brings lot extra bureaucracy. I hope this is just temporary and you vote again .
I would expect that vendors not charging IVA will be at a cost to the UK buyer too. Companies will not want the bother of extra manhours to sort out non IVA and IVA sales so will either not sell to the UK or charge a different price to the UK.
We may gradually inch back to some sort of Single Market membership, but sadly that won’t save businesses (or resurrect them) that are struggling over the next year or so. Also - even if we rejoin, we won’t magically regain that economic growth that has been lost. The size of a nation's economy in ten year’s time is a compound of the growth in each of those years until that point. Rejoining a decade from now will not undo the damage. Our economy will be smaller than it would have been had we gone for a Soft Brexit (therefore less tax receipts / revenue for services, NHS, schools etc). There’s no getting that back. And the effects will last for generations. Individuals may not notice because you can’t live in two parallel universes at once, but make no mistake: we have chosen to do this and it will adversely affect future generations. At a time when developed economies are already struggling to provides services for ever-growing elderly populations, *we* have chosen to reduce our future economic prosperity. *Levelling-up* (whatever that means?!) will be harder from a smaller economic base. It’s done now though. Better make the best of it.
I know you need to do a customs declaration now if sending a parcel, same as US. Didn’t you have to do that anyway? Been long time since I sent stuff abroad
Definitely not within the commom market...it did not made any difference irrelevant from value if you where posting to Birmingham or Vienna.
no, this is an out UK imposing new VAT rules to ensure that the UK gets paid when UK consumers buy items directly from foreign businesses via mail order. but eu and uk both want to control the VAT fraud committed by online (mainly Chinese) sellers who claim to be located in abroad but can ship products directly to the customer from consignment warehouses located inside the eu knowing that their shipments will not be inspected . Now the UK and EU govs have shifted the responsibility for collecting VAT from foreign sellers onto the big online marketplace platforms. Previously it was up the business sellers to declare and pay any VAT directly. Now, if the seller does not expressly detail VAT registration credentials and define the amount of VAT on each of the items they sell, the platforms are required to assume prices are NET and blanket add the VAT to the listings and pay this to the relevant treasury . the result is buying and selling any 2nd hand stuff on ebay or amazon and shipping across borders now gets VAT at the local rate in the buyers country added on top. currently this is just happening the UK, but it will also happen for all cross border sales within individual EU member states in the summer. as the UK now imposes blanket import controls from all destinations, customs paperwork is required and import VAT is due on pretty much everything crossing the uk border. For sellers of goods over £135, products will be sold ex-VAT & the import VAT will be collected at the border . but likely you or the seller will have to use a customs agent to organise paying the import VAT (or you can chance it and let the carrier handle it and bill you for the privilege much like what can happen when buying from the US, JAPAN etc) This will inevitably push up Shipping and handling costs. HMRC setup this new VAT scheme for distance sellers of products under £135 so that the seller collects UK vat and pays to HMRC directly. for the privilege they will have to pay and annual fee to register for the scheme& file a separate UK vat return quarterly. i do think the registration fee is uncalled for, but while its a bit of a pain, most online retailers already ship outside of the EU so their software already tracks country, various different vat rates . they also already account for intra-EU VAT sales and purchases on a transaction level and then file a vat return quarterly. every business and self-employed person here in spain already does a VAT return quarterly, even if they only earn a tenner (whereas the uk its only businesses with a turnover of £85k+! so in reality there will be bit of a setup cost and a software update for the sellers. the UK vat return will be something extra their bookeeper has to do once a quarter along with their local VAT return. i doubt his will be a big problem for the likes of omnia, stien-dinse, wrs, carbon4u etc. shipping and handling will go up but the prices you pay for items will not change much but it is enough of a pain in the ass for the very little guy (buyer and seller) , either they wont bother to sell the UK, or they will sell through a broker and pass on these extra costs on to the buyer.
previously you would need an invoice and that was it (if that tbh) as nothing is inspected when sent within the EU block
Hmm. Looks like an empty pannier trip to Andorra on the GS is looming...just need to remove purchases from packaging just in case of inspection at the customs point coming back in to France!
no, importing goods from china would also incur duty and then import vat on top (depending on what it was). buying/selling to from UK- EU should only incur VAT but no duty (on most things) AFAIK
The key thing is that you pay VAT to your own country for all goods bought from UK. I am from Finland. Earlier when I bought something from UK it came with UK VAT 20%. If I now buy from UK (without UK VAT), I have to pay Finnish VAT which is 24%. As a comparison if I buy the same thing from Germany I have to pay German VAT that is 19%. The result being that the UK net price should be 5% (24-19) lower in UK than Germany to be on the same level. This is all forgetting the fact that I have to make Finnish customer declaration for all goods ordered from UK. Then if I decide to return the item I should somehow get back the Finnish VAT, which might not be very simple. This is just to explain that it might be very hard for UK companies to compete with EU companies at least in countries with high VAT tax like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and Ireland.
It's a complication that nobody wanted or voted for but was always going to happen as soon as Theresa May announced the red lines of leaving the customs union and single market. From that moment forward we had to have customs declarations and checks. Forcing companies abroad to do UK VAT for their UK customers just adds to the red tape for them so as a result some won't bother. I'm sure the slack will be taken up by bigger players doing import export but it will come at a higher cost to the consumer. Better out than in? Some will say so whatever the price.
Do you mean that if an EU company sells something to UK it has to calculate UK VAT? So it is not buyers responsibility as it normally?
But it sounds from Funky, who seems to have actually researched it rather than brought a UK-hate agenda to the table, that EU are gearing for this too. Also sounds like across any border in EU. Which makes sense: it helps EU create a common VAT rate and take a bit more control over countries fiscal policies.
Gone quiet here. Just out of interest I asked 3 UK bike part companies if they are shipping to France and what I do about VAT. Nippy Normans will sell to France VAT free. R&G will no longer ship to France. The other one has no idea if they should be selling VAT free or not to France. Clear as mud then.
Turns out the problem is also happening on exports. Customers in Europe buying products ranging from furniture to pet food from UK companies are receiving unexpected bills for VAT and customs duty or finding household names have stopped shipping to the continent, as post-Brexit trading rules bite. “We bought a €47 [£42] shelf from Next for our bathroom,” said Thom Basely, who lives in Marseille. “On the morning it was supposed to be delivered we received an ‘import duty/tax’ demand for over €30, like a ransom note. It came as a complete surprise.” A Frankfurt resident who ordered cycle clothing from a UK company was sent a tax and duty demand for €102, while a woman in the Netherlands who bought trousers in December “with no issues” faced a €40 bill for two more pairs ordered in January. Chris Hickson, a retired logistics and freight forwarding expert living in France, said many people may have been surprised because they believed the tariff-free trade deal negotiated between the UK and EU meant there would be no such extra charges. “Unfortunately, tariffs are not the same as customs duties,” Hickson said. Customs duty is a charge that has to be paid on many goods imported into the EU from countries outside the European customs union – including Britain. Other European customers have been informed that such iconic British retailers as the luxury food store Fortnum & Mason were unfortunately “unable to send any products to European countries at this current time, due to Brexit restrictions”.
*Sigh*. Like it would be perfect day 1.... I'd imagine F&M ship to non-EU countries, so what happens there?
