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Brexit Import Taxes

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-143-a-guide-for-international-post-users/notice-143-a-guide-for-international-post-users

This makes interesting reading if your keen. Dated 22/12/2020. Not sure if it's been superseded.

If I'm reading it correctly for consignments up to £135 (in P&P) no duty is payable :-

View attachment 67318

For consignments over £135 VAT (20%?) + Duty (2%?) + £8 Post Office handling charge is payable to the Post Office when they send you the bill.

I don't know why or how this has changed.

 
38super said:
For consignments over £135 VAT (20%?) + Duty (2%?) + £8 Post Office handling charge is payable to the Post Office when they send you the bill.
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I'm planning on making a purchase at Powair6 once they start shipping to the UK again, later this month by their own estimates. The UK already charges 20% for internal products anyway, so if it's just 2% + £8, it sounds reasonable.

 
The Commander said:
I'm planning on making a purchase at Powair6 once they start shipping to the UK again, later this month by their own estimates. The UK already charges 20% for internal products anyway, so if it's just 2% + £8, it sounds reasonable.
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If your purchase is £135 or less (and the seller has registered for UK VAT) the VAT is paid at point of purchase and there will be no duty and Royal Mail won't charge.

If it's over £135 it'll be the same as it always was; cost of goods plus shipping and insurance for duty calculation, VAT calculated on that total, handling charge on top.

https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/

 
The Commander said:
I'm planning on making a purchase at Powair6 once they start shipping to the UK again, later this month by their own estimates. The UK already charges 20% for internal products anyway, so if it's just 2% + £8, it sounds reasonable.
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Be careful with the stated VAT on the purchase page.

I was going to make a purchase on Gunfire and basket stated "Including VAT"

Luckily I asked them and they said VAT was NOT included so I guess they didn't update their website.

So I would have been charged the extra 20% on entry to UK...

 
Something I found out in the last couple of days is that if you buy something that is sub £135 and already in the UK at the point of sale, but sold by an overseas seller, you have to pay the VAT at point of sale.  Probably not a lot of situations where this applies but something to think about none the less. 

 
well, small update on my import duties tale...

i ordered a bunch of stuff from airsoft atlanta that totalled approx £290.  parcel got stopped by customs and i have been stung £65 of import duty...

on the other hand, i ordered a bunch of non-airsoft stuff from japan, and was expecting the parcel to be stopped at customs as every single parcel from japan has been in the past,  yet this time it passed straight through customs with no charges attached...   goods in the parcel totalled £120 and i wasnt charged VAT etc...
 

 
Spartan09 said:
well, small update on my import duties tale...

i ordered a bunch of stuff from airsoft atlanta that totalled approx £290.  parcel got stopped by customs and i have been stung £65 of import duty...

on the other hand, i ordered a bunch of non-airsoft stuff from japan, and was expecting the parcel to be stopped at customs as every single parcel from japan has been in the past,  yet this time it passed straight through customs with no charges attached...   goods in the parcel totalled £120 and i wasnt charged VAT etc...
 
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No rhyme or reason!?

Bit like suck it and see...

Regards 

 
Lozart said:
If your purchase is £135 or less (and the seller has registered for UK VAT) the VAT is paid at point of purchase and there will be no duty and Royal Mail won't charge.

If it's over £135 it'll be the same as it always was; cost of goods plus shipping and insurance for duty calculation, VAT calculated on that total, handling charge on top.

https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/
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So if you're spending say £260, would it make more financial sense/be cheaper to make two purchases of £130 and pay for delivery twice than buying a single £260 order that will be charged customs on top?

 
The Commander said:
So if you're spending say £260, would it make more financial sense/be cheaper to make two purchases of £130 and pay for delivery twice than buying a single £260 order that will be charged customs on top?
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Not really. The percentage duty and VAT is still the same. It's purely down to where the VAT is paid - at point of purchase or point of import. If it's paid at point of purchase Royal Mail would have no reason to charge you their extra handling fee so it might save you £8.

 
The Commander said:
So if you're spending say £260, would it make more financial sense/be cheaper to make two purchases of £130 and pay for delivery twice than buying a single £260 order that will be charged customs on top?
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Duty is a minor percentage, probably 2%

20% VAT would be due on both methods 
On £260 you could save £5.20 at 2% duty by getting separate packages 

The level of handling fees could vary, usually a minimum of £8

So by getting separate packages you might save £13.20, but you would pay double in postage 

With the single package there is always the possibility that it doesn’t get picked up on entry and you get away with no charges 

 
Not to mention that pretty much every courier (including Royal Mail) charges a service fee for prepaying your VAT and passing it through their network to get it to you as quickly as possible. On something like that I believe it's around £13.

 
More tales of woe due to the fuck up that is the new trade "deal"...

Not airsoft, but still tales of woe... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55734277

Its bloody ridiculous that you cant get any idea of what charges may be until after you have ordered, and the goods have arrived in the UK.

Who is it a deal for?  Because its certainly not us...

 
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The Commander said:
Two real examples of things being imported and the associated costs:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jan/27/anna-customs-duty

It seems things under £135 cost the same as if they were bought in an UK store + the delivery fee?
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The 30 December Sweden example should have been handled as a pre Brexit sale unless it was processed post Brexit

Its been treated as post Brexit, so the £71.74 gets 20% import VAT (£14.348) plus the £11 handling fees and have been under charged by 1p due to bad rounding.

The recipient has a case for reclaiming invalid costs (unless it wasn’t exactly as they have described.  (Odd for them to have added quotes on supposed free postage)

If it had been a post Brexit sale then ideally the seller would register with HMRC, handle UK VAT and show all the details on the customs declaration 

The Italian trainers at €490 for two pairs, and £131 in charges:

They are sad that nobody told them there was the possibility of import costs, did they tell the Italian retailer that they planned to try both sizes and send one pair back for a refund?

€490 is £433.05 on my converter

So import VAT 20% is £86.61

Take that off the £131 they were charged £44.39 as duty and fees

16% duty quoted would be £69

Something is wrong in the article 

The ‘consumer rights’ element about extra charges is a red herring, they wouldn’t have applied when within the EU pre Brexit and ‘consumer rights’ don’t put the onus on a foreign seller to warn an importer about their country’s requirements.

The new arrangement that foreign sellers are to register for UK VAT to handle sales up to £135 makes it equivalent to an internal UK sale

(and can actually make it cheaper then a pre Brexit sale as other EU countries often had higher VAT rates then the UK 

 
Druid799 said:
My take on international sales now we have left the EU is there’s a price on the web page for the order , you then add the P&P which gives you the retailers final delivery price . You then bend over the kitchen table with a large jar of lube at hand and wait to see what the F*uk it’s going to cost you in the end and who’s going to buttf**k me first with ‘taxes/charges/handling fees/‘ or what ever other scam they can think off as I haven’t a scooby do what’s going on any more ??‍♂️
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Agreed there is no predicting this, it gets made up every time you order!

Just click the button and pray

 
I ordered a Holosun sight for £177 which I assume is coming from Germany, is gonna take like a month and I am expecting probably another £60/£80 to pay I reckon but will keep you updated

 
gunbod007 said:
I ordered a Holosun sight for £177 which I assume is coming from Germany, is gonna take like a month and I am expecting probably another £60/£80 to pay I reckon but will keep you updated
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I hope they aren’t sending it UPS. Holosun sent mine via UPS, what a disaster lol

 
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