Brexit Import Taxes

[Spartan09]

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...
 

[Shamal]

1 hour ago, 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...
 

No rhyme or reason!🤔

Bit like suck it and see...

Regards 

[Spartan09]

3 minutes ago, Shamal said:

No rhyme or reason!🤔

Bit like suck it and see...

my thoughts exactly...    almost as if they are making the rules up as they go along

 

[The Commander]

On 13/01/2021 at 16:08, 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/

 

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?

[Lozart]

7 hours ago, 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?

 

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.

[Tommikka]

10 hours ago, 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?

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 

 

 

 

[proffrink]

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.

[The Commander]

Related to the topic: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-55734277

 

Apparently speculations abound that the import rules will change at some point.

[Ad_]

Also related:

 

 

[Spartan09]

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...

[The Commander]

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?

[Tommikka]

2 hours ago, 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?

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 

 

[gunbod007]

On 09/01/2021 at 12:34, 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 ?🤦‍♂️

Agreed there is no predicting this, it gets made up every time you order!

Just click the button and pray

[gunbod007]

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

[Guest]

10 hours ago, 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

I hope they aren’t sending it UPS. Holosun sent mine via UPS, what a disaster lol

[Druid799]

I ordered a set of SOG Para shears from a seller in the states on the 6th of Jan I’ve bought from them a couple of times with no problem orders always arrived with in about two wks . SO still not arrived tracking info says ‘left distribution centre for destination country on the 8th’ , and has continued to say the same since then ! Contacted the seller yesterday comes back to me about 2hrs later to say my order is in a distribution centre in Switzerland due to Brexit ! WTF !!!!
apparently USPS is Send a big chunk of there UK bound mail to Switzerland so Swiss Post then deliver it to the uk ! 😳 

[gunbod007]

On 28/01/2021 at 11:57, rocketdogbert said:

I hope they aren’t sending it UPS. Holosun sent mine via UPS, what a disaster lol

Do tell?

[Guest]

12 hours ago, gunbod007 said:

Do tell?

it went from Germany, to Belgium, back to Germany, then France over a two week period.

 

Then, when it got to the U.K., UPS gave me four different delivery dates, none of which they met.

 

Having had enough, I rang them and said I was going to pick up. Despite my nearest depot being the London Hub, they insisted it was at a local depot a further half an hour away.

I duly went there, no sight. No sir, it’s still at the London Hub.

 

Drove to the London hub, waited over an hour before they said they didn’t know where it was, and I couldn’t take nor could they deliver it. I insisted on seeing a supervisor. They said it will be available to pick up the following day, OR they might deliver, they would ring me in the morning and they would confirm, refused to give me a contact number

 

No phone call next morning, rang help desk again, they insisted it was at the hub still.

 

I went back to the hub, different supervisor, sorry sir we can’t find it. At this point I insisted they find it, two and a half hours later they did. 
 

Whilst I was there, two other people came in with similar problems. The security guard (who was retiring that day) said he sends lots of Toby Jugs by post as a sideline, and despite getting a discount from UPS refused to use them as they were “total crap” delivering parcels to private individuals 

 

 

[Shamal]

1 hour ago, rocketdogbert said:

it went from Germany, to Belgium, back to Germany, then France over a two week period.

 

Then, when it got to the U.K., UPS gave me four different delivery dates, none of which they met.

 

Having had enough, I rang them and said I was going to pick up. Despite my nearest depot being the London Hub, they insisted it was at a local depot a further half an hour away.

I duly went there, no sight. No sir, it’s still at the London Hub.

 

Drove to the London hub, waited over an hour before they said they didn’t know where it was, and I couldn’t take nor could they deliver it. I insisted on seeing a supervisor. They said it will be available to pick up the following day, OR they might deliver, they would ring me in the morning and they would confirm, refused to give me a contact number

 

No phone call next morning, rang help desk again, they insisted it was at the hub still.

 

I went back to the hub, different supervisor, sorry sir we can’t find it. At this point I insisted they find it, two and a half hours later they did. 
 

Whilst I was there, two other people came in with similar problems. The security guard (who was retiring that day) said he sends lots of Toby Jugs by post as a sideline, and despite getting a discount from UPS refused to use them as they were “total crap” delivering parcels to private individuals 

 

 

UPS =Unprofessional Pillocks Society 

[Rogerborg]

11 hours ago, mowej said:

 For a £16 item, you might see additional costs like £12 in import taxes

 

You shouldn't.  Anything under £135 should be charged 20% VAT at source by the seller, with no duties to pay.  This is now consistently applied by (e.g.) eBay and AliExpress, although whether the sellers are paying that on to HMRC is another question (but not our problem).

 

Over £135, you get into the weeds of import duties, and we have to pay the ransom fee to release our goods from HMRC jail.