Deliveries from Europe to UK question to ponder

[FreddBloggs]

And sometimes the 'intellectuals' are right and denial ceases to just be a river in egypt.

[Peeler]

I think the 'oven ready' deal related to the Withdrawal Agreement, not the trade agreement. But apart from rerunning the Brexit debate, does anyone know the actual answer to Willz's question, or are we just guessing so far? Is the answer not 'online' somewhere?

[Essex Boy]

I confess that I struggled to comprehend the new arrangements for postal imports - because they seem rather unworkable, from HMRC's point of view.

This seems to be the situation from 1 January........

For imports with an intrinsic value of £135 or less, VAT will no longer be due at the point of entry. That is, the customer will no longer be required to pay VAT when they take delivery (presumably that also means no more handling fee). That's because the point at which the VAT becomes due is now at the point of sale. In other words, HMRC are requiring the overseas supplier to register for UK VAT and account for the tax at the UK rate.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah. (sorry, couldn't help myself). Would you? Fred makes a good point.

In theory, the value upon which the customer pays VAT will be less than previously. That's because the value for VAT was previously calculated on goods + carriage + insurance. Now it's just goods.

The other thing to keep in mind is that most EU countries don't have the UK's generous VAT registration thresholds and it was likely that you were always being charged VAT at the seller's home county's VAT rate.

As for the Twitter rant. I'm struggling to think of how he could be charged to Chief, or any other government software. I'd take his comments with a pinch of salt.

Anyway. There's a lot more to it than I've mentioned, Duty for instance, but that's the best I can do. I hope I haven't misdirected anyone. I was pretty addled before I retired and four and a half years out of harness hasn't done my tax knowledge any favours.

Iain

You do mot pay for chief, but it is so clumsy a software company has done an overlay to make it a lot easier to actually use. Time in this case being money.

[Essex Boy]

I think the 'oven ready' deal related to the Withdrawal Agreement, not the trade agreement. But apart from rerunning the Brexit debate, does anyone know the actual answer to Willz's question, or are we just guessing so far? Is the answer not 'online' somewhere?

Don't you like my answer then?

Bloody cheek.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... nuary-2021

.....(I'm totally fecked if I've misread this!!!!)

[Peeler]

I've just realised that I hadn't read it, sorry. What's this Chief thing about? (Apart from being an Essex greeting, 'Oiright chief).

[Paul]

Anything bought from the EU appears to cost you: Purchase Price plus import duty, the sum of these is subject to 20% VAT (technically between 0-20% depending on type) then an addition is made (and decided) by the courier as a "handling fee". This is also being applied to purchases under £135.
Although in reality Couriers seem to be charging more (There may be some confusion in applying Duty and VAT to postage which is no longer included).

[Essex Boy]

Anything bought from the EU appears to cost you: Purchase Price plus import duty, the sum of these is subject to 20% VAT then an addition is made (and decided) by the courier as a "handling fee". This is also being applied to purchases under £135.
Although in reality Couriers seem to be charging more (There may be some confusion in applying Duty and VAT to postage which is no longer included).

[Essex Boy]

I've just realised that I hadn't read it, sorry. What's this Chief thing about? (Apart from being an Essex greeting, 'Oiright chief).

Chief is: Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF).

Actually, I think I shall withdraw from further comment or I'll get sucked into a whole lot of poo, because I can't help myself.

Best of luck to all.

Iain

[Paul]

Where are you getting that from, Paul?

The basic bits are there on the HMRC site and as you're aware VAT is always charged, according to the HMRC on both value and duty.
From HMRC only this is how it should be:
Goods sent from EU to UK are subject to VAT unless "gifts" under £39 value.
VAT should be paid at point of sale and not included in the "intrinsic" value declared.
Goods worth £135 or more are also subject to Import duty at a variable rate depending on type(plus possibly other duties depending on type).
VAT will the be charged on the value of the goods plus the value of any duty.
(Finally the Couriers/Royal Mail will Skim/charge you a flat rate of their choosing for acting as agents for the HMRC on your behalf)
As has been mentioned above, and in the Press, is that the system falls down when people are getting charged VAT on something for which it has already technically been paid and duty where it is not due.

What appears to be happening as a "pro tem" by the couriers is that they are charging an import VAT and duty on all goods some even (incorrectly) charging duty on goods under £135 value, regardless of whether VAT was/should have been paid at point of sale, presumably they've been told by HMRC to do this?
Hopefully this is over zealous behaviour and will be picked up and ironed out if it's wrong. I suspect that it can also be partly attributed to a few lazy EU retailers not calculating and subtracting VAT from UK orders and/or registering for UK VAT. However much of the advice given can be confusing. For instance there should be no VAT due on "gifts" under £39, whereas VAT is actually due on goods of any value which are not "gifts".*
The long and the short of it is that I won't be buying from anyone in EU countries in the short term. I was recently pondering some Legio Heroica figures from Italy but after reading what the state of play with "imports" was and how things were being handled It made my head hurt so I backed slowly out of the room!

*Philosophers might argue whether a gift, freely given, can actually be assigned a monetary value?

[Paul]

Yes, that's the trouble with democracy, sometimes the majority just doesn't do what the "intellectuals"
want it to, does it?

Yup, that's democracy for you. Everyone who is happy to have it is to "blame" for all the mistakes it makes but also takes credit for all the successes it accomplishes