The Loose Association of Wargamers

FreddBloggs wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:57 pm 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.

CHIEF has been in private software company hands since the late 80’s and is a black box operation to HMRC.
Guess who you can thank for that.

Essex Boy wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 1:18 am

Peeler wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 12:06 am 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

I used to work for Customs and Excise and was a programmer on DEPS (Departmental Entry Processing System) , which was the forerunner of Chief, and I was privatised into BT back in the late 80s.

It might have been worse I could have been transferred to a job in Southend.

Or you could have been lucky and been transferred to Shoeburyness to join me

levied troop wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 9:58 am Or you could have been lucky and been transferred to Shoeburyness to join me

I visited the Shoeburyness office once. That's was enough for me.

Copied from Facebook.

Strato Minis Studio

A small and sad announcement update for our British customers.
Two days ago we were forced to lock out retail shipping to UK addresses, due to new post-Brexit policies of British Revenue Office. We did it with heavy heart, and we hope it is only temporary, but the situation is so chaotic at the moment, that even our accountant, after 2 weeks of research is unable to explain to us how we should proceed.
Here is what we know, and it is not much.
Starting January 1st, Great Britain introduced a new policy for foreign retailers. For most countries of the world, be it EU, USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, even Brazil, the situation is pretty straightforward. Retail customer purchases product at agreed retail (gross price), the seller pays all taxes from this transaction (like VAT, income tax etc), domestically, the product is shipped, goes through customs procedures and can be picked up at receiver's end.
Sometimes there are some import customs fees on receiver's end, but those vary, depending on trade agreements and local regulations.
If import fees would be the only problem with post-Brexit UK shipping it wouldn't be a problem at all for us, a perhaps additional burden for the buyer. But the British revenue office has decided to do something rather radical. VAT tax, a standard for EU countries, remained as a part of the British revenue system as well. And now they require from international sellers to pay VAT (20% of the net retail price) tax in the UK. It means that every company that wants to sell retail to the UK must register there, and, for every transaction, they are required to pay part of their taxes in the UK.
This causes, of course, additional headaches for accountants all over the world, who need to learn British tax regulations, split taxes from every transaction into two pools (domestic and the UK) and, most importantly, they are not even sure if such procedures have ground in, say, Polish tax laws to which we adhere.
Another problem, and a big one too, are the customs clearance fees that seller must pay to clear taxes on the export side. We are used to this, but in B2B, wholesale dealings, not retail. Basically, in B2B business customer pays only net price, about 83% of the gross price, we clear VAT at customs, and then the customer pays his own local VAT (if applicable) in their destination. If that would be the case for retail, we could simply make a special net price only for UK citizens, who would pay VAT domestically. But to do that, lots of laws would have to change in both countries. Problem is, documentation and checkout procedures cost about 30 GBP per parcel, and require lots of extra work to fill declarations etc. So, given that many of the retail purchases from the UK are below 30 GBP, paying 30 on top of every order from our side is impossible. Transferring it onto customer also wouldn't be fair...
If you made it that far reading this, you are probably confused, and so are we.

levied troop wrote: ↑Sat Jan 23, 2021 7:41 am

FreddBloggs wrote: ↑Fri Jan 22, 2021 7:57 pm 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.

CHIEF has been in private software company hands since the late 80’s and is a black box operation to HMRC.
Guess who you can thank for that.

Didn't the same people give away EF as well? I seem to recall the Department rationing EF access because it was too expensive to lease back.

As B2B has been kept much simpler, would there be a possibility of a UK manufacturer or shop acting as an agent '"hub" for more EU companies. Obviously the issue there is wholesale vs retail prices and profits etc... but it might be something a company like North Star could look at taking on?

I am amused at all this Brexit angst. If we exclude temporary residences and FIFO, I have lived in eight countries that are not members of the EU and have imported EU made products to seven of these. Sure, I pay VAT, I would pay VAT on a local product.

I think this is just growing pains, things should become rational over the next year.

I note that others have replied and in essence say this,
a reply Graham Cumming posted on the Fife and Drum forum.

Willz
In essence any company ( large or small) sending goods to the U.K. has to register with HMRC and they should add the VAT to the goods at point of sale then quarterly send that to HMRC.
Because of work involved and documentation most couriers are now adding a handling fee!
If the goods come to more than £135 then VAT etc is charged on entry to the country
From the 1st July companies exporting to the EU will have to do the same as they are adopting the same process. That is why a lot of small companies in Europe and America are declining to send small orders to the U.K.
The E.U have said we won’t have to register with 27 countries we will be able to register once and complete documentation on line!
Which ever way you cut the cloth everyone will pay more.
Graham.

So it looks like for UK hobbyist it will be cheaper to follow the hobby by purchasing items from UK.
Looks like I will have to alter my ebay sales and only sell to uk as some of my combined items have sold for more that £135.
Its a good job I have sold most of what I wanted to clear out.

So onward and up, happy gaming and stay safe,
Willz.

It all sounds rather complicated. Wouldn't it just be easier for the buyer to pay his own countries vat? I don't know. But like Paul says, will this lead to a couple of wholesale importers buying in and retailing goods in the UK? Isn't this what OGUK does?