Looking at buying some stuff from Italy, total including delivery is about £280. I know it will get VAT applied but will there be any other charges? I have searched on here and the internet in general and it seems full of stories of ‘my brothers, mates, uncles, first born child knew a guy down the pub who was charged a gazillion quid in extra charges’. I am guessing there will be a few people who regularly import stuff on here so looking for real world experiences.
Oh, the pleasures of leaving the EU. Nigel Farage was so clever! Now he is odds-on to be the next Prime Minister. What pleasure comes to me later in life! has he proposed war against Germany yet, with our good mates from Russia?
Your courier will ensure this is an expensive and very unsatisfactory experience. They have had a good (insert word ending in “exit” that causes arguments). Unless I can get the EU VAT removed from the purchase price, I buy, then arrange shipment to a hotel in EU then collect at a later (track day) date.
@TBay the goods should be sold to you exclusive of Italian Vat (22%). Upon their arrival at a UK port they will have to clear customs, the Courier does this on your behalf, for which they charge. You will receive a demand from the courier to pay customs duty (at whatever rate applies to the goods you are importing - you can look up the duty in the Taric database), plus you will have to pay UK VAT on the cost of the goods + shipping + customs duty. The courier’s admin fee could be anything but is typically around 10-15£ + vat.
This is what concerns me, I don’t mind paying the VAT but concerned about the extras the courier might stick on that I can’t predict. Sadly I have no contacts in the EU anymore that could help directly.
Thanks! That’s very helpful. I didn’t realise VAT was payable on everything. This is beginning to look expensive but sadly parts aren’t available over here so no option. Just need to know what to expect.
VAT is payable on everything unfortunately, ie the total cost of the goods landed in the country, which includes shipping & packing costs and duty. However, duty may be 0%. It all depends what the goods are and what is their country of origin. Despite Brexit there is an EU/UK trade deal whereby goods manufactured in the UK can be shipped into the EU with zero duty, and vice versa. What is it you are searching for?
You say "some stuff", is this various sperate items? If you can break down the order into items costing less that £135 each including delivery then sending these separately, maybe staggered over different dates to err on the side of caution, then you should get away with not paying import duty and UK VAT (though you may have to pay duty at source). This should remove ambiguity on final cost. Of course you'll need to work out the cost of multiple shipments and see if it's worth the hassle.
It’s a mix of a few bits for the Multistrada and new exhaust for my Honda CX650. The Ducati bits would be well under the limit but there is a minimum order so fall foul of that without the exhaust. Just a pain in the arse that something that used to be so simple is now so bloody complicated.
Sorry Bumpkin I have to disagree. VAT will always have to be paid when the goods arrive in the country. There used to be a threshold of £20 and items marked as gifts were always excused but those exemptions have long since vanished. Nowadays, regardless of how small the value is and what the purpose of the import is, gift or not, vat will be applied. It’s true there is a minimum threshold of £135 before import duty is applied but, as the UK Govt is so cash strapped, that too is disappearing as well and duty will be applied on everything. Whether that has been implanted yet or is due to be implemented in the very near future I know not, I’d have to ask Google, but it’s happening
It’s not really, admittedly prior to Brexit you wouldn’t have seen any charges for duty and vat but you’d have had to pay the vat in the selling country. All that’s happening is the vat is being collected by the State which imports the goods rather than the one which sells them. It’s no different to what has been occurring in B2B business dealings since vat was invented. As stated above, if the goods you’re purchasing were manufactured in the EU (as opposed to being manufactured in China and imported into the EU by the seller) there will be no duty to pay. If you could source the items from a UK based seller they’d be broadly the same price as the seller would have had to import them prior to sale and would obviously pass those costs on.
Helmets are exempt from any duty as safety equipment. I’ve bought from Chromeburner etc, never had any extra charges
It’s the lack of clarity that is the issue. Before Wrexit you just saw a price, paid it, delivery occurs. Just the comments above about made in EU/ over or under £135, before or after this date or the other, shows that it has all the clarity of a brick. I just want to know a price so I can decide if I can afford it this month or not but that seems impossible so I think best bet is to plan for the worst and hope for the best as the old saying goes.
I bought a full fairing kit from MFS in China, cost approx £400, no VAT or import duty when it was delivered, my son ordered a track fairings kit from Romania, Ebay purchase, got stung for import duty and VAT, I ordered another full fairing kit from MFS China, minimal import duty
