Customs & Excise 101 - for purchases outwith the EU

A couple of points worth remembering - razor hones are exempt from import duty (but not VAT alas!) into the UK but must be marked on the customs form 'hand sharpening stone'. Also all antiques are exempt from import duty (again not VAT) so if you buy that W&B meat chopper from the US always ask them to label it 'antique shaving item' - not 'old', 'vintage'. etc.

Should save a few bob here and there! :icon_razz:
 
Now that we are not in the EU, has anyone had costly experiences ordering from there? I ordered some Nuàvia Blu yesterday and received the following today:

View attachment 107093

It's my favourite soap, but I'm not paying an extra £36 for it.
The last post here before yours was 2011 so you can pretty much dismiss most of the information.
The customs charge is all to do with the amount you’ve spent,

How much was your order ?
i know from the states iv i’m around the £200 mark i get around £40 ish
 
Now that we are not in the EU, has anyone had costly experiences ordering from there? I ordered some Nuàvia Blu yesterday and received the following today:

View attachment 107093

It's my favourite soap, but I'm not paying an extra £36 for it.

Your Shaving sell them but they aren't in stock. If you can cancel your original order then order from YS later on. AFAIK a few of us have ordered from YS and never been hit with a customs charges when ordering from them.

 
The last post here before yours was 2011 so you can pretty much dismiss most of the information.
The customs charge is all to do with the amount you’ve spent,

How much was your order ?
i know from the states iv i’m around the £200 mark i get around £40 ish
Yes, I knew things had changed, I just thought this was the most appropriate existing forum. I only ordered one tub of Pannacrema at around 40€, including tax. That what surprised me so much.
 
Your Shaving sell them but they aren't in stock. If you can cancel your original order then order from YS later on. AFAIK a few of us have ordered from YS and never been hit with a customs charges when ordering from them.

I managed to find some at Pasteur Pharmacy in the USA. Delivery was less than $7. I'll wait a bit longer, but it's actually worked out better.
 
That's a great deal! $7 for shipping from the States is almost a giveaway!
Also, I think the flipside of terrible fees importing from the EU is that there's no fee for goods from the states under £135. I'm sure it used to be around the £20 mark before you'd come home to a grey 'There's a Fee to Pay' card from Royal Mail.

It does influence my decision to buy - quite a lot. Never liked paying a premium on top of a premium.
 
Also, I think the flipside of terrible fees importing from the EU is that there's no fee for goods from the states under £135. I'm sure it used to be around the £20 mark before you'd come home to a grey 'There's a Fee to Pay' card from Royal Mail.

It does influence my decision to buy - quite a lot. Never liked paying a premium on top of a premium.
I think the "customs duty of 36 GBP" is nonsense for a 40 euro order.
The rules are the same for EU and USA, both are now "rest of the world".

There are three categories of "fees" that may or may not apply.
The first is VAT; that should be paid on everything. This was the most common cause of the "Fee to Pay" card. There used to be an exemption for under £15, but that's no longer. This should be actually now collected by the seller, even if they're outside of the UK. Big companies do this (ebay, ali,etsy,...), the smaller ones sometimes get away with not doing this yet. I think the setup also means that VAT is no longer collected via the annoying "Fee to Pay" cards, and if your parcel gets through Customs, then you're fine unless you need to pay any of the following:
The second is duty. Exempt for < £135.
The third is excise. That's for alcohol and tobacco only. This may apply if you have alcohol in an aftershave, I'm not sure.

So - $7 for shipping from the States and no VAT collected is a great deal, but it also means that the seller just ignores the current UK rules. It remains to be seen for how long the UK Customs will let this slide.
 
Your Shaving sell them but they aren't in stock. If you can cancel your original order then order from YS later on. AFAIK a few of us have ordered from YS and never been hit with a customs charges when ordering from them.

I can testify to that as have been ordering stuff from them over the last 2 years and never been hit with any charges as I keep my orders below about £60 each time I order. They will also ship colognes/ext etc if you select the cheapest shipping as it’s done via road and not air. Normally takes about a week to arrive
 
I managed to find some at Pasteur Pharmacy in the USA. Delivery was less than $7. I'll wait a bit longer, but it's actually worked out better.
I’ve been tempted to buy from Pasteur because of their great postal rates. Went there to buy a couple of soaps today, as they have a bit of a sale on, and they’ve ramped up postal charges to the UK to a minimum of £22, making it just completely unaffordable and not worth running the customs risk, or any risk to be honest as now cheaper to buy in this country
 
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The below £135 threshold for import VAT, is because (for some reason) HMRC expect overseas vendors to be collecting the VAT at the point of sale & to send this £££ to them in London.
As @exists correctly states marketplaces have already agreed to do this, there is a gap/loophole where smaller vendors are able to send items, not collect VAT & the parcels are delivered without charges. This is good, I do not agree with these taxes, however this situation may change. As with the no alcohol rules, it took Royal Mail/HMRC many years to finally enforce this policy.
At the moment Royal Mail does not have the ability to stop everything, which is odd because they seemed happy at least, to attempt to collect everything they could under the old £18 goods or £36 gift rules.

I am looking into joining the EU system as many European services are catching & charging fees on the parcels I export. I am not happy with the amount they charge for brokerage, in some instances 15 to 30 Euros plus import VAT on the goods.
 
It really is pot luck - I recently bought a Vector bundle direct from Blackland, and just was waiting for the DHL email invoice when the package was en route. A delivery attempt was made today, no mention of VAT.
 
I am looking into joining the EU system as many European services are catching & charging fees on the parcels I export. I am not happy with the amount they charge for brokerage, in some instances 15 to 30 Euros plus import VAT on the goods.
Yeah, I was under the impression that EU and UK have similar systems for VAT now... for purchases under €150, you, as a vendor selling from UK to EU, are supposed to collect EU states' VAT and then settle with the EU tax authority directly via IOSS. For purchases over €150 this system can't be used, and it will be the usual "extra charges bingo" for your EU customers, or you could use an agent.
It must be really maddening for you vendors these days.. I am sorry. I would hope that if you start using IOSS, at least purchases under €150 should not require an agent... but it's still extra work and cost for you...
(I should say I don't have a business - I was just curious at some point about how is this supposed to work, so please ignore me or set me straight if I'm talking nonsense.)
 
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