But I guess we’ll still have to pay VAT

But you usualy avoid USA sales taxes as smaller mail order outlets in the USA rely on you to declare your tax at the end of the year on your tax return as the tax is levied by the state you live in not the state its sold in, the bigger ones like Amazon have to have mechanisms to colect it upfront though. Which is why Jensen etc look so cheep, USA prices are typicaly shown without tax.

slight tangent: every time this forum discusses “importing a nice frame from USA how much will it cost me?” , (which usually features the phenomenom of most frames being the same number in dollars over there as they are in quid over here) the conclusion is that the ‘worst case’ import tax/handling fee etc is usually just shy of the uk rrp.
Does this change mean that import tax and indeed ‘charge what you think people will pay’ will make lots of bikes/frames cheaper for us to buy from uk dealers?

the freight carriers will be happy i expect. reduction in admin and general faffing about with paperwork and customs will be good for everyone, unless your specialty is paperwork and customs of course… things do still cost what they cost at the end of it. this will reduce the overheads a bit.

Does this change mean that import tax and indeed ‘charge what you think people will pay’ will make lots of bikes/frames cheaper for us to buy from uk dealers?

UK distributors have to pay import tax too so I’d hope so.

the freight carriers will be happy i expect. reduction in admin and general faffing about with paperwork and customs will be good for everyone

AFACS, there will still be VAT (and a handling charge), so still all the usual customs clearance / delays / charges. This appears only to apply to import duty, which is currently also charged on top of VAT. Import duty is crazy complicated, IIRC there are around 4000 different tariffs… again IIRC there is a different tariff for cotton socks as there is for woolen ones!

It opens the doors for Amazon to take over the world and pay even less tax as all their sales will now be able to originate from the US.

Will Tesco & Argos be able to stand the onslaught…??

It opens the doors for Amazon to take over the world and pay even less tax as all their sales will now be able to originate from the US.

They would still have to pay shipping + VAT + customs clearance. Import duty is usually only a small percentage, around 5% IIRC, depending on the goods. Compared to ever costlier shipping, plus the massive 20% VAT tax that gets added to the cost of the goods PLUS the cost of the shipping, I don’t see it as being that big a change.

Delivered by drone??

Or they’ll get big enough that they can buy out fed-ex or UPS, get Tom Hanks to fly the plane over??

Cheap enough if you can fill your own plane.

Maybe I shouldn’t post after 10 when wine & beer have been imbibed….

read this upto £18 is duty free

The method by which your goods arrive into the UK, also affects when import duty and VAT is applied. If your goods arrive via Airfreight, Seafreight or Roadfeight, then the ‘Low Value’ limit is GB£ 18.00.

This should not be confused with the ‘Low Value’ DUTY limit for Postal, Parcel and Courier shipments. On the 8th December 2009, the EU changed the ‘Low Value’ limit on these, from GB£ 105.00 up to GB£ 135.00, (this came in effect, as of the 1st January 2010). This means that any goods valued under GB£ 135.00 is classed as ‘Low Value goods’, and will not have any duty levied on them.

Please note. This is for import duty only. VAT will still apply on goods valued over GB£ 18.00.

Looking at the bigger picture it should help to align EU/US prices a little better. As said above you will still need to pay VAT and any other charges on your purchase. As for grey imports in reality the distributor can still choose not to do warranty work etc. on stuff brought in from abroad so it’s still a risky way of shopping for some things.

European Union will offer to lift 96 percent of existing import tariffs, retaining protection for just a few sensitive products such as beef, poultry and pork.

So the chicken tax will stay in place then! 😀