Hi

Just saw a story on the one show (I Know…. I walked in the room and it was on) where some lad just ordered a pair of trainers from an internet company that I guess he’d used pre Brexit.

he paid £80 or something and it seems the rrp was £140 but they were discounted, as everything seems to be these days.

On having them shipped, the shipper informed him on delivery that he then had to pay VAT, import tax, some handling fee. he disputed it and they charged him another £18 late payment fee with the total cost of the shoes now £140 or so.

WTF. I was looking to order a carbon seatpost (a Roval terra) and had been looking at IBKBIKE or BIKEINN.

On BIKEINN website it states:

For orders being shipped inside of the European Union, VAT is already applied to the eligible items in your basket. You will not be required to pay any import duties or customs fees when your order is delivered. In the United Kingdom, all our prices are inclusive of VAT, which currently stands at a 20% standard rate.
For orders being shipped to countries outside of the European Union, no VAT and any sales tax will be included in the product prices you see on our website and you will not be charged any taxes by bikeinn. However your packages may be subject to the customs fees and import duties of the country to which you have your order shipped.

As they’re in Spain and the item is over the £140 or so limit that means the courier is supposed to collect the tax for the uk govt will I get stung for more tax/ import fees?

I don’t want to end up in the same place last the one show trainer guy.

#frictionfreetradebrexitboll&%ks

Not sure what the problems lots of people seem to be having when ordering from the EU, I have not had any when I have ordered from the EU………

Oh wait a minute, I live in Ireland.😂

I was worrying about this too. Was about to buy a pair of jeans from a shop in Germany last night. It had shipping rates for Europe and worldwide so assumed it’d just be the worldwide rate which is fair enough. Just don’t want to get hit with extra charges this end.

The seller should not be charging you vat at purchase. You should then have to pay vat and a processing fee upon delivery

I’m stunned at all the similar stories cropping up here and on the BBC.  Yup, if you hadn’t noticed, the powers have completely borked this one…

Did anyone not know this was coming?

I think that’s the issue. the limit is £135 it seems. So goods with an intrinsic value over £135 its down to UK customs to charge vat and import charges (whatever they are – someone enlighten me) these are paid on delivery and usually collected by the courier.

Under the £135 limit its down to the seller in the eu to charge you vat, collect that vat and pay it to uk govt plc.

as I see it a couple of problems exist

1. Small eu businesses aren’t set up/ don’t agree/ can’t be arsed with this so won’t sell to us under £135 value.

2. The £135 limit isn’t necessarily what you pay for the goods. Its the intrinsic value of the good and could be based on the full RRP of the goods despite you buying them for much less in a sale (bear in mind a number of us are prob buying from stock clearance/ discounter type hubs abroad such as BIKEINN or whoever.

Like said in my OP. Frictionless trade my arse.

Half a mind to ship it to my mate who lives in France and ask him to swallow it to bring it into the UK! Oh, he’s in lockdown….

Anyone know where I can get a Roval terra seatpost in the UK?