For Those Living Outside The Uk...

[piggynose]

A surprise for you!
If you have to have anything sent to you by post, you will have to pay a tariff.
I had a wee shock last week, a package a friend sent me, which cost him £6, insisted on a 2nd charge of €6. The Spanish post office said it was a result of Brexit!!!

[Buenchico]

My (Scottish) friend lives in Italy but also has a flat here in the UK. On a recent visit she realised that she's forgotten to bring her birdwatching binoculars with her, so she got her husband to mail them from Italy. She had to pay over forty quid in charges!

[douglas9401]

Rooked

[pastafreak]

Maybe it's cheaper to use a service like DHL...or are these customs charges? Still seems excessive.

[anneasquith]

Brexit, surely not ?

[Khandro]

It all seems a bit chaotic; I don't pay anything if I buy via Amazon UK, & yet I paid 8€ (to me in Germany) for printing inks bought direct from Inkreadible UK.

It seems to depend -as pasta says- on whom is carrying it.

[ToraToraTora]

I never buy or sell anything from / too the EUSSR, they are all rip off merchants. If you sell they claim they haven't had it and Ebay always favour the buyer if you buy it either doesn't turn up or they charge you an arm and a leg on top. I had some Italian guy begging me to sell him a rare car part but I just couldn't take the chance, he probably was genuine.

[Hymie]

Another Brexit gain.

[davebro]

There are ways - non-EU European countries, Canary islands. If the EU don't want to deal with us sod 'em. It will be their loss over time.

[Buenchico]

>>> or are these customs charges?

They certainly are for anything coming into the UK from the EU (or from elsewhere, such as the USA).

For anything up to the value of £135 (excluding alcohol, tobacco and perfume) there's no Customs Duty or Import VAT to pay. Under those circumstances, there's no customs inspection fee to pay either.

However from £135.01 upwards, the first thing that happens is that Import Duty is calculated. (For some types of goods, that might be zero. For others though, such as cotton-based clothing from the USA, that can be as high as 27%). Then 20% VAT is added onto both the cost of the goods and the Import Duty. (Yes, that really is a tax on a tax). Then a £12 customs examination fee is added on top of all that lot.

The foregoing assumes that the items weren't sent as a gift. There used to be a 'gift allowance' that entitled someone in the UK to receive occasional gifts from overseas (such as those for birthdays) without paying VAT or Import Duty. i.e. the whole point of it was to create a concession. However the gift allowance now has exactly the opposite effect from the one originally intended, as any gift over £39 is subject to VAT (and consequently to the £12 inspection fee on top of that). So gifts valued between £35.01 and £135 get clobbered for charges, whereas other imports within that range of values don't!

[Electrochem]

We have family in Croatia. It used to be very easy and cheap to send parcels to them. Not any more!

[Khandro]

More info here:
https://www.parcelmonkey.co.uk/how-will-brexit-affect-parcel-deliveries-to-the-eu

[barry1010]

Khandro, your Amazon.co.uk purchase was likely sent from an EU country. I buy a lot of stuff from a US company but the goods are posted from an address in the UK, so no charges. Same when I bought my mobile phone direct from the Chinese manufacturer

[gness]

Placed an order for something I've been searching for for ages. Then discovered the tax I'd have to pay and had to cancel my order.
Bloody Brexit. :-(

[barry1010]

Are you in the UK, gness? If so, can you find a UK supplier?

[gness]

I found a UK supplier, Barry. I live in the EU. More business lost for the UK.

[barry1010]

You'll have to come over for a jolly day, gness, and take it home with you

[gness]

Thank you for the invite, Barry and I'm sure it'd be a jolly day with you but we won't be visiting the UK for a very long time. :-)

Have found what I want from Germany.

[ducksie]

Since Brexit, Irish shoppers were advised if shopping on a very popular website that also has Prime, to log into the Dutch site or German site because anything shipped over from UK will have tariffs

[gness]

Buying from Amazon we use the German site now, Ducksie.

With Amazon UK it depends on who is despatching the item whether or not you now pay tax.

[ducksie]

I think regardless of the sender (from UK) you still pay tax, I received a gift from my Sis recently and I had to pay for it even though she had it beautifully wrapped and not bought online