Just wondering if anyone has had to pay import duty. I received a watch last week from Belgium and had no request for import fees, has anyone else had any experience yet and had to pay for imports from EU?

Want to be prepared for any higher priced watches.

Thanks,

Ollie

 

As far as I an aware we are going to be hit for 20% import duty

 

What was the declared value on customs forms, were there any customs forms?

 

I'm using it as a deisincetive to stop me looking at European eBay listings (which used to account for must of my purchases). Working so far despite being bored in lockdown.

 

I bought a watch in France on 20 December, it was posted on 21 December - it didn't get very far. It arrived in UK on 6 January and was delivered on 7 January: no customs form, no tax, no duty, no problems.
It seems just the same as your experience @OllieOnTheRocks.

 

Technically 20 % VAT. Import duty, if any, would be on top of that.

But you are now entitled to VAT-free prices in the EU, so you should not pay more in the end. Especially if you buy without VAT in the EU and HM Customs forget to apply the UK VAT

 

Seeing as that was sent while we were still in I would have thought that would have been exempt anyway?

 

That doesn't work on private sales though. You will be charged 20% vat on top of sale price if it reaches the value threshold and customs do their job of course.

 

Private purchase due in from the EU soon (hopefully) so time will tell but as @Gav1967 mentions I do expect a 20% charge.
Mr Sunaks' coffers are I suspect at an all time low and he needs every penny he can get

 

My understanding is no import tax due to agreement between uk and eu, but VAT on new goods when landed (which should be deducted from country of origin so it’s not paid twice). Second hand goods gets cloudy as will private sales as has been pointed out.

 

Ordered a watch in mid December (not new).
Paid for watch and shipping. Seller has now asked for €100 for “additional shipping costs”.

 

I'm not sure it is cloudy unfortunately. Buying privately from the EU will be no different to buying from the US. Purchases over the threshold will be subject to VAT. Of course you may get lucky with inept customs or incorrect paperwork but I think the intention is pretty clear.

 

You may be right - there is so much unknown at present. But my point was that it didn't leave France/arrive in UK until 2021.

 

I mentioned it before, but one upside will be the reintroduction of duty-free shopping for travellers between the UK and the EU. The Irish Gov. already confirmed it would be allowing it's reintroduction for UK travellers (and vice versa). [Edit - not vice versa, gosh darn it].


There is at least one boutique in Terminal 5 in Heathrow that sells Omega. You'll need to use B.A. to ensure you use T5. But given return flights can be had for about €50 (Dublin-London), it is an opportunity I fully intend exploiting once regular service resumes after Covid.

It just won't make economic sense to buy new from an A.D. in Dublin anymore.

[Edit:. I am horribly misinformed. Duty Free Shopping for International visitors to the UK has been scrapped since Jan 1st. Situation may be a tiny bit fluid as Brexit settles, but for now, disappointingly, this is not an option it seems.]

 

As a buyer of second hand vintage watches 70+ years old almost exclusively from private individuals we'll never get to reclaim VAT and therefore wont get the net 0 increase advantage that buyers of new items will experience. I understand the purpose of import VAT, surely its to encourage purchases from UK individuals and businesses. But when you're buying second hand items from private individuals that do not have to charge VAT for items that are unlikely to be available anywhere else at that particular time, surely it's just a way to fill the governments coffers, rather than encouraging spending at home? As a collector you WILL buy it because you "need" it, so, now its just going to make our purchases inevitably a bigger financial hit on the consumer, meaning less money to spend at home.

I would say less than 20% of my watches come from the UK, with probably 60% coming from EU nations, and the other 20% other countries around the world. It's a sad time for us British collectors!

 

You sure about that? When you buy inside the UK the government collects the VAT from the seller. When you buy outside the UK and they have no way of collecting it from the seller they collects it from you. I don't think it has anything to do with encouraging where you buy. They just want their money.

 

I was referring to import VAT, I figured "paying more" for items abroad was to discourage people buying things from say USA for half the cost and importing them here, because once import VAT is applied it lowers the difference. I am of course no expert on this it's just how I interpret it. If the item wasn't imported we wouldn't pay VAT to the seller because the seller like you or I are usually (certainly in my case) a private individual not a business So, by that logic why should we have to pay import VAT at all if we wouldn't pay it to an British person, surely there has to be logical argument and mine above is the only Ione I can think of

 

There is no such thing as "import VAT". You are confusing VAT and import duties. You pay VAT on pretty much everything that you buy in the UK apart from a few things that are deemed as 'essentials', at varying rates. If you import 'new goods' from outside the UK the seller removes their domestic VAT and you pay the UK VAT on arrival in the UK. If the goods are subject to import tariffs that is a different issue.

 

Okay without getting into technicalities, I am not confusing anything. I pay the VAT when the item enters the UK from abroad. This might very well be the same VAT as I would pay a trademen with a gross income of £100,000 per year. However, the VAT I pay the guy on Ebay for my new watch I bought from Newcastle is zero because I don't pay I, and neither does he. I therefore am paying VAT only on imported watches, because I do not buy from dealers. I only buy second hand watches from private individuals. So I am using import VAT as a loose term, to articulate the VAT that is paid based solely on the fact the item was imported. I hope I am clear. If you are suggesting we should not have to pay VAT because it's an imported second hand item then you've made me a happy man!

Ultimately the purpose of this thread is to help people who buy second hand watches from private individuals. I do not know the technicalities that is why I am asking the questions, and my interpretation so far is that we have to pay VAT on these second hand goods because they are imported. Therefore whether right or wrong I gave it the term import VAT, I could call something else less polite, but for the purposes of conversation I chose those words hahahaha

 

Ok. It seems to me to be a pretty unrefined scenario at the moment which does mean that we will be paying an additional 20% on second hand watches bought from private sellers within the EU in the form of UK VAT. I suspect that this will change in time when eBay and others lobby the government due to the damage it is doing to their businesses and as the new post Brexit cross border tax scenario matures. Who knows, ring HM Customs!