Has anyone in the UK made a purchase from the EU for more than £135?

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Update, received my bracelet today.

Shipped by DHL from the Netherlands. The package had been opened and checked, it included a commercial invoice as well as a receipt.

No further VAT or duty requested.
 
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Update on my parcel, it's been sat in Germany sorting centre for the last 4 days. No info on when it will proceed.

I talked with our friendly local courier this morning and his mob are now not accepting anything EU bound as they have an enormous backlog and are already concerned with stuff going missing. So there's that.
 
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Update, received my bracelet today.

Shipped by DHL from the Netherlands. The package had been opened and checked, it included a commercial invoice as well as a receipt.

No further VAT or duty requested.

Hmm well that's interesting.. in theory, as the total value exceeded £135, you were supposed to pay the 20% UK VAT to the seller (& not the courier).
But this brings up additional concerns: if they start opening parcels to check the contents, the average courier Joe / warehouse operative will be more than happy to slide that nice shiny watch into their pockets, so much for the careful packaging & camouflaging the contents to avoid sticky fingers 🙁
 
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Whilst I can understand why that may not be possible, I can vouch for the fact that as a UK buyer, it can be tricky to find UK-based watches amongst a sea of "CONUS only" stuff. There's Chrono24 that offers a location search, but most watches are priced high over there.

Would indeed be helpful if people from the UK started putting UK in the title of the listing for this reason.
 
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Would indeed be helpful if people from the UK started putting UK in the title of the listing for this reason.

It is obvious that all the British listings should be in Royal Blue
 
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Hmm well that's interesting.. in theory, as the total value exceeded £135, you were supposed to pay the 20% UK VAT to the seller (& not the courier).
But this brings up additional concerns: if they start opening parcels to check the contents, the average courier Joe / warehouse operative will be more than happy to slide that nice shiny watch into their pockets, so much for the careful packaging & camouflaging the contents to avoid sticky fingers 🙁

If it’s similar to other non EU countries from the UK the value is dictated by the CN22 or CN23 form when you ship. You have to declare the value and what it is, and that form goes on the outside! You can put it inside and label ‘Customs form inside package’ but that’s an invite to open. Presumably that dictates duty/tax at the country of receipt.
 
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Advised today that my long awaited parcel has departed the EU and is UK bound so time will tell 🤔
 
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If it’s similar to other non EU countries from the UK the value is dictated by the CN22 or CN23 form when you ship. You have to declare the value and what it is, and that form goes on the outside! You can put it inside and label ‘Customs form inside package’ but that’s an invite to open. Presumably that dictates duty/tax at the country of receipt.
Telephoned UK Customs Office today for information [I wanted to buy a pre-owned watch from the EU].
Told by Officer that as the watch is over £135 - 20% VAT is due also 2.5% Duty payable.
Not worth doing a deal now.
 
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Telephoned UK Customs Office today for information [I wanted to buy a pre-owned watch from the EU].
Told by Officer that as the watch is over £135 - 20% VAT is due also 2.5% Duty payable.
Not worth doing a deal now.
Better off working with USA with the current exchange rates. By the time tax and import are paid it’s more or less 1:1
 
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Better off working with USA with the current exchange rates. By the time tax and import are paid it’s more or less 1:1
That is about as meaningful as my wife returning from Shopping saying “it’s such good value, it was 20%off!”
 
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That is about as meaningful as my wife returning from Shopping saying “it’s such good value, it was 20%off!”
Rather impolite. Exchange rate is approx 30% in our favour as opposed to 10% from Euro. More choice and perhaps better negotiation available to make cost the same as local purchase.
 
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Telephoned UK Customs Office today for information [I wanted to buy a pre-owned watch from the EU].
Told by Officer that as the watch is over £135 - 20% VAT is due also 2.5% Duty payable.
Not worth doing a deal now.

Actually 20%vat is due below £135 but in those cases it should be charged at the point of sale.

This subject has been done to death on various threads and you have come to the same conclusion regarding vatand duty as all of them.
The only other thing to note (and customs have admitted this) is there will be a period of time (period unknown) needed for them to get their act together so short term you might be lucky.
 
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Rather impolite. Exchange rate is approx 30% in our favour as opposed to 10% from Euro. More choice and perhaps better negotiation available to make cost the same as local purchase.

Sorry, wasn't meant as impolite

What I meant was, what do you mean by 1:1?

one what to one what?
Edited:
 
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The only other thing to note (and customs have admitted this) is there will be a period of time (period unknown) needed for them to get their act together so short term you might be lucky.

This was the reason for this post. I was interested to see if anyone has actually been charged or slipped through the net so to speak in these early days.
I have just ordered a coffee grinder from Italy, and it would be a bargain if the VAT wasn’t collected. I will have to wait and see.
 
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This was the reason for this post. I was interested to see if anyone has actually been charged or slipped through the net so to speak in these early days.
I have just ordered a coffee grinder from Italy, and it would be a bargain if the VAT wasn’t collected. I will have to wait and see.

Yep that's what I thought

And instead you get told what you already know 😗
 
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Sorry, wasn't meant as impolite

What I meant was, what do you mean by 1:1?

one what to one what?
Dollar approx 1.3 to GBP. Vat & import from USA approx 30% so, cost equal.
 
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Dollar approx 1.3 to GBP. Vat & import from USA approx 30% so, cost equal.
Like @Spacefruit I was confused with the original comment and if I'm honest I still have no idea the relevance of this.
I understand you are saying the tax and import costs added to the sale cost effectively mean an exchange rate of 1:1.
So for every £1 you spend you get $1 (73p) worth of watch. Only a good deal if somehow $1 (73p) buys you more than £1 stateside surely.

Hence Spacefruits comment about wives and sales
 
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Like @Spacefruit I was confused with the original comment and if I'm honest I still have no idea the relevance of this.
I understand you are saying the tax and import costs added to the sale cost effectively mean an exchange rate of 1:1.
So for every £1 you spend you get $1 (73p) worth of watch. Only a good deal if somehow $1 (73p) buys you more than £1 stateside surely.

Hence Spacefruits comment about wives and sales
Exactly this. Prior to Brexit, it wasn’t worth looking Stateside. Now with vat added to EU imports it makes just as much sense to look further afield. Otherwise we’re stuck with a very small market to buy from.
 
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Hmm... this was all discussed on another thread a while back, but that seems to have disappeared. The general comments are right, all EU imports into the U.K. above £135 will be charged VAT, possibly duty, excise if it is an excisable product, possibly a handling fee, and U.K. VAT on the handling fee. This means that for used watches/parts, you need to add roughly 20-23% to the price of the watch. It also increases the amount of paperwork needed. If you aren’t charged this, then you’ve been lucky to get away with it.

What should also be added is that it applies the other way - U.K. sales into the EU will also have a similar charge applied, amount dependent on the EU country where the the U.K. goods are being sent. It’s also why many large retailers have stopped cross border trading.

The net effect is that there will be increased cost/friction and eventual reduction in EU/U.K. trade. As @rootbeer7 has pointed out, it now makes sense to look further afield, especially to lower cost countries where the £ may buy more. It also makes no sense for someone in Germany to buy from the U.K. if they can buy the same or similar o from say Spain or Germany, as many U.K. businesses are now finding out.

All of this was known before the Brexit vote and after - it’s a natural consequence of leaving the EU customs union and single market. Why more of the general public didn’t realise it, is a separate debate...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55734277
Edited:
 
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All of this was known before the Brexit vote and after - it’s a natural consequence of leaving the EU customs union and single market. Why more of the general public didn’t realise it, is a separate debate...

Living in Ireland I purchase(d) alot of goodd from the UK. As its a larger market, generally availability is better and pricing was more favourable. Where possible and practical I would like to purchase locally - but convenience and availability often trumped that. I was an avid user of amazon and other online retailers in the UK. Post Brexit all that has stopped. Mainly for 2 reasons. Firstly, customs delays, I know this is under extreme pressure at the moment. But I have tested it with goods purchased via DE, FR and UK - both DE and FR land in ireland faster - secondly - as UK is now outside of the EU single market Im not going to contend with the possibility of additional cost for duty/vat/fees etc.

What I find truly staggering is the appartant lack of awareness of the general UK public as to the impacts on small things like buying goods from Europe and the amount of time that UK citizens can spend in the EU etc. I think for most Europeans the impact was obvious and concerning. I accept that Ireland is a special case being so closely tied economically and culturely to the UK, but general awareness across the EU was pretty high I feel.

Hopefully things will settle down and some practical agreements will come into place in the near term.

In the interim all my € are staying in € (until l find that thing I absolutlely have to have in the UK 😀 )