New Import Duty/VAT Thread. Read Post #1 for Rules

RobSR

Thanks for all the replies. It was a market place seller through Amazon. Looking at the original invoice, no Vat was charged so perhaps i am liable. Item has already been delivered. I suppose I am just surprised that there wasn't any warning that there would be additional charges and that the courier actually delivered the item before collecting the money. The advancement charge of €15 is also a bit rich.

corkie

whiterebel wrote: »

You bought from the UK which is now outside the UK EU . So you owe VAT and charges to the courier.

Correcting your post?

RobSR wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies. It was a market place seller through Amazon. Looking at the original invoice, no Vat was charged so perhaps i am liable. Item has already been delivered. I suppose I am just surprised that there wasn't any warning that there would be additional charges and that the courier actually delivered the item before collecting the money. The advancement charge of €15 is also a bit rich.

Courier UPS? It is strange that they delivered before payment was process on there charges.

RobSR

whiterebel wrote: »

You bought from the UK which is now outside the UK. So you owe VAT and charges to the courier.

Fedex

Spocker

corkie wrote: »

Courier UPS? It is strange that they delivered before payment was process on there charges.

Its not uncommon for couriers to deliver items and then seek payment afterwards, and their charges can indeed sting a bit

Darc19

FedEx always deliver and bill you.

Yes there's a €15+vat admin fee for the customs entry. That's standard and reasonably good value as they have invested in technology to do this automatically.

But as you said, it was sold to you less UK vat, so the only difference is the customs entry fee.

RobSR

Thanks all for your advice. Looks like I'll just have to suck it up. Lesson learnt!

L1011

Moved to Couriers forum

fryup

Darc19 wrote: »

FedEx always deliver and bill you.

and what if you don't pay? i mean you have the item

kik4444

Ok so I've ordered some clothes from Alphalete, they have UK distribution and paid in total with shipping 147 EUR which is less than 150EUR threshold for customs duty. Alphalete charged me 23% VAT (which is clearly wrong - Irish VAT is 21% now) and DPD also wants me to pay VAT + 5EUR fee customs VAT charge for goods to be released.

Who did it wrong in this scenario? I am pretty sure i can't be charged VAT twice (UK and Ireland)

Suckit

fryup wrote: »

and what if you don't pay? i mean you have the item

Then they will likely turn to the DHL type system where they charge you before you get the item, or destroy it. (If enough people do it.)

kik4444 wrote: »

Ok so I've ordered some clothes from Alphalete, they have UK distribution and paid in total with shipping 147 EUR which is less than 150EUR threshold for customs duty. Alphalete charged me 23% VAT (which is clearly wrong - Irish VAT is 21% now) and DPD also wants me to pay VAT + 5EUR fee customs VAT charge for goods to be released.

Who did it wrong in this scenario? I am pretty sure i can't be charged VAT twice (UK and Ireland)

Alphalete I guess are using DPD, so they should have the invoice stating that you have already paid the Irish VAT.

ohnonotgmail

fryup wrote: »

and what if you don't pay? i mean you have the item

expect a lot of threatening letters from debt collectors.

whiterebel

[QUOTE=kik4444;116304759

Who did it wrong in this scenario? I am pretty sure i can't be charged VAT twice (UK and Ireland)[/QUOTE]

You can be charged UK and Irish VAT, but if they account for Irish VAT you shouldn't

fryup

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

expect a lot of threatening letters from debt collectors.

for 15 quid?

kik4444

Suckit wrote: »

Alphalete I guess are using DPD, so they should have the invoice stating that you have already paid the Irish VAT.

Yup, DPD i spent 1hr today waiting for someone to pick up phone at customers service, i want an explanation why i was charged double Irish (wrong 23%) VAT in this case

ohnonotgmail

fryup wrote: »

for 15 quid?

the 15 is the processing fee charged by fedex/dhl/ups/whatever. are you forgetting the VAT and any customs duty?

Hi
Im bidding on a used item on ebay UK. Will I be liable for import charges on a 2nd hand item?

The_Conductor

TheTorment wrote: »

Hi
Im bidding on a used item on ebay UK. Will I be liable for import charges on a 2nd hand item?

Yes. VAT on anything over EUR22 (which includes shipping costs) and if you go over EUR150- you also get stung for customs/duty. You'll also have a processing fee from An Post or whoever delivers it.

The_Conductor

The_Conductor wrote: »

Yes. VAT on anything over EUR22 (which includes shipping costs) and if you go over EUR150- you also get stung for customs/duty. You'll also have a processing fee from An Post or whoever delivers it.

Thank you.

I can see that Import charges: £10.13 (estimated and based on current bid) will be added to the cost should I win.
Will I still have additional charges then? Even from An Post?

VG31

TheTorment wrote: »

Thank you.

I can see that Import charges: £10.13 (estimated and based on current bid) will be added to the cost should I win.
Will I still have additional charges then? Even from An Post?

That's the Global Shipping Programme. You pay import costs in advance so you don't pay anything extra on delivery.

caesar

Hey All,

I won an item yesterday on eBay UK. I know I probably should avoid eBay UK private sales because of VAT and customs, but something came up that's hard to get here.

I bought it in the knowledge that I'd be potentially liable for VAT and customs duties. But from reading elsewhere, I somehow got it into my head before bidding that LCD monitors were potentially not liable for eit.her VAT, customs duty or both. But it's just the customs duty I don't pay as far as I can tell from the TARIC code. So grand VAT is due on it—I expected that anyway.

The thing is, it's a private seller, and as far as eBay is concerned, its a UK transaction as my account is registered there still with my old address.

Even so, my understanding is that if this were, say, a business eBay seller and I'd set my delivery address to Ireland, then eBay would collect any VAT and duties on top of the price paid (like Amazon are doing for new items subject it various thresholds). But it's a private sale, and eBay will display collection as opposed to a shipping address upon checkout, so I'll just pay the item amount. eBay won't collect anything. And the seller will merely be attaching my address label and handing it over to the courier. I'm not asking them to fill in any forms for export.

When I bid, I figured it would simply be a case of book a courier; they would pick up the item in the UK, customs upon arrival would assess based on the value declared to the courier (like you declare for domestic shipping) or customs would base it on the eBay print off (if the seller happened to include it on or in the box)—but booking a courier like so doesn't seem that "simple" these days.

I need to get it to Ireland rather than the seller, so my real questions start here.

I'm being asked to fill in quite a bit of info about the item during the courier booking process (via UPS). It's a lot more than "what this item worth". UPS's system seems to be triggering an export from the UK based on my delivery address in Ireland. That makes sense, but at the same time, it looks like they are just starting to implement this version of these online forms, either in general for all international deliveries or for post-Brexit EU deliveries from the UK specifically...as it's not the most seamless to use and looks like a BETA form. It also looks like an upgrade from some other online forms on their site, but that may well be the Ups.ie variant of their website I was looking at before. Not sure, but very clunky and confusing still.

I'm getting the option to declare the value along with a whole range of declarations, and they then give me an estimate of what I owe customs. It's based on what I declare and the tariff code. I'm assuming here I'm fine to put in what I actually paid for the item provided I have evidence—which I do.

I believe filling in these online forms means I would avoid any customs admin charge from UPS, and I get to declare the value of the item upfront and possibly pay the VAT and duty over to Customs via the courier on top of the delivery cost before it's even picked up in the UK. Albeit based on an estimate. That's handy even though the form is a pain. This is rather than someone else working it out (and likely at a much higher rate than what I paid).

Of course, I could just ask the seller to attach the eBay invoice/receipt to the outside of the box or leave it inside for the customs people to dig out. Still, I can't see an option with UPS to simply put in a UK pick up address, Irish delivery address and just declare the value, and then pay the VAT and any duty upon delivery (and possibly an admin fee...). The booking process I'm looking at seems very involved, as if I were exporting hundreds of the items.

Has anyone had any similar experiences there? I'm thinking filling in these forms is the way to go?

I was also going to ask the seller to include the original invoice from retail as it is a new boxed item. I know the manufacturer warranty is obsolete with a private sale (even though the thing is virtually new), but I want to have the original receipt nonetheless. The problem with this is I'm wondering if customs would open up the box and decide to charge the VAT and import duties (if there were to be any) based on that value plus shipping and not the eBay purchase price plus shipping.

In practice, which value are they meant to use?

I know if someone were sending you something for free (for whatever reason), they'd have to put a value on it, and you'd have to pay duties but wondering how like new boxed auction items work?

In general, with private eBay purchases, I get the sense that even if someone sent something like this via the AddressPal route, Customs could slap a value on it based on the value of the item at retail, or it could be let through without anything at all.

Am I right in thinking that? Particular the former as that would be pretty punitive. This is what I want to know before booking the courier.

If Irish VAT and customs are going to be based on the recommended retail price as opposed to what my eBay receipt says, then I would courier and sell it on to a friend in the UK. I was only buying it to see how it compared to another monitor I've on route from Germany.

The only scenario where Id be happy to pay the Irish VAT on the RRP is if I could in turn make a claim to recover the UK Vat if the seller sends me the original receipt.

Advice greatly appreciated.

Brexit fun eh!

whiterebel

You're going to pay VAT and UPS customs clearance charge of €18.15 no matter what you do. The value you declare is the value you paid. Customs may ask you for a screenshot of your PayPal account as confirmation. get the seller to put a copy of the invoice on the outside of the box. Do not put the original invoice in it, it is nothing to do with the transaction and will confuse the situation.

Jordo1993

So I'm buying a skateboard obstacle from the UK as nowhere I Ireland makes them, total cost plus shipping about €300.50 it's under the sport and leisure category. How much would customs slap on to that piece

Spocker

Jordo1993 wrote: »

So I'm buying a skateboard obstacle from the UK as nowhere I Ireland makes them, total cost plus shipping about €300.50 it's under the sport and leisure category. How much would customs slap on to that piece

Everything you need will be in the first post of this thread

mackD

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

Toto Wolfcastle

mackD wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

ASOS is fulfilling Irish orders from within the EU.

The_Conductor

mackD wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

Duty only applies on purchases over EUR150, and the rate charged depends on the nature of the item.
VAT, on the other hand, is charged on purchases over EUR22, all purchases.
The EUR25 charge sounds like a collection charge from DHL.

Seriously- stop buying from the UK until they get the whole sodding mess sorted.

VG31

mackD wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

No the courier has nothing to do with it. Asos, as with many large British companies is VAT registered in Ireland so you pay VAT at checkout.

Small companies will not be VAT registered in Ireland so you will have to pay VAT (and possibly duty if over €150) on arrival. The retailer *should* not charge you UK VAT in that case.

clevtrev

mackD wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

Asos are shipping from their EU warehouse so no customs.

buying from small retailers in the UK - they apply UK vat and then DPD will apply irish VAT and also a handling charge so 21% + 5 euro handling

mackD

Thanks guys for breaking it down for me, it’s starting to make sense now.
It’s my own fault for not doing research beforehand but I won’t be caught out again at least.

whiterebel

mackD wrote: »

Sorry for my ignorance but can anyone explain to me why I’m being charged import duty on some of my UK purchases and not on others?
For instance, I purchased some clothes from ASOS a few weeks ago, delivered by DPD and with no extra charges.
This week, I ordered a small electrical item from an independent UK store, delivered by DHL but slapped with a €25 import duty charge for it to be delivered.
Both the clothes and electrical item were just under €100 each.
Does it all depend on the courier?

Have a look in the forum. There are multiple threads about Brexit and what it means for shopping.

As an example: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2058146415