Buying From The EU

[Maurice Leakey]

Any UK resident now buying an item on eBay from a EU country will have Ebay adding 20% VAT to the purchase price.
Have any UK Forum members bought any such item recently, a film perhaps?
If so, is there any way that British Customs & Excise are made aware that the VAT rate has already been paid?

[Mark Todd]

How does this work Maurice, if you buy new goods for instance on ebay from the EU you have already paid VAT there in that country.

Likewise if they buy from us.

The whole thing is a flippin Mess. The going on a friend of mine just had trying to send a film to the States multiple forms, different couriers thought different things etc etc you did not need non EU pre brexit is crazy. So why now ?

Rather than just concentrate on sorting the EU things they seem to have gone bonkers on all overeas goods from anywhere and in any direction.

Nightmare.

Its going to cost the UK dearly in many ways sadly.

Best Mark.

PS I can see there being multiple chargings Maurice, and the UK Gov side of things seems to be very mixed up not knowing etc..

[Osi Osgood]

All I can say is that I am dang glad that I literally have everything on film that I wanted to collect as of now. I am often stunned as to how much people charge for shipping just here in the "colonies" at times.

[Nick Regan]

The "mess" seems to be a mess both ways, I sell a lot to the continent, I use eBay for this as they have their " Global Shipping" scheme. I advertise and sell with a set UK postage price. When it is sold abroad I collect this postage price and send the item to eBay in Leicester and they then use their own couriers to send abroad.

When my listing appears on a different countries ebay site, It automatically appears with the price including delivery to that country the difference being set and collected by eBay. So what the customer saw was what he paid before he pressed the Buy it now button.

(This worked fine.)

Now apparently eBay is adding taxes etc to the items after sale. I had a begging email from a gentleman in Italy telling me he wanted to buy an Ampro projector from me but he would be charged (on top of everything else) a further £46 in tax so I should take this off the price???? I had to try and explain that as the Projector was only £130 and eBay charge us £20 for selling so, if I took his £46 off, I might as well have just given it to him.

As a seller who is not registered for Vat my prices when selling are retail, they not plus Vat. Selling through eBay I have no say in continental taxes etc. Is this eBay adding VAT because they are actually "officially" selling the item not me? but if this is so why is it not charged by them when I sell within the UK?

Or could this be not actually VAT but the Customs Import / Export Tax? The same as would be added if I sold to the USA

(This no longer works so fine.)

Nick

[Osi Osgood]

It wouldn't be nearly so awful if, when you paid for shipping, that the higher the price, the quicker the shipping, but in this day and age, that isn't necessarily so.

[Mark Todd]

The small business`s etc that have been left to go to the wall with all of this is terrible.

We have really bent oursleves over in the UK big time.

And its just the start as some temporary things finish soon.

Its literally Gawd help us.

But Hobby wise its making things a right job and half of it all.

Lots of peple will be charged things they should not be, and if they do realise will have to chase it all back, and round the way again, thats if they do realise or manage to get it back.

Looks like in the UK we will have to become far more insular just to try and cope.

Best Mark.

[Tom Photiou]

You will pay 20% tax on anything that costs over £120-130. Its pretty much been the same for anything we buy outside the EU for ever and day, all thats happened is we have decided to take back our own control, seeing how we have done with the vaccine compared to the rest of EU, for once i believe we made a good move. It does mean we will pay extra when ordering from the EU, (as mentioned in all listings on ebay if you look) but then, as i said, you pay import taxes when ordering from the states or anywhere else.
I guess it means you just have to be more choosey on what you buy, films or anything else.

[Dominique De Bast]

A German seller adverised a 9.5 sound film (in English) at a reasonnable starting price (post paid) on eBay UK. Probably because of the new import fees, there has been only one bid : mine

[Douglas Meltzer]

I realize it's difficult to post in this thread and not bring politics into it. That said, we do have a rule about leaving politics off this Forum. Therefore, a number of posts have been deleted.

[Mark Todd]

Just for an update my friend`s experiance trying to send a film to the USA got even worse.

The goings on with DHL have gone from bad to even worse with all of the post brexit changes and confusion.

But the Post Office people before that were at a total loss with all the mixed up goings on etc.

Though it does look as if ebay with Global shipping works OK.-ish apparently.

Best Mark.

PS Doug, sorry yes did go off on a tangent some what !!!

[Maurice Leakey]

Here are details for items delivered to the UK from European Countries which I have "gleaned" from the UK eBay website.

Value Added Tax generally applies to purchases by UK consumers, and prices on eBay co.uk are shown inclusive of UK VAT.

Started on 1st January 2021 eBay is required to collect VAT on certain orders delivered to an UK address up to £135 in value. On orders over £135 imported into the UK the recipient may need to pay VAT as part of clearing the parcel through customs.

You will see the VAT included in your order at checkout, and you can view and download a tax invoice from the order attached in your Purchase History.

[Maurice Leakey]

I have just ordered a 16mm feature from Greece. Following on from my above post here is how the transaction worked:-

Price of film on eBay = US $114.00
Postage to UK = US $94.03
Total Paid = US $208.03 (UK £156.70)

After clicking the Buy It Now, up came the following total:-

Film cost = US $95.00 (UK £71.56)
Postage = US $78.36 (UK £59.02)
UK VAT = US $34.67 (UK £26.12)
Total = US $208.03 (UK £156.70)

As you will see, eBay has charged me £26.12 on this transaction for cost of VAT. I am not sure if there will be any more cost. But, watch this space. . The seller has despatched the film.

The film? "The Long, Long Trailer" with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. The Long, Long Trailer (1954) - IMDb My copy is in black & white.

[Mark Todd]

Be interesting to see how this pans out Maurice.

I`ve never been too comfortable paying VAT on the postage though whever from.

Best Mark.

PS With at least 20% on everything ( and post too !!! ) coming in to the UK from the EU, no wonder they left us ordinary types out of the sort of deal.

[Maurice Leakey]

[QUOTE=.....Is there any way that British Customs & Excise are made aware that VAT has already been paid on an import from the EU?...[/QUOTE]

I now have the answer to my above previous question. The film from Greece arrived today via UK Parcelforce. It had three labels.

1) My name and address via Greek postal service
2) A Customs label (in English) with the contents valued in GB pounds
3) A Parcelforce label
4) Also attached was (GB 365 6086 76 CODE PAID)

I did not incur any extra payment, this was due to the code mentioned in 4) above.

A google search found the following from eBay:- "UK eBay will collect and remit VAT on consignments up to the value of £135 imported into the UK. A code should be added by the sender on the package label, this is (GB 365 6086 76)."

As the purchase price was below £135 it ensured that I did not need to pay any more tax or duty.

I would advise any UK members to be aware of the figure quoted and limit any purchase accordingly.

[Tom Photiou]

A purchase of 200 EUROS, (not pounds) incurs a total of £60, (pounds) in import charges from the EU. £12 of which is the rip off handling from Parcel force!! What handling? They are already the handlers, as Maurice said, keep your spend down below £135 and buy elsewhere whenever possible.