Extra import charges.

[#1]

Seems some purchases from abroad are attracting additional costs to purchasers.

I can see how this might happen if the items are coming from the EU...but some have had to pay extra costs on items from outside the EU.....ie: Added VAT....

So who gets this extra money ?

[#2]

The treasury in theory but i can see a few sellers jumping on the bandwagon and falsely collecting these fees too.

What i don't understand is why goods from china are suddenly attracting VAT - they were never part of the EU in the first place - unless there was some political agreement in place already by th EU?

Ah well, if it means we're no longer being ruled by that lot sniffing after our vaccine supplies then i'd rather pay it.

[#3]

Been trying to follow this as best I can as I've been mulling over going to France next year to buy a car that cannot be bought here. Confusing to say the least... but maybe not, as it seems we are still part of some free trade agreement with the EU and as such there would be no extra tax to pay on it's import into the UK.

It's all academic at the moment but good to consider these things.  

[#4]

@Minivanman 

I think that the issue is all about VAT. In the EU you pay VAT in the country of purchase and that’s it, However now that we are free I suspect that what you need to do is export the goods tax free from the continent to have VAT added here at 20%. All the fuss at present is that goods are not being sold VAT free or reclaimed over there but is being added here, hence these price hikes. That is apart from profiteering from handling customs declarations of course.

Cars might be interesting with all the other taxes lumped on!

[#5]

@Baldrick1 

Cheers.

[#6]

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@Minivanman wrote:

Been trying to follow this as best I can as I've been mulling over going to France next year to buy a car that cannot be bought here. Confusing to say the least... but maybe not, as it seems we are still part of some free trade agreement with the EU and as such there would be no extra tax to pay on it's import into the UK.

It's all academic at the moment but good to consider these things.  

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Buying a car that cannot be bought here....?

Wonder how you might go on regarding any type of warranty if things went wrong...?

Some spares might be costly if needed.

Do imported cars attract a higher level of insurance ?

Biggest issue might be shifting the steering wheel to the other side.

😉

[#7]

@gleneagles 

It's the Citroën AMI.    

No plans as yet to distribute here but it is under consideration, should have been on the road in France this year, so might be going over next year to 'investigate' options. My last LHD car was insured in France and as you may know there is no road fund license as such and no problem either with driving it in the UK for several months and on French plates. 

....well somebody has to! 😋

[#8]

Didn't they have quite a nice looking car under that model name (in the 1970's?)? To my eyes, that is a poor imitation of a 'Smart' car - before they uglified it recently.

[#9]

@jab1 

They did, and I had one for a while.

They were literally a real pain because it had an angled door that would poke you in the chest even if you stepped to one side to avoid it.

Ouch! It got me again.

Slightly nicer than the 2CV's I had previously, but nowhere near as much fun. 😀

As for the Smart car. Overpriced... and made by Volkswagen I think. Also this particular AMI is not trying to compete or even in the same market. 

[#10]

Thought I remembered my dad having a couple of customers with them - must have had a few rides when he took them for test-drives after services.

Don't remember having a 2CV on the books, but I'd be surprised he didn't at some point - he'd repair anything!

Smarts may be over-priced brand new, but a second-hand showroom near my mum used to have a few newish ones available - they were much cheaper, probably reflecting their original 'over-pricing' BTW - they were/are a Mercedes marque.

[#11]

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@Minivanman wrote:

As for the Smart car. Overpriced... and made by Volkswagen I think. ...

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@Minivanman 

I was thinking Mercedes, but Googling finds it's actually their parent company - Daimler.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_(marque)

The VW 'small' car is the 'up!' and is a bit larger, with 4 seats.and available in 2 3 or 4 5-door. 

Edit:  Oops - missed your Mercedes comment @jab1   

[#12]

Thanks for that correction, @RobPN 😉 - I thought it was MB because the 'Smart' showrooms always used to be next to the Mercedes ones, but I have noticed they seem to have merged the Smart ones into the MB ones recently.

[#13]

I've been clearing out some old belongings recently, and only yesterday I came across a computer magazine from 2000 containing an article about buying from overseas over the internet.  There was a reminder to add import duty and VAT before comparing on-line prices to those charged locally.  All the examples were for buying from the US and the duty varied from 0% to 14% depending on what was bought, but all the prices had VAT added at the UK going rate.

It did say that the Post Office collected the duty and VAT on behalf of HMRC and sometimes 'forgot'.  It also said that low-value imports (up to £18) were exempt but I can't remember if that was excempt from both charges or just the duty.  The £18 in 2000 would presumably have increased year by year to a rather higher amount now.

[#14]

Some of this VAT implementation leaves a lot to be desired.

Take ebay for instance. In some cases they are adding VAT to zero rated goods and even adding VAT to some UK to UK sales. And coming up with a variety of who is responsible for refunding their "mistake".

[#15]

It's been quite a while since I remember buying anything from outside the UK on eBay, but I thought I'd chance my arm on a small purchase from HK as it was more than £2 cheaper than the identical item on Amazon.

I bought at the price offered by the seller (£4.31) and was very careful when going through the payment process to see if anything was added on, in which case I would probably have backed out.

It was only later when checking the status of my order on the eBay app that I noticed the price of the item was showing as £3.59 so thinking the price had dropped I checked things out.  It transpired the price on my purchase was showing the VAT-exclusive price.

However, when checking, I noticed that eBay were providing a VAT receipt (below) which could also be downloaded in pdf if desired.