Read on Twitter
Post Brexit UK duty rules thread time!
You can bring food in unlimited quantities but max limits apply on:
Booze: 42L beer, 18L still wine, 4L spirits, 9L fortified wine eg port or sherry.
Smokes: any mixture of 200 cigs, 100 cigarillos, 50 cigars, 250g tobacco /1 https://twitter.com/umidude/status/1348682147821977601
You can bring food in unlimited quantities but max limits apply on:
Booze: 42L beer, 18L still wine, 4L spirits, 9L fortified wine eg port or sherry.
Smokes: any mixture of 200 cigs, 100 cigarillos, 50 cigars, 250g tobacco /1 https://twitter.com/umidude/status/1348682147821977601
Don't exceed the above for booze and smokes and everyone's happy. Do and you'll pay applicable duties/tax on it all, not just the bit above your allowance.
Other goods can be brought in up to £390 (or £270 if arriving on a private boat or plane) and this is where it sucks. /2
Other goods can be brought in up to £390 (or £270 if arriving on a private boat or plane) and this is where it sucks. /2
Example, let's say you buy a new Apple laptop in a branch of Boulanger (France's answer to Currys). A new MacBook Air M1 with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD is €1129. https://www.boulanger.com/ref/1155927 /3
Let's say you're a law abiding citizen and dutifully declare it. There's no import tariff set by the UK government for it. You can check yourself at https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/sections - type laptop into the search box and then click on the sub section for 84.71 and voila - the HS code! /4
The "harmonized commodity description and coding system" or Harmonized System for short (hence HS). It is a standardised system to define any traded product. It has many uses including keeping track of imports and exports as well as easy calculation of import taxes. /5
One thing HS codes aren't is an EU invention or even a UK one come to that. They have been around since the late 80s and the world customs organisation (WCO) maintains them. If you Google HS code laptop you'll find a variance of opinion but most definitions start 847130 /6
That UK government website I provided above says there's no import tax applicable for this product but there is VAT. Ah. /7
First things first, how much does the UK government reckon €1129 in £ is? There's a website for that - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-exchange-rates-for-2021-monthly. (If you import regularly, i would bookmark this). To save you the click, £1 is €1.1075. /8
Maths time. €1129 divided by 1.1075 is £1019.41.
There's no import tax (yippee) but there is VAT due at 20% (it says so on that HS codes webpage I mentioned above).
20% of £1019.41 is £203.88 please. /9
There's no import tax (yippee) but there is VAT due at 20% (it says so on that HS codes webpage I mentioned above).
20% of £1019.41 is £203.88 please. /9
You'd think you'd get the first £390 tax free but no. /10
The good news is that you can claim back the 20% VAT you paid in France when you bought it because you're taking the laptop out of France. The bad news is you need to visit a French customs office to do it but helpfully there is one in Calais port. /11
Of course you could just evade the tax bill in Dover (and many thousands of people a year will do so). But that would be smuggling, depriving the UK exchequer of tax revenue and it's illegal. /12
What if you order something online for delivery to the UK? Well here is where it can get expensive. Sports shoes such as football boots could (depending on your interpretation of the HS code classification) attract 8%.
Things get pricey. /13
Things get pricey. /13
Let's take the Adidas Predator 20+ FG football boot. For example, on https://www.adidas.de it's retailing at €195.97. This is over the VAT threshold of £135 - search for "notice 143" for more on this if interested - but the short version is taxes will need to be paid. /14
http://Adidas.de wont ship to the UK but others still will. Picking a random example, let's say they charge €10 for shipping with GLS and €5 for insurance. Total cost is €210.97. /15
GLS will collect it and bring it to the UK and hand it over to Royal Mail (who own them). Royal Mail will not release it until fees have been paid. /16
First off, the pesky foreign exchange rate fee. To save you the maths, €210.97 equals £190.49.
First you charge for the 8% import tariff (which is applied against the cost of the shoes plus the shipping plus the insurance, so the full £190.49). That'll be £15.24 please. /17
First you charge for the 8% import tariff (which is applied against the cost of the shoes plus the shipping plus the insurance, so the full £190.49). That'll be £15.24 please. /17
Nope, just getting started. Next up is the VAT which you pay on the shoes plus the shipping plus the insurance plus the import tax. That's right, you have to pay tax on the tax. £190.49 + £15.24 import tax is £205.73 and what 20% is due on. In this case it's £41.15. /18
So, total cost is
£190.49 for the shoes plus insurance plus tax
£15.24 for the 8% import tax
£41.15 for the VAT
£246.88.
So far. /19
£190.49 for the shoes plus insurance plus tax
£15.24 for the 8% import tax
£41.15 for the VAT
£246.88.
So far. /19
Royal Mail charge £12 per parcel that has to be processed. If customs take more than 10 days to process it then they'll charge another £5.50 for up to 10 days then £1.35 per working day thereafter. https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/receiving/how-are-customs-fees-calculated /20
The final cost of my example shipment is therefore £258.88 - all to buy these shoes from a German website and have them imported into the UK. Alternatively they're available from online British retailers for around £160. /21
Herein lies the problem faced by e-commerce trying to trade to and from the UK (for UK sellers face the same issues in the opposite direction); the added VAT fees (and sometimes tariffs too) that have kicked in due to brexit have made them uncompetitive. /22
It's not too big a problem for traders inside the EU; there are trade deals for most of the world and no barriers to trade inside and they'd be forgiven (as many have) for giving up on the UK. For UK traders trying to get in, it's now very cumbersome and expensive. /Fin
