I fear it'll be same which ever way round items are sent, I heard today amazon will remove some products normally sold from EU to Ireland (food supplements I believe) as the admin is too much hassle or complex for certain products, I did not pay too much attention to this so I could be wrong but I feel this is the start of a huge cluster....
You had me stumped their for a while - but I THINK from very quick research and I must stress my lack of understanding here...
I've just realized from other posts here that there are separate Supply Vat and Import Vat. As I read it for goods under £135 the supplier is meant to collect and pay Supply Vat. I assume that is at some percentage rate (different % for different goods), which would make the difference between your £2 and a £134 packages. If that's the case, it would certainly have been more helpful if the dot gov website you referenced had pointed it out, rather than just saying Import Vat wasn't chargeable.
Yep me too - this was why I started this thread. Your understanding tallies with mine... I think lol
The 20% is of course irritating, but I think we would all agree (some hope!) perfectly fair. Obviously the seller/AliExpress have between them sorted out how to do it properly.
Did you keep the packaging - I would like to see the customs declaration - if not no worries.
I really hope so, I have ordered two cross blades for my juicer (amazon) and some ecig stuff from Fasttech I am under no illusion that the fasttech package will get through as I was never charged VAT at the POS however amazon did take an estimated VAT for my cross blades.
I heard this requires something like the seller to have set up a special VAT account based somehow in the UK, and that it's improbable most sellers in distant marketplaces (e.g. Aliexpress) will actually do this, and so for now marketplace sellers will probably have a heavy incentive to fake the VAT numbers.
That sounds like it's probably right - that the rule is this: IF the sale says it includes VAT, then if it's under £135, and their VAT admin is legit, and it's not fags or booze (i.e. excise-duty-liable stuff) then no RM charge from anywhere we currently import from, including the US. unless something's gone wrong with the VAT admin in which case it might be possible to refuse collection, and seek a refund, although this will sometimes be a drastic option, as it will if successful cause a loss for the sender.
Haha my family has lawbreaking in its blood, but I'm trying to reduce my desire to do it to zero for various reasons, be a better person etc. It takes me conscious effort...!
thing is if i bought it from the usa it gets stopped and charged every single time and the box is sliced to bits as well.Haha my family has lawbreaking in its blood, but I'm trying to reduce my desire to do it to zero for various reasons, be a better person etc. It takes me conscious effort...!
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I suppose thinking about it, it could be that because Chinese sellers enjoy subsidised manufacturing and subsidised postage for smaller packages, via Chinapost, which apparently exploits a rule in international postage treaties in a slightly dishonest way, it's possible for them to send dirt cheap things at tiny cost, so that the chances of there being anything of value are tiny, whereas from America, where shipping labour is unionised and everything costs a lot, the chances are anything you buy will have serious value.
