New VAT rules for overseas sellers supplying goods to UK customers - Any experiences yet?

[PC2017]

Package status: Delivered (9 Days)

How much was the item soundwave and what seller?

there should have been a customs fee on it.

Last year?? these new rules came into effect on the 1st Jan 2021, so you may have dodged a bullet, that said I believe anything below £135 will only have VAT applied even before this debacle. TBF I did something stupid after reading all this the only place I could find a half decent wallet at a small price was on Fasttech and after making a purchase I realised they are not a market place and did not add VAT, the royalM charge alone will be a stinger, I hope I get a tracking scenario like soundwave did

chinese page and pay shipping and an extra 30usd for tax PLUS another 6$ tax

Was the Chinese seller a market place? You have got to be extra careful with paying TAX at the point of sale. The way I vaguely understand it, mainland China has area or a main export TAX for the Chinese Gov, some new companies can be exempt from this but long standing companies with a high turn over are not, Hong Kong (I believe) does not have any export TAX. So it is advised to enquire about the type of TAX you are paying unless it states UK VAT. Defo no fun paying a tax then getting hit with VAT at customs.

 

[StuartsProjects]

Was the Chinese seller a market place? You have got to be extra careful with paying TAX at the point of sale. The way I vaguely understand it, mainland China has area or a main export TAX for the Chinese Gov, some new companies can be exempt from this but long standing companies with a high turn over are not, Hong Kong (I believe) does not have any export TAX. So it is advised to enquire about the type of TAX you are paying unless it states UK VAT. Defo no fun paying a tax then getting hit with VAT at customs.

Whilst companies such as Aliepress allegedly do charge UK VAT and presumably then forward the money to the UK HMRC, I do wonder ...................

 

[soundwave]

Shockwave Lab SL-86 SL86 LED Upgrade Kit for Earthrise Scorponok ( Titan-Class ) Upgrade Kit.

Features: A new set of LED Upgrade kit for Earthrise Scorponok brought by Shockwave Lab (3rd party transformer studio focusing on upgrade kits) . This kit will help inject the spirit into the figure. Whole set includes: 1 × Chest light 2 × Hands lights Follow the instruction in the photo to...

www.tfsafari.com

price does not matter as not been charged for anything so far this year.

 

[Irish-e-chris]

How much was the item soundwave and what seller?


Last year?? these new rules came into effect on the 1st Jan 2021, so you may have dodged a bullet, that said I believe anything below £135 will only have VAT applied even before this debacle. TBF I did something stupid after reading all this the only place I could find a half decent wallet at a small price was on Fasttech and after making a purchase I realised they are not a market place and did not add VAT, the royalM charge alone will be a stinger, I hope I get a tracking scenario like soundwave did


Was the Chinese seller a market place? You have got to be extra careful with paying TAX at the point of sale. The way I vaguely understand it, mainland China has area or a main export TAX for the Chinese Gov, some new companies can be exempt from this but long standing companies with a high turn over are not, Hong Kong (I believe) does not have any export TAX. So it is advised to enquire about the type of TAX you are paying unless it states UK VAT. Defo no fun paying a tax then getting hit with VAT at customs.

That was on E-bay so it should be OK. I've noticed CSC is selling on Ali too and prices are same/higher as on ebay.

There is some "fancy footwork" going on from Chinese sellers for sure. My brakes came from China but magically had posting label from Irish "sorting center" only. No tax declaration, no value or invoice.
Battery (bought on amazon) came from China too but shipping shows it as comming from Germany (DHL) where it spend a few days.... (don't expect a invoice there either and no taxes on that box either. States it's from Germany... Motor kit ebay seller has a GB tax number shown on his page, but orders for Ireland need to be shipped from China not spain......

 

[Manc44]

Got my customs charge letter today for Bafang hub kit, it's basically everything except a battery, the kit was about £270 inc shipping from China. The charges were £21.50 altogether, not taking VAT into account. £9.50 of that was the customs charge and the other £12 was the handling fee. It's about what I was expecting.

 

[PC2017]

£270 inc shipping from China

When you actually get your parcel I would be intrigued to know what item value was declared on the customs declaration form. EDIT how much was VAT?

 

[Tony1951]

No you shouldn't be faced with silly money excesses , expect at most about £35 if you are unlucky.

I think a lot of ebay purchases used to go through without VAT. Now they don't.

 

[Manc44]

When you actually get your parcel I would be intrigued to know what item value was declared on the customs declaration form.

They put the full value on it. €297.72 aka £252.54 (at todays exchange rate, which might be slightly different since it's 10 from days after ordering).

The £9.50 customs charge is peanuts compared to what I was expecting. I paid about that on a £40 item a few years back. Shrug.

This £9.50 works out to 3.76% of the full value (not 2.5% like it should have been?!)

In the box: Ready built 48V/500W motor in a rear wheel, brake levers, controller + its case, 1T4 cable and a few other odds and sods like cables and nuts/washers.

EDIT how much was VAT?

£53.23

That's actually 21.08% of the cost, not 20%. Maybe it went to fairies in the sky.

So along with the inexplicable extra 1.26% on the customs fee and this extra 1.08% on VAT that's an extra 2.34% which works out to +£5.91.

For all I know it's just the way the exchange rate went (against me?) from 10 days back.

Bear in mind this came from Germany, not China

Although, it was bought on AliExpress from a China based company.

Now I have 8 washers to contend with and the Googling continues...

 

[Bikes4two]

@Manc44 - thanks for updating the costing details. The various figures are set over a number of posts and I'm not entirely clear at to the various elements involved but basically could you just add what the total overall cost of items you bought were:
> to you doorstep,
> and what the cost might/would have been if you'd bought from a UK supplier (if they'd had it in stock of course!)

I'll be good to know the potential savings balanced against the possible need of returning faulty goods etc.

Thanks.

 

[PC2017]

£53.23

Nice - well nice you got back to the thread, much appreciated... Not nice you paid VAT but hey life sucks and then you get slapped with VAT.

That said it is amazing to see the system might actually be in good steed, the fact that ebay charged you VAT and customs didn't ie charged twice, is a reassuring sign. Maybe the EU aspect in play there.

 

[PC2017]

returning faulty goods

Most Chinese sellers won't take returns unless major fault, in my experience the cost of sending a £100-£300 item back to China will out way the cost of a replacement. Most Aliepress sellers will request a video of the fault or some sort of email explanation of the issue - most will just ship you a replacement part under warranty, if all else fails and you are not happy with the service, you'll have the marketplace customer service and or Paypal dispute centre or as a last resort your bank or card provider - either way it is best practice to verse yourself on payment recourse and payment protection before you purchase high value items from overseas.

 

[soundwave]

there was a panel missing from that robot above and have replacements on way with my next order

 

[Manc44]

In the UK that kit is £390 on Amazon but for some reason, their page now only shows 20" wheels (then if you choose "No Battery" there's 26" wheels listed).

When I was looking, it was £408 (according to the Excel spreadsheet I was filling in when comparing, which can't possibly be wrong lol, I was checking multiple times every day).

From China with everything included I paid about £340 for the same kit.

Here's the breakdown of the China price:

£266.79 - paid on AliExpress.
Then it landed in the UK...
£53.23 (VAT).
£9.50 (Customs Duty).
£12.00 (ParcelForce handling fee).
TOTAL: £341.52

That's with the P850C display, in a 26" wheel size.

It arrived undamaged but, I have yet to test it because I'm waiting for the battery. The page I bought that on said VAT was already included so I should only get a customs and handling fee on that. The (LiitoKala) store the battery came from has been on AliExpress for 8 years, if anything I was more at ease buying that than I was the kit (Greenergia, store been on 3 years).

The Amazon kit I refer to is sold by "Junstar-EU". They are only ordering in the exact same kit from China, but I guess buying on Amazon "UK" you maybe have more comeback if anything's faulty... well I just took the chance and got it from China, saving about £60.

Things like a shrink wrapped 21700 LiitoKala battery just aren't on sale in the UK that I know of and an equal capacity Samsung one is £455! The LiitoKala one I bought was like £235 (not including possible customs and handling fees, which I guess would amount to around £22 like they did for the motor kit). This is an enormous difference with the UK based Samsung pack almost double the price of the same capacity LiitoKala pack. Of course the capacity isn't what's claimed but I think their cells are advertised as 5000mAh and realistically put out about 4,850mAh. Who cares when the pack is that cheap!

 

[Matt Jones]

I noticed a Polish seller on one Geekbuying (I think) stating something like "we can still ship to UK from Poland, but you must select shipping our China warehouse, order will be fulfilled by our Polish warehouse"
I wonder how true that is, and If there is a legitimate loophole that permits them to do things? They've got some brass balls if not!

Also I noticed many companies and product simply won't ship to the UK now, on the PSWPower site I think there are only a handful of products that the must already have in UK.

 

[soundwave]

I noticed a Polish seller on one Geekbuying (I think) stating something like "we can still ship to UK from Poland, but you must select shipping our China warehouse, order will be fulfilled by our Polish warehouse"
I wonder how true that is, and If there is a legitimate loophole that permits them to do things? They've got some brass balls if not!

Also I noticed many companies and product simply won't ship to the UK now, on the PSWPower site I think there are only a handful of products that the must already have in UK.

i have not paid a penny in import duty/vat for the transformers i buy from china and the most expensive this year was £220.

 

[Manc44]

I noticed a Polish seller on one Geekbuying (I think) stating something like "we can still ship to UK from Poland, but you must select shipping our China warehouse, order will be fulfilled by our Polish warehouse"
I wonder how true that is, and If there is a legitimate loophole that permits them to do things? They've got some brass balls if not!

Also I noticed many companies and product simply won't ship to the UK now, on the PSWPower site I think there are only a handful of products that the must already have in UK.

When I ordered my hub kit from China, I chose China, yet it came from Germany.

 

[PhilMK42]

I use Bikester, they’re a German outfit, but apply vat at point of sale, so the price you see is what you pay.
Their postage is very reasonable too.

 

[Encantador]

I have only purchased relatively inexpensive items from Aliexpress, most £50 ish. I always chose China for dispatch, even when European countries are an option. Never had a problem or extra cost (so far).

 

[Manc44]

I have only purchased relatively inexpensive items from Aliexpress, most £50 ish. I always chose China for dispatch, even when European countries are an option. Never had a problem or extra cost (so far).

Same here and I did choose China but they still shipped it from Germany, or from China > Germany > UK, either way it came from Germany to me on the last leg of its journey.

 

[Manc44]

LiitoKala battery (1200 Wh) arrived today, there were no customs charges and no handling fees. This came direct from China to UK. The VAT was paid at checkout on AliExpress. The store the pack came from is the official LiitoKala store that's been on there for 8 years, so I wasn't worried (VAT scam wise) when buying.

Got the thing charging now, I'm turning round every 30 seconds to see if it's smoking yet lol

The exact item

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