Selling into the EU post-Brexit

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19-01-2021, 07:48 AM
Allan

Selling into the EU post-Brexit
Hi - I couldn't find any threads on this topic here. Hope I haven't missed something.

Now that it's 2021 and 'actual Brexit' has happened, is anybody experiencing the problems noted in this article?

'Shock Brexit charges are hurting us, say small British businesses' - Toby Helm and Michael Savage, Sun 17 Jan 2021 06.45 GMT, The (Guardian) Observer
theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/17/shock-brexit-charges-are-hurting-us-say-small-british-businesses
- First, a “Brexit charge”, as the couriers are calling it, an export fee of £4.50 for every parcel shipped to the EU to cover costs of extra administration and form filling that couriers must carry out
- Second, there is a “deferment account fee” of £5 per parcel that covers couriers’ costs of pre-paying import charges in the destination country
- Third, a “disbursement charge” which is set at different levels in each EU country with a minimum of about €14 per parcel, or calculated as a percentage of the value of the goods, whichever is the higher, plus VAT in the destination country. This covers the costs of the tax authority in the recipient country inspecting and processing the parcels.
The quotes I get on Royal Mail Click & Drop for sending to EU countries haven't changed much since last year... e.g. £1.05 more to Germany. But nothing like their £7.25 price hike sending to the US, which presumably isn't due to Brexit. Perhaps RM will add new charges to the EU in line with other couriers soon?

I have had fun dealing with Swiss Post/Customs, and their high fees just to 'handle' a parcel and charge VAT. That was before Brexit, and Switzerland's not in the EU anyway. But it did give me a taste of things to come sending to Europe post-Brexit.

I'm starting to wonder if 'Paul' quoted in the Guardian article above is right...

“As far as I can see, currently, companies like ours in the UK are not going to be able to do ‘end sales’ to customers in the EU any more. Particularly, small orders for anything under £100 will be completely impossible,” says Paul.
19-01-2021, 09:01 AM
Dennis

Its a nightmare actually Allan, but so far, our members have had nothing constructive to add. My feeling is that you might get more support if you joined a professional jewellers association.
You might like to browse here: https://www.google.com/search?client...wellery+makers. Dennis.
19-01-2021, 09:29 AM
pearlescence

That article conflates several issue.
1 shipping companies are charging more because they have to do more now - simply convey and deliver before brexit. Now there is a full customs procedure to follow for every package. That means looking up stuff like customs codes and filling in a full declaration
2 To export/import into the EU VAT is now due. That has to be collected (and assume some consignees will refuse to pay in which case the shipping company either just chucks the package, returns it or writes off the tax if the package is delivered (fedex delivers to me and then bills because it knows I pay)
3 Charges have gone up anyway because the £ has plummeted. Most against the USD, hence the huge jump in costs to there. (if you doubt this check out how package holidays have jumped by at least a quarter entirely due to the £'s fall which is entirely due to brexit, but which started the day after the referendum)
4 Going the other way, for orders into the UK the UK govt is requiring all sellers to register for UK VAT and pay it before shipping. That's really going down well.
5 All this is before customs decide to check that the silver items in a package comply with the nickel regs and the recipient has to pay for assay. That's not happening yet but it is part of the problem already for the shellfish people most noisily.
6. EU truck drivers are avoiding the UK because they don't want to be stuck in a Kent lorry park for days then fined when their silly 'enter kent' permit expires as they wait for customs clearance because we don't have enough trained staff (only four years to plan this after all). Apparently it is more effective for trucks to travel full only one way and back to base empty. The costs (absent cost to the environment for two journeys instead of one) are lower to be empty than stuck in a days long customs queue.
All of this is as a direct consequence of leaving the EU single market and customs union.
19-01-2021, 10:09 AM
Allan

Thanks both (so far), and fully agree much of this nightmare was foretold years ago.

I was already filling out customs codes on CN 22 forms, so at least had practice with that. And Swiss Post taught me how protracted, miserable and expensive the experience can be.
19-01-2021, 11:43 AM
pearlescence

2 Attachment(s)

CN22 is easy peasy.
This is the hand carry form! Every box must be filled in correctly and then you pay the VAT or your stuff is impounded.Attachment 12842
19-01-2021, 09:49 PM
Allan

Quote:

Originally Posted by pearlescence

CN22 is easy peasy.
This is the hand carry form! Every box must be filled in correctly and then you pay the VAT or your stuff is impounded.Attachment 12842

Interesting. I've never had to complete something so elaborate for my sales to the US, Canada, Switzerland, etc. Would a pair of London-hallmarked silver earrings, cufflinks or such require a form like that when sold to an individual in the EU?

I can make out 'European Union' on your form, but searching for 'hand carry' all I found was luggage. Does it have an official name/number?
19-01-2021, 10:34 PM
pearlescence

Yes it's the form for when you come back to the EU/UK from the rest of the world with anything worth more than £18 of commercial goods. Red channel time.
You were presumably not delivering these items personally?
It's a c88 (has eight copies). I haven't been able to find out if the UK has noticed we are not longer EU viz this form, will have to ask on leaving when once again can travel (remember that? Foren parts?)
Go to the next Inhorgenta show in Munich and bring back some stuff and you will have to declare it with this form, and pay the vat. Plus declare it if you take more than around £9k (was 10k euros)(money laundering regs)
The first time I did this from Hong Kong I was a complete no-nothing chump and pitched up to the red channel like a gormless twerp. Big bag of stuff promptly impounded as that particular HMRC refused to help me fill in form.
Had to go back a week later to reclaim, with form. I can now wizz through the whole procedure in around 30 minutes (first find your HMRC bods of course)..though paying the VAT and duty still hurts! And I have a few old but successful forms with me because every time they suck their teeth like a plumber and tell me I've done it all wrong. At least now I can say that it was fine for the last xnumber of import events - look!
So I really feel for all those shipping drivers going either way.
The advantages of bringing it back with me is that I save a fortune on shipping and customs agent fees and I know my stuff isn't going to get lost (Unless the planes crashes of course, but then I probably won't care)
20-01-2021, 06:57 AM
Allan

Quote:

Originally Posted by pearlescence

Yes it's the form for when you come back to the EU/UK from the rest of the world with anything worth more than £18 of commercial goods. Red channel time.
You were presumably not delivering these items personally?

No, I'm pretty small beer in comparison. I'm mostly online-only, and generally post out using Royal Mail. Weston Beamor does my casting, so any inputs to be imported are their burden (although I'm sure they'll be passing any new costs on to customers).

But your experiences are very interesting. No doubt being played out thousands of times a day in this new world.
20-01-2021, 07:06 AM
Allan

Couple websites I've found useful for this topic. Perhaps old news to some of you.

https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/
"calculate import duty & taxes for hundreds of destinations worldwide"

https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/v...-commerce.html
Good overview of the upcoming EU 2021 One Stop Shop (OSS) VAT return for e-commerce.
20-01-2021, 12:13 PM
Allan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allan

Couple websites I've found useful for this topic. Perhaps old news to some of you.

https://www.simplyduty.com/import-calculator/
"calculate import duty & taxes for hundreds of destinations worldwide"

https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/v...-commerce.html
Good overview of the upcoming EU 2021 One Stop Shop (OSS) VAT return for e-commerce.

Note the EU's OSS VAT scheme offers a "€10,000 exemption for EU micro-businesses... but... This relief is not available to non-EU businesses. They must register immediately."

https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-...cent-activity/
The same author (Richard Asquith, VP Global Indirect Tax at Avalara) also covers Brexit VAT and customs issues in his blog on LinkedIn.
27-01-2021, 08:54 AM
emilyeslea

This is also tricky for those of us makers living in EU who can no longer afford to have supplies shipped from uk. The whole thing is a nightmare