Bad news for buyers in the EU buying from non EU countries

[ScotchHop]

Just a little warning for buyers in the EU and sellers outside that I had a bit of a nasty shock with the VAT exemption that was cancelled as of 1st July.

https://finance.belgium.be/en/customs_excises/private-individuals/sending-and-receiving-parcels/new-vat-rules-e-commerce#q3

I bought a Tik Tac Toe in need of some love for about 12EUR and just had to pay 21EUR to get her out of customs quarantine 

With ebay fees and postage, in all I paid about 50eur for a pony with a hair cut and pen marks  My own fault really for not doing the math and getting excited about a pony on my wish list!

US based sellers may want to see if they can sign up for the EUs one stop shop for VAT to make selling easier.

Now off to give my new pony a bath...... 

[kingluke]

Thanks for the heads up. There goes shopping from the usa...

Good luck on tic tac toe btw.

[glitterball]

Ugh, these taxes. Ruining it for the global collectors!
Crazy thing is, I am sure most of these "taxes" are bumped-up by "handling fees" from greedy postal operators! I know Royal Mail charge a "fee" to process customs charges, the tax charge may be as low as 2 pounds but the "handling fee" to drop a postcard notification through your letterbox is 8 pounds!!
...or it may even be more, this was from 2 years ago when I last got stung...

[Taffeta]

I imagine this has already caused all kinds of chaos for people buying from/selling to the UK.

I still don't know how you can charge VAT on something second hand with no retail value but still, they've been doing that for years and it's just getting worse :/

[ScotchHop]

I know guys! It's a real bummer 

And Taffeta, I completely agree. The VAT was charged when the item was new, so it's essentially getting double VAT.

I'm really lucky that I have two addresses to send ponies to! one in the UK (where I'm originally from) with my parents, and one in Belgium where I live, so I can avoid the Brexit fees. I had to learn that the hard way too with a 50EUR import charge on a bolt of fabric I bought for 70GBP 

[Honeycomb]

That's so bad ...

I am absolutely annoyed and pissed by this. My friend sent me a pretty big package from China 3 months ago. It was supposed to arrive these days. However. Tracking says it arrived in Germany at the beginning of the month, but was sent back to China. She received a call that she has to pay an obscene amount of money just to get it back, otherwise it will be destroyed.
I see a lot of trouble ahead for all the small buyers/ collectors in the EU. Furious ...

[tailrustedtealeaf]

I tried looking up stuff about the One Stop Shop and got very confused. Definitely going to echo that this is confusing enough I can see most eBay sellers to just not go for it, especially if they're just trying to declutter or don't sell other things.

[Tropical_Sunset]

It's insane. Can't ship to Europe anymore. I sent a package with a $24 item value to someone in Portugal and they won't give it to the person I sent it to unless he pays about $60. Never again.

[Honeycomb]

It's insane. Can't ship to Europe anymore. I sent a package with a $24 item value to someone in Portugal and they won't give it to the person I sent it to unless he pays about $60. Never again.

I don't understand how they come up with this amount ... it's ridiculous.

How can we receive presents now?

[Noasar]

I haven't found much has changed for me sending/receiving. I think it mostly depends on what the value is marked at. So far I've been lucky - but I have a $150 pony coming from the USA so I might not be saying that in a few weeks...

[Griffin]

It's insane. Can't ship to Europe anymore. I sent a package with a $24 item value to someone in Portugal and they won't give it to the person I sent it to unless he pays about $60. Never again.

I don't understand how they come up with this amount ... it's ridiculous.

How can we receive presents now?

This sounds totally baffling to me too. This must be about import duties, handling fees etc. If it was just VAT it would be impossible for the charges to be more than the original value of the item. (ETA: shipping costs are also counted towards the value, so if shipping was a lot, that could affect the total sum...? Idk, just guessing.)

As far as I know, the only thing that changed this summer is that value added tax (VAT) is now charged for all packages coming from non-EU countries. Previously small packages (under 22 €) have been VAT free, even if they are purchases from outside the EU. I'm pretty sure they made this change in order to be able to collect VAT from purchases like Aliexpress, Wish etc. Which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

Of course what makes it annoying is that *all* packages are affected. I agree with Taffeta, it's kind of odd that they charge VAT for second-hand items as well. :/

According to my local authorities, this change does not concern gifts, they will be handled the same way as before (i.e. must be declared but small gifts are generally VAT free).

[ridi]

I haven't found much has changed too much for me sending/receiving. I think it mostly depends on what the value is marked at. So far I've been lucky - but I have a $150 pony coming from the USA so I might not be saying that in a few weeks...

Does it include the UK though? Norway is not in EU either so I'm safe... I think. This is all very confusing to me. And the import fees I get were pretty ridiculous to begin with.

[Tropical_Sunset]

His order, including shipping, was $57. And he has to pay the same amount for them to release it. Which to me is unfathomable.

I guess not much has changed when it comes to non-EU countries in Europe? I hope those would still be safe to send to.

[Taffeta]

I think this probably merits some further research, because it seems like such a minefield area.

I'd rather still be in the EU, frankly, it would make things much easier in terms of shipping and custom forms. But I haven't sent anything since we left because of COVID...so I don't know what the impact is.

The normal rate of charge for people in the UK was VAT not import duty unless it was over a relatively high threshold, prior to our leaving the EU. In those terms, just comparing to the example of $57 to Portugal, I would expect that to have translated to a charge around £18-21, which is about half the charge quoted in this thread with the case in question. But I don't know what might have gone up since then and whether we're impacted from the outside even if not from the inside.

I genuinely no longer have any idea what the consequences are of international postage :/ COVID and Brexit has made it all topsy turvy. I hope to ship abroad again going forward, but yeah. I'm going to do some serious research first.

I also know Ebay has opted me in to GS without asking my opinion. I hate GS, but since I don't intend on selling on ebay any more, I haven't tried to change it. I'm wondering if that's their solution to this - to streamline the system to ensure the charges allow them to skim off a tidy profit by taking the whole thing into their own hands.

[glitterball]

I also know Ebay has opted me in to GS without asking my opinion. I hate GS, but since I don't intend on selling on ebay any more, I haven't tried to change it. I'm wondering if that's their solution to this - to streamline the system to ensure the charges allow them to skim off a tidy profit by taking the whole thing into their own hands.

The cynic in me agrees - profit skimming!!

It's all such an expensive, drawn-out mess now...