Reply To: First Brexit – now tariffs

[phaidknott 7250xp 2]

Buying from the US to the UK is even worse. After the shipping (which is ridiculous no matter which country you are in), you THEN get hit with a 20% “import duty” (or the government charges VAT on good coming into the UK). BUT if you haven’t paid the import duty when paying for your order (which is then paid by the international vendor, more on that later), you then get hit with another £18-£25 (depending the carrier) “handling fee” (to collect the VAT from you). It gets even more mind boggling once you find out that all vendors outside the UK MUST set up an account with HMRC (so even sellers in the US), and then PAY HMRC the VAT/import duty on each order if they are trading in the UK on a regular basis (I really don’t get this part), making a financial and administrative hurdle for the transaction to go through (even some of the smaller US and Canadian vendors have stopped sales to the UK). They then can claim the VAT/import duty back from HMRC at the end of the tax year (as VAT isn’t applicable on goods outside the UK (although the import duty paid by the UK customer is, and can not be claimed back)), meaning the UK government can sit on these charges for anything up to a year before paying back the international vendor. So basically sending from the UK to the US the US customer pays 10% less than the UK customer and sending from the US to the UK the UK customer pays 20% more than the US customer. You got to love BREXIT, and the fact that the Politicos that clamoured for it to happen had absolutely no plans for “how” they were going to do it (the current system for imports and exports being a mess, rushed into place and confusing to all involved (I’m hoping I got my facts right, although I’m probably wrong, but then I have been hit for 20% import duties and “handling charges” multiple times) 🙁