Is the rate of VAT plus customs fees when selling B2C to French private customers really 44%?

I want to sell a small musical instrument from UK to a customer in France (B2C). The mechanics of the transaction are simple: put it in a small box and post it to France. However, I've spent a lot of time today trying to find out what charges are applicable. It looks clear from this page, section 6.2 (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-place-of-supply-of-services-notice-741a) that the place of supply is UK so 20% VAT is charged when billing the customer. However, it's looks similarly clear from here (https://www.douane.gouv.fr/fiche/calcul-des-droits-et-taxes-sur-les-achats-letranger) that for musical instruments, the charges on entry to France will be 20% VAT plus up to 4% customs duties. I've been in contact with HMRC help lines for VAT and customs today and the HMRC position is that it is up to other governments what they do, UK is just responsible for collecting the 20% VAT over here. If that's the case then I suppose I'd need to make sure I didn't inadvertently declare value as the price including VAT on the customs declaration otherwise the customer would be paying 48.8% taxes on the base price. But is it really 44% taxes on top of the base price? I'm amazed anyone can sell anything to France with that kind of markup.

Hi If you are selling goods then the place of supply of services guidance is not relevant as you are supplying goods not services. You need to check https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-exports-dispatches-and-supplying-goods-abroad You can usually zero rate goods for direct export so UK VAT is charged at 0%. HMRC cannot comment on taxes in other countries however as I am not an HMRC employee I can provide the below information to assist you. Your customer will then be charged the French customs duty and import VAT. Goods below €150 will not be charged duty . Nor will duty be applicable if the goods are of UK origin ( ie manufactured in UK and meeting the specific rules in the Trade agreement we have with the EU). VAT applies on the whole value.

Thanks for that reply. It certainly makes more sense when you explain it that way, so that VAT isn't being charged twice. Looking back through my saved HMRC chats from yesterday, it looks like there is a bit of confusion about it. I specifically asked about whether I should charge zero VAT for selling a musical instrument as indicated on this page https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-exports-dispatches-and-supplying-goods-abroad#goods-dispatched-by-post and was told that, no, the services page (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-place-of-supply-of-services-notice-741a) was the correct page to use, which indicates 20% VAT. No-one in the chats subsequent to that corrected that misunderstanding which is how I ended up here, checking if a situation could possibly be true when it didn't seem at all reasonable. I'll maybe let HMRC know so they are clearer as well. Thanks again for that information, I'll put it to good use and I'm more confident that I know what I'm doing now.

Hi philip,
Can you confirm if the value of the goods are above or below £135.
Thank you.

Hi, Admin 21 The price I'll be charging ex VAT would be around £200, so over £135. So I'm intending to tell the customer that he needs to pay me the ex VAT price and then he'll need to pay 20% plus up to 4% as tax when the goods arrive in France. Is £135 the current equivalent of EUR 150 mentioned above by Customs oldtimer? Although the additional 4% makes it slightly less competitive, it's not a game changer to me (the VAT amount would also be charged to UK customers in the UK ) because I'm offering something unique. I was speaking to a fellow last night who knows a couple of guitar makers in England. He said they have stopped dealing with EU customers because they find it so expensive. I can only assume that's because they aren't VAT registered in the UK, so EU customers have to pay 20 + 4=24% taxes on their guitars whereas UK customers don't pay anything.

Hi. Yes the value of the goods is £135/150 euros. There will therefore need to be import VAT and any duties appliccable in France when they arrive there  . Thank you .