Customs oldtimer

Hi If the goods are over £135 normal import procedures apply. That is import duty and import VAT are due at the time of import. Import VAT is charged whether or not you / the importer are VAT registered. How you choose to handle the payment is a commercial decision. You could pay the taxes on behalf of your customers or you could advise your customers that the import taxes must be paid by them. Your customers may not however be expecting the goods to be sent to them from overseas and may refuse the delivery if they are asked to pay taxes. Your Greek supplier is not supply or selling to your customers, you are. You must therefore take ownership at some point to be able to sell those goods . You do not have to take physical possession to own something. Put simply you can’t sell something you do not own . Therefore your customer orders something from you , you order the item from your Greek supplier , they sell the goods to you but physically ship them to the address you provide them. Where the transfer of ownership takes place will be down to what contractual agreements you have with your supplier. In the scenario described there is no obligation on the Greek supplier to register for VAT in the UK . Special rules do apply to shipments below £135 where VAT registration is required. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021/changes-to-vat-treatment-of-overseas-goods-sold-to-customers-from-1-january-2021#goods-located-outside-the-uk-at-the-point-of-sale For goods that are located overseas at the point of sale, the new arrangements will apply irrespective of where the online marketplace or the business selling the goods is established. There are also plenty of other threads on the forum about drop shipping you can look at.

Yes I mentioned returned goods relief in my first post. This would need to be claimed at import and the importer needs proof of the original export from the EU to do so. It is not automatic. Unless the carrier is asked to do something specific goods will be declared at the full duty rate.

Hi Uk legislation only allows the importer, as legal customs debtor, to reclaim any overpaid duties and taxes irrespective of who physically paid those taxes. If your customer was named as importer and is VAT registered they will have received a C79 which entitles them to reclaim any import VAT through their VAT return . They may have already done this, have you checked with your customer whether they have already claimed the VAT back. Unfortunately there isn’t a lot you can do other than continue to pursue UPS .

Hi HP1980 Yes duty would be charged as EU origin goods cannot be returned duty free to the EU under the TCA. It may be possible for the importer to claim returned goods if they have proof of export.

Hi MastyCabanyal It really depends on what you , your supplier and the freight forwarder have agreed . There are many interpretations of DDP . Some mean the supplier will just pay import duty but not import VAT . Sometimes the overseas seller will also be the importer and then make a domestic sale to their customer. Freight forwarders and couriers have DDP terms that mean they will pass on the charges to their customer but the importer is the receiver of the goods. It is highly unusual for the freight forwarder to be the importer / declarant in their own name unless they are involved in the sale. You need to find out which scenario applies and whose EORI number has been declared as the importer. If you are the importer then you will find either C79 or a Postponed VAT statement in your CDS dashboard. Perhaps the HMRC admins will add the link to get your postponed VAT statement.

Hi If you are not UK VAT registered then you cannot charge UK VAT therefore your selling price does not include any VAT element. You cannot remove VAT that isn’t there in the first place. If you sell something for £600 then that is the export value. A VAT registered businesses still charge VAT on the export but can charge that at zero rate provided they have proof of export from the UK. If not then they still have to charge 20 % and include it on their VAT return. The export value of the export does not change if you are sending to the EU or elsewhere. Your customer is not paying both UK VAT and local VAT( if applicable ) only the import VAT in the country of destination. Not all countries have VAT but there may be other charges or taxes . Each country will apply its own rules.

Hi Which valuation method to use is something you will need to decide by working through the methods sequentially. As the goods are not being exported as the result of a sale method 1 cannot be used https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/working-out-the-customs-value-of-your-imported-goods If goods are being imported for repair then you should consider claiming inward processing relief.

Hi An EORI number is your UK importer and export registration number. If you are exporting it is only needed on the UK export declaration . It is needed to export out of the UK . It doesn’t matter where you are exporting to. A GB EORI number is of no interest to any other country including the EU. It is not a customs requirement to include your GB EORI on your invoice but couriers encourage it as they then have the number for use on the export declaration. It’s absolutely no use or interest to your customer.

I would suggest that you look on the Irish Revenue website to find out the VAT rules in Republic of Ireland .

Hi A statement of preferential origin is valid from the date it was made out/ dated. It has a validity period of 2 years in which it must be presented to customs. Therefore if the statement on origin was issued and available at the time of the original entry but preferential origin was not claimed ( ie not presented to customs) you have 2 years to make that claim. If on the other hand the statement of origin was issued retrospectively then it would be valid for two years from that date . You then have a period of up to three years from the date of entry to make the claim , again provided the statement on origin is still within its validity period. There are many reasons why a reclaim of import duty may be made so claim’s between 2-3 years are definitely possible.