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Brexit News
As of 1st January 2021, the UK has left the Brexit transition period which has applied during most of 2020. A UK/EU trade deal has been finalized, but only over the last few days of 2020. The changes to the UK / EU border arrangements have been quite sharp and sudden. For sending goods, there is extra work and complication required in the transport paperwork. There have been delays as a result of the new customs arrangements being enforced on the EU side. This has mainly been happening for shipments to Germany. To most other countries in the EU we have found deliveries have been progressing quite smoothly via our courier DHL, although a little slower than before Brexit. However there is a steep learning curve. We are still experimenting with different couriers and procedures to find out whether we can resolve the problems we have had for future shipments. We do apologize for the inconvenience this may cause. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As a result of the new trading relationship, the goods we send to our EU customers from now on will need to be customs cleared into the EU. It means that you the customer will now be responsible to pay your local VAT and import taxes on the goods we send in your own home country. Will this cost me more? Yes. But to give more detail: If you are an EU private individual or business without a VAT number, in the past we added 20% UK VAT to your invoice. In future we will not add this 20% VAT. Instead you need to pay your own country’s VAT rate on the goods directly to the courier. If you are an EU business and we have invoiced you without added VAT in the past because you are registered for VAT in your home country, we will continue to invoice without UK VAT added, but you will now need to pay your local country VAT to the courier before delivery, and then claim it back on your VAT tax return. We
recommend that you check the guidance given by your local country government for
dealing with UK imports. It may be possible for businesses to arrange to delay
paying the import VAT / import tax for a period, but any arrangements will vary
from country to country and we can’t advise on the process. We also require a reliable contact telephone number in case the courier needs to contact you quickly for any reason. For all EU customers, there will likely be additional costs seperate from VAT, depending on the items in your delivery. Typically this should be around 4.7% of the goods value on bicycle frame parts. This rate may be higher for bicycle parts manufactured in some countries. For example for the USA, there are new import tax rates that apply from November 2020 of nearly 30% for bicycle frame parts made there. These are EU import taxes that are added based on the country of manufacture of the parts, regardless of the fact they are coming from us in the UK. We do expect that parts that are declared as EU or EU origin should be zero rated for import duty as part of the recent trade deal. However the 'rules of origin' to qualify for the trade deal are very complex. The percentage rates that are applied are calculated by officials in your home country to EU rules. They are not anything that is coming from us within the UK, so if there is something you are not sure of, you can always contact the courier for an explanation. Finally, the courier will add a small fee (DHL’s is around £12) for collecting these taxes prior to delivery. The courier will email or text you automatically with details of the charges and methods for payment. They will deliver the goods to you after receipt of payment. If the charges are not paid, the courier will eventually return the goods back to us. |