I think there has been a bit of confusion here, as a shop doing buisness all over europe and the world we have to be fully up to date with the rules and regulations.
At present the situation is thus-
UK customers buying from a shop outside of the UK are not required to pay the VAT charged in the country of origin ( In our shop, as soon as you register from an address from outside the EU you see the prices without the 19% German VAT included) In the case of the UK , you may buy goods up to £135 (about €150) without paying any duty, orders above that amount are liable for the UK 20% VAT and this is collected on behalf of the UK government by the Royal Mail, UPS etc.
Things within the EU are changing from 1.July, from that date companies have to charge the VAT rate of the country wher the goods are beinng sent, That means that an Irish customer will now have to pay the 23% Irish VAT with us ard we are required to pay it to the Irish goverment. A burocratic nightmare for a shop like us with 27 different countries to deal with. The reason is that the huge companies like Amazon, based in Luxemburg, are draining the tax revenue from the state governments, everything that is bought by a german on Amazon and not in a German shop loses the german government the 19%. VAT As these shops have got bigger and bigger this has become a problem.
SInce Brexit many companies like Aliexpress have set up UK offices to get around the duty problem and they are naturally liable to pay VAT to the UK government. But the UK has no jurastiction to get companies in other countries to pay any duty to them.
I hope this clears the problem, buying from the EU through a reputable company using a established shipping coumpany shouldn't cause any concern.
