Bringing goods from the EU

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Richard_C

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No chance of travel at the moment, but in the past I have picked up the odd tool or bit of kit when I've been driving through France or similar. Got a few necessary bits for my 2CV once when they were hard to find in the UK. Those of a certain age will remember customs limits, X litres of wine etc., N cigars and suchlike and duty on almost anything else. I remember buying an ice axe in Andorra and managing to convince a customs man who did an 'open boot please' check that it was for personal use and had been used - evidenced by the dents on the shaft - so he reluctantly didn't charge duty on it.

Anyway, those days are back:

www.gov.uk/guidance/bringing-goods-into-great-britain-from-outside-the-uk-from-1-january-2021



You can bring in other goods worth up to £390 (or up to £270 if you arrive by private plane or boat). If a single item’s worth more than your allowance you pay duty or tax on its full value, not just the value above the allowance.

If you go over your allowance then you will pay customs duty on the total value of your goods. The rate:

  • is 2.5% for goods worth up to £630
  • depends on the type of goods if they’re worth more than £630
From 1 January 2021, you will be able to check your allowances, make a declaration and pay any tax using an online service for passengers.

You will also have to pay VAT at the standard UK rates.


It's a per person limit, you can't join them up so if you buy a fancy tool for £500 you can't say "ah but my wife owns half of it....." and split it over 2 allowances.

I guess anything you buy online/mail order from specialist retailers will attract the whole vat fee+handling charge palaver now as well. No idea what will happen in Northern Ireland with its open border.

Gosh I'm looking forward to all of this, the forms look delightful.
 
That document was published on 17th December 2020. The UK/EU Free Trade Agreement was not agreed until 23rd December.

If I were you, I'd wait until the document was updated to reflect the provisions of the latest agreement before drawing too many firm conclusions. Quite a lot of 'No Deal' planning was done, of which I assume the provisions set out in the 17th December document were a part.
 
No idea what will happen in Northern Ireland with its open border.
And neither does anyone else but that doesn't stop the unending scare stories.
Apparently couriers won't be delivering from GB after the 31st Dec.
On the 1 st of Jan the sky is going to fall on our heads.
 
That document was published on 17th December 2020. The UK/EU Free Trade Agreement was not agreed until 23rd December.

If I were you, I'd wait until the document was updated to reflect the provisions of the latest agreement before drawing too many firm conclusions. Quite a lot of 'No Deal' planning was done, of which I assume the provisions set out in the 17th December document were a part.
Absolutely - a week is a long time in politics and for all we know the final deal may be miles away from the "oven ready" one so meticulously prepared earlier.
It'll be good to be free of all the paper work and regulations.
Pity about the loss of free movement, but who wants to work abroad nowadays?
 
Absolutely - a week is a long time in politics and for all we know the final deal may be miles away from the "oven ready" one so meticulously prepared earlier.
It'll be good to be free of all the paper work and regulations.
Pity about the loss of free movement, but who wants to work abroad nowadays?

The deal is done.
 
I delivered a 1930's Rosengart car....French built convertable on an Austin 7 chassis.....in the back of my LWB Sprinter....not so long ago,with Fr papers.....
Open the doors please...gruff voice...they looked at this wreck and told me P off......hahaha.....

I believe if it's used (tooling) and for personal use there will be no duty......
anyway your moving back to the UK and your bringing your stuff home.....nod nod, wink wink.....

Jacob,
when I left France to move further into Europe, houses were selling like hot cakes...it's getting like it here, everyting is selling...
I always loved working abroad....
did it most of my life.....
Home is where u hang your hat......hahaha....
 
....

Jacob,
when I left France to move further into Europe, houses were selling like hot cakes...it's getting like it here, everyting is selling...
I always loved working abroad....
did it most of my life.....
Home is where u hang your hat......hahaha....
I was trying to be ironic!
I'd heard that property was selling in France. I know a few owners who seemed to expect the opposite, end of a dream etc. I guess they are taking up French nationality or other interim arrangements. Good luck to them I wish I was in France too!
 
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On the 1 st of Jan the sky is going to fall on our heads.

As it did at the end of 1999 when the Y2K bug brought the world to an end.

I'm off out panic buying, to create shortages, thus proving that predictions of shortages caused by Brexit were correct.

Good to see the pollsters are asking people how they would vote if we had another referendum to ask if we should rejoin the EU.

WTF...
 
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The deal is done.

We are outside of the customs union so there is a customs border, there is no reason this aspect would change at all between this FTA and no deal.

Edit: sorry that was wrong, the customs duty element will not apply to qualifying goods (rules of origin and all that, so the forms will need to be filled out). VAT will be payable at the border. SPS stuff will apply again (depending on how we choose to enforce that or not I guess).
 
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Guys



Is this the rules for bringing goods from OUTSIDE the EU
No - from outside the UK. That means from the EU and rest of world.
The main point of the EU was to move trade (goods, services, finance, workers) more easily but we are now into a different scenario and will be finding out how it works as time goes by!
 
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I believe that the Customs border will be the Irish sea, so NI is outside of it. Which.is why all the DUP MPs are going to vote against The Deal.

Internal couriers won't deliver to NI addresses as they will have to complete customs formalities, which cost. International couriers like DHL won't have any problem, I suspect.

And I found out my UK Amazon Prime membership doesn't extend to German Amazon... FFS!
 
won’t this potentially make some things cheaper for us? German VAT is 19% so we won’t pay that any longer but instead pay U.K. VAT on import.
 
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