Hello friends, friendly reminder that If you’re a collector within the EU the changes to import that are now in effect are going to affect you.
Here’s a Link with the details:
business.gov.nl/amendment/new-vat-rules-international-e-commerce/
Looks like if you want to collect from the EU a middleman is now mandatory unless you want to chuck those high flat fees for every single purchase you make.
If not for a middleman*, everyone should probably look into creating an account with their postal services now, because if they will now charge a flat rate of 6-12€ for “lending” a few cents of VAT on some PWEs from the States or Japan and not just on the big semi-monthly proxy packages, linking my bank account is the first thing I’m gonna do.
I think… that PWE’s and maybe bubblemailers are still exempt and that only packages are affected.
the EU governments really want us to just source locally >.< it costs a fortune to import cards from abroad here in the UK. Tax on tax on tax…it is a F ing joke
Yeah all these regulations don’t take into account goods you cannot buy the within EU. The short flyer for private individuals they give out for summary here just says “everything is now taxed, tax exemption is 1€ tax or below.” That’s it. They said letters are excluded from customs registration, but that’s of course only for letters that don’t contain goods. You’re already not allowed to send any goods within letters outside the EU as a private person, period, so that’s just a smiliar regulation for import.
It’s just so stupid that everything is calculated for “parcel value”, not individual goods value. If I send 500€ worth of cards in one parcel, I have to pay 200€tax, if I send it in 5 letters, it’s 90€ tax total. Very sustainable.
for collectors and many other industries the brexit is a disaster…I hear friends of mine from the uk complaining daily about these new custom laws.
@burnedos seems like we receive some thick letters with slabs inside now ;D
Yea it has been a s**t show for sure! It used to be free movement of goods within the EU but we didn’t agree a proper trade deal so now we pay out our arses to EU aswell as the rest of world. It was difficult enough buying from the US with customs, VAT, fees etc and now adding EU countries into the mix is crippling for UK buyers(I know lots of other countries etc have issues and what not). The only way is to buy local, however there isn’t a large amount of Pokemon resources over here which means buying abroad is a must. It isn’t an option, it is a necessity if UK collectors want to truly get involved in the community and collect properly. It puts us at a huge disadvantage from the get go.
When wanting to bid on PWCC we have to add large shipping, 20% tax and handling fees ontop of the price XD it is a piss take to be honest. I know there are ways around it and you can use a middleman but what If you don’t have access to one? or the resources to be able to negate these extortionate extra costs.
Since I´m living in Germany I was watching it closely, I never really understood why GB wanted brexit so badly and so quickly, sure the EU forced them to decide in the end but I never got it why the majority of a population would be for something so harmful for the economic side of things…I guess the majority just doesn´t care or know lol.
I really feel you with all these taxes. But we have some huge advantages in europe/gb as well, so not too much to complain about besides these shitty custom laws. As for PWCC you might consider getting a Vault address, it will allow you to purchase items without paying customs as they store the cards in their local vault for you - you don´t have them in hand but you might fly there one day or ship them out yourself to your address to get them back to you if you want them in hand.
@shadowless yeah haha problem is if they suspect something inside they can and will open & keep them:P
A middleman won’t to the trick anymore either though, since you will now always have to submit complete paperwork including everything inside the package/envelope and the purchase price of each item. Every box will be handled and registered by a person, no box is just quickly looked at “value below X, slap a sticker on it and off it goes” anymore. That makes it easier to open a box of graded cards declared at 10$ and see something’s not right, keep it and ask for receipts. And if you do the customs registration yourself, you have to be the one to submit false information. Good luck with that 
That’s different with couriers like FedEx possibly though 
Live by the sword, die by the sword!
I have yet to see how this really plays out as I receive most of my stuff via FedEx. I think it would be physically impossible to check every incoming parcel for exact contents and values, but they will definitely be more thorough either way. It might be better to just have a receipt attached from the get go, otherwise this new method will slow down things enormously I´d imagine.
Submitting false information knowingly is a big no-no for sure, have you received a package with these new laws in force already?
As of the 1st July, so get your parcels to you asap XD I have one processing and the other one will be very close to the start date
Nope I haven’t and for anything above 22€ nothing would change anyway, but I’ll try it with a 10€ card or so from Japan soon and see how much handling flat rate fees are charged. I should’ve opened an acocunt with FedEx a long time ago anyway, will do the same with the normal post if they charge 6€ or something crazy on a 10€ card.
Btw, that’s actually the example the customs agency uses on their website - a 10€ item where you’re taxed 1,90€ and the postal service charges you 5€.
Also, they write “as soon as 2022”, yawn, you’ll be able to do the customs forms yourself online in some new way as a private person or a business, so maybe then you can dodge those huge fees on 10€ items. Since, the fees right now are called “lending flat rate”, which suggests the big charge comes from them lending you the money, not for filling out the paperwork for you.
@burnedos absolutely ridiculous, as if the postal and legal system isn´t overloaded to the max already…
It boggles my mind that we’re still in a global pandemic, supply chains and distributions are down everywhere and exactly now they want to punish people for sourcing goods they cannot acquire elsewhere locally on their own lol.
Absolutely the worst timing.