Standard for Governments, trying to take as much from the general population as possible. May aswell have our wages/salaries paid directly to the government and they give us what they want as an allowance. Seems like that is the way we are going XD tax on tax on tax then taxed on the tax.
Unless you are well off, you are screwed. May aswell give up and slip into sweet darkness…
I don’t want to provide too much reassurance as there is a lot of uncertainty regarding Brexit, but sending your cards to the UK or the US so they get graded is not an export for customs purposes, as such, there is no reason for brexit to affect that.
At the moment, if you do things right when sending cards to PSA in the US, you will not have to pay customs charges (ok you do pay the £21 handling fee) when they are returned back to Europe.
Some sort of myth developed around the idea that graded cards being returned to their owner from outside a different customs jurisdiction will incur taxes, but that only happens if the original sender fails to report the temporary export adequately. Different postal services across the EU may have different procedures to do it, but they all need to abide by the same law which is not to tax items that are being returned.
Here’s a quote from the EU’s website on the matter:
“Outward processing: Union goods may be temporarily exported from the customs territory of the Union for processing purposes. The processed goods may be released for free circulation with total or partial relief from import duties.”
PSA clearly states on their outward forms that they are returning goods which were exported and henceforth processed for professional assessment. As such, under EU regulation customs are required to allow the goods back to their original sender without incurring additional tax as double taxation would go against regulation.
Try contacting your country’s postal service and ask for a ‘temporary export’ form and even though it may have a different name I am sure there will be something like it. If you do it correctly you should never pay tax on it.
Middle man services in the UK have been operating under the same EU rules as everyone else until now and they are sending items to the US and reimporting them to the EU without paying import taxes under those provisions.
Sorry if this was a bit long, but I think it is important to clear these misconceptions.
Already has a couple UK buyers make purchases this morning on the heels of this news. If there are cards on your watchlist from outside the UK, now is the time to buy.
This is not entirely true, on paper it may appear that way but at least for Australia even though it is returned goods 90% of my PSA submissions that have been liable for import fees I’ve had to pay, even though I provided all the relevant documentation.
@shizzlemetimbers, I was clarifying the rules in the EU for anyone concerned with PSA returns coming back into the EU which was a concern @xzini raised.
In regards to Australia I would have absolutely no idea how it works.
@kaldoverde, I think even for the EU you will get charged for import since they are providing a service. PSA marks the package value at the grading cost not the total contents, do you send to PSA if so can you confirm you avoid these fees?
I have been sending to PSA for 3 years and have about 15 submissions returned with PSA’s fees being declared at an average £2k per submission. Each time a submission is returned I get an email from customs asking for proof of export, which I always provide. Upon doing so the packages are released without incurring taxes (only incurring a £21 handling fee).
And if you think about it, how are these middlemen services able to offer grading at £9.99 if they then get charged 20% on top of whatever grading fees they paid? That would be a losing proposition.
This being said, I am by no means an expert, but have been importing/exporting between the UK/EU and Japan/US/China for long enough that I am quite familiar with most procedures pertaining imports and exports to and from the Union. Not to say Brexit won’t affect a lot of things, but one thing I can almost be certain about is that Brexit will bear no weight in EU temporary export legislation which states that such exports outside of the union (be it a post-brexit UK, the US or any other country) may not be subject to import tax.
Thank you for the insight! That is a much better system than here in Australia I have to resort to sending in sub 70 card submissions and hope that the exchange rate doesn’t dip too low since no matter how I submit my documentation they would always charge import fees. Hopefully there won’t be too many negatives in these new brexit policies, sucks that there isn’t a tax free threshold anymore.
I am aware of this. The problem is I have to prove somehow that the cards are my cards coming back and not a purchase (especially with the value rise) and it just seems too much effort to work with the customs to be cleared from taxes, to me it seems like too much of a hassle which is why I’ve been using middle man services for years now.
I managed to avoid taxes once when I traded bulk cards for a booster box because I had an email receipt that showed I wasn’t charged anything. They were originally going to because the booster box’s real value was shown on the package even though I paid nothing for it. If I’d provide customs a receipt of what I’ve paid to PSA or a middle man, they would take that as the value. It’s so complicated. I know you can escape taxes by sending a phone or something to a repair service overseas and it coming back, but, trading cards?? Again, yes, these PSA middle man services have it figured out but they are businesses, too. Which probably makes it a little easier.
Maybe I’m lazy but people like me are the reason PSA middle man services exist in the first place. No need to think about taxes what so ever. Until now if things change and the UK doesn’t make a trade agreement with EU.
No problem at all. I am expecting some negatives in relation to how UK and the EU do business with each other, but hoping that UK’s trade with non-EU countries will not be too impacted. One negative I have been at the end of is paying VAT on Japanese imports.
Last year the EU signed a trade agreement with Japan in which several products (including trading cards) are exempt from VAT as if Japan was part of the EU bloc, but since the UK left the EU I am unable to take advantage of this. A new agreement has been signed by the UK and Japan this month which is due to come into effect in January for zero rate imports, but at this point it is not yet public whether trading cards will be included. Fingers crossed.
In regards to Australia yeah, I wouldn’t even dare to try and understand or dispute custom regulation without professional help as the system there seems quite daunting and much stricter.
I have been out here paying import duties on all trading card packages from Japan, how do I take advantage of this? Sorry for hijacking this thread, but I am importing quite a lot from there lately so it could ramp up quite a bit when I am not paying import duties anymore. Thanks!
In order for customs to identify it as liable for VAT exemption the exporter in Japan needs to include the following HS code in his export form HS9504400000. If even after doing this your country’s customs charge you VAT, refer them to EU law D1907/18.
If you need to insist with customs as this is a relatively new law and a relatively niche product so individual agents may not be up to date on it, refer to this link which highlights the preferential tariff for Japan-EU trade specifically for trading cards:
I chose Japan-Portugal as an example, but if you click Modify Search you can enter Japan-Your Country and as long as it is an EU member state the tariff should be 0% as well.
As far as I can tell this should only apply to Importing items and not Exports. I could be wrong though, it has been rather vague and until all of the trade agreements for Brexit are decided we will not know for sure anyway. Its going to be a pain regardless.
@professorstephen , worst case scenario if the UK defaults to WTO rules there will be 20% taxes applied by EU countries on exports arriving from the UK. That would also mean changes to exports to countries that have current trade agreements with the EU but not the UK individually.
I don’t see that happening though as it would be both a financial disaster and too much bureaucratic hard work that politicians in both the UK and the EU are too lazy to handle. Most likely there will be either a preferential tax or maybe even no tax as it would be hard to unravel all the transit of goods between both Irelands, as well as across the channel. It would be a losing proposition for both sides.
Cardmarket already made a move preparing for the worst though with allowing GBP as currency. If all hell breaks lose they will retain UK to UK business even if a 20% import tax materialises on UK to EU business.
I really dislike the UK tax system, I feel like I need to get a accountant to work out my tax even though it shouldn’t be complicated. Why cant they keep it simple.
