Sending goods from EU to UK

June 2, 2024 4:00 PM

How do I handle taxes issues when sending a household item from the EU to the UK after the glorious Brexit?

I live in England and wanted to buy some custom-made synthetic sun blinds because, well, global warming. The only place I could find what I wanted was on a Dutch website. It was sad when I realised they only shipped to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

Then I realised, hey, I'm going to Germany for work! So I had the item shipped from the Netherlands to my hotel in Germany. I have already paid 15% VAT to the Dutch company; presumably that's German VAT.

Now, I'm pretty sure this item is too big for me to take on a plane. So my plan is to walk into a DPD outlet and ask them to ship it back to England.

But I don't have a good handle on the taxation practicalities.

It seems that there's no import duty on this class of goods coming from the EU. But VAT is seemingly charged by the UK at 20%. If necessary, I will pay the VAT in both Germany and the UK, though any tips for avoiding that double payment would be gratefully accepted.

I'm really trying to figure out the mechanics. Will the DPD outlet in Germany provide a customs form for me to fill out? How would I go about paying the VAT, assuming I'm liable for it?

I would prefer not to have the item sitting in a UK customs warehouse for weeks but that would not be a disaster.

(In case it helps a lot, sending the item to family in Northern Ireland and then
having them send it on to England is a possibility.)

posted by rouleur to Law & Government (5 answers total)

Take all this with a grain of salt because I'm not an expert and I haven't done much shipping to Britain. I've just researched it a little.

As far as I know, you don't have to pay VAT unless your item's value is more than 135 £. If that's the case, you're on the hook. Yes, they will hand you papers for customs, and you'll have to fill out your item's country of origin and similar info to then be exempt from customs as per the EU/UK agreements. What will be most expensive, certainly, is the shipping itself. Sounds like your item is fairly bulky.

Are you sure you can't take it on the plane? Blinds can't be very heavy, and some airlines will let you bring bulky items free of charge. I believe British Airways is one of them. There are rules, something like "no longer than 2m, no heavier than 20kg". But I would at least look that up, because I think your plan of shipping it is going to be an expensive hassle.
posted by toucan at 5:58 PM on June 2

Are you sure you can't take it on the plane?

Note that there is still a limit on bringing things into the country by plane, but it's higher than by post (£390).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:21 AM on June 3

I do this from time to time of necessity, it is an absolute nightmare. If there is ANY WAY AT ALL you can take them on the plane I would do that. Yes in theory you might be under the limit but a lot of things have changed recently and the upshot is that you will get charged some random amount of money but much more than you expected (because they slap on handling fees) and the paperwork is a huge pain at both ends. Very occasionally you get away with it being straightforward, but it's rarer and rarer. All mine from the last year have been a disaster financially. and in terms of time.
If your airline is pissy with the size, try buying a cheap ski/board bag and transporting as skis. I've done this often with big things as the limits are higher and always got away with it.
posted by tardigrade at 6:30 AM on June 3 [1 favorite]

Just in case you haven't seen the government's official advice on the subject:

• VAT is charged on all goods (except for gifts worth £39 or less) sent from outside the UK to Great Britain.
• VAT is not charged on goods sent from the EU to Northern Ireland. So that does look like a possible workaround, depending on how much the VAT is likely to be vs the cost of two lots of shipping. DPD confirm that for goods sent from Germany to Northern Ireland, shipments follow the customs rules of the EU, not the UK.
• The magic number £135 is primarily for customs duty, which is levied (if the goods are dutiable) irrespective of where they enter the UK. Sounds as if you've established that these goods are not dutiable.
• (That gov.uk page does also assert that if you've bought goods worth under £135 online, "the seller will have included VAT in the total you've paid", but (a) this sits oddly with many non-UK sellers' assertion that they are doing no such thing, and (b) in this case, you know you have definitely not paid UK VAT.)

And here's DPD's information about shipping from Germany to the UK. For shipments from private individuals to private individuals ("CtoC"), it looks to me as if there is no scope for the charges to be paid at the time of sending: "Whatever the value, customs duties (when applicable) and VAT are paid by the consignee before the delivery."

Finally, on the UK side of things, here's DPD's guidance on paying the fees (NB I've never done this myself, so I don't know how much hassle / delay it's really likely to be).
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 7:09 AM on June 3

Response by poster: Thanks, all! I am flying with Eurowings and it may be possible to check the item. That's my first choice, to be followed by shipping to Northern Ireland, with shipping it directly as my last resort.
posted by rouleur at 9:04 AM on June 3