VAT and Duty now on purchases from Thomann?

StratNut

Now we've left the EU, do  we have to pay VAT and Duties and Taxes, plus clearance fees and delays, on all purchases from Thomann in Germany?  I'm thinking of ordering one of the Fender Mexican 75th Anniversary Strats or Teles as the prices on their web site for these are way lower than those in the UK.

melod

Lower prices “excl VAT” add 23% and you re there.

Gizmo

So do people really think they never paid VAT on goods from europe before 1/1/21 ?

prowla

StratNut said:

Now we've left the EU, do  we have to pay VAT and Duties and Taxes, plus clearance fees and delays, on all purchases from Thomann in Germany?  I'm thinking of ordering one of the Fender Mexican 75th Anniversary Strats or Teles as the prices on their web site for these are way lower than those in the UK.

Prices are tax-free; you have to add shipping costs, VAT, import duty, and courier's handling fees (for them to pay the tax on your behalf and bill you the amount).

StratNut

Ah, I  didn't realise Thomann had changed the  pricing on its GB site to be exclusive of VAT.    On import to GB 2.7% is also due for customs duty and circa £12-£20 for 'clearance fee' depending on carrier.

Whitecat

Gizmo said:

So do people really think they never paid VAT on goods from europe before 1/1/21 ?

We certainly did but we never had to pay duty or courier brokerage fees. 

usedtobe

Wait.. what??? We’ve left the EU..????

Philtre

Welcome to the Brexit, sir!

Rocker

Links to RTE website don't seem to work but an Irish company is stocking the shelves of a Belgian supermarket that used to stock only UK foodstuff, mainly for ex pats.  If you need more info, do check the RTE News website.

Gets more complicated every day.

ToneControl

Whitecat said:

Gizmo said:

So do people really think they never paid VAT on goods from europe before 1/1/21 ?

We certainly did but we never had to pay duty or courier brokerage fees. 

the only thing you didn't pay before is brokerage fees

Whitecat

ToneControl said:

Whitecat said:

Gizmo said:

So do people really think they never paid VAT on goods from europe before 1/1/21 ?

We certainly did but we never had to pay duty or courier brokerage fees. 

the only thing you didn't pay before is brokerage fees

No, you didn’t pay (extra) duty before either. Thomann did - but only on stuff not made in the EU. Yes, they work it into their retail prices, but their new pricing for the UK market is simply retail ex-VAT. Not retail ex-VAT ex-duty. So duty is getting collected twice by two governments on anything not made in the EU. Once on things made in the EU - only on import into Britain.

Rob1742

It would be better for them if they collected it. It’s a barrier to purchase for me personally. There is an extra transaction involved, a delay of a day for delivery and if you ever want to return an item you need to reclaim the VAT from our government. I don’t know how easy that would be, but again it’s a barrier.

I buy quite a lot of clothes, and I resisted this year for a while  but then found out  two of my three favourite suppliers collect the VAT so it’s business as normal. I have now started to buy like I used too. The third have lost my business because of the new process.

Maybe Thomann decide to do the same at some point, but for me it’s a barrier, and I would now only buy from them if I couldn’t get it from the UK or another supplier who collects the VAT and takes the hassle away. 

gavin_axecaster

^You do realise that is the entire purpose of trade tariffs? To make buying imported products or from another country less attractive than purchasing from a domestic supplier.

melod

Given that many Northern European countries have around 24% vat , it actually works pretty much the same price in many cases (minus the hassle)

Gizmo

gavin_axecaster said:

^You do realise that is the entire purpose of trade tariffs? To make buying imported products or from another country less attractive than purchasing from a domestic supplier.

Bang on and pretty much what i was about to post have a Wiz,

Also if the 2% duty & £11.50 fee (fee is only collected on items £135+) is just to much for you try looking a b-stock (which can have upto %30 discount) or even buy 2nd hand in the UK or try and get a slight discount from a UK based seller as the other thread just posted state you won't know till you ask, im sure someone will call me racist or a "little englander" in a moment (not that i care about such lables) but at times like these it might be a good idea to try & keep open businesses in your own country......

prowla

Whitecat said:

ToneControl said:

Whitecat said:

Gizmo said:

So do people really think they never paid VAT on goods from europe before 1/1/21 ?

We certainly did but we never had to pay duty or courier brokerage fees. 

the only thing you didn't pay before is brokerage fees

No, you didn’t pay (extra) duty before either. Thomann did - but only on stuff not made in the EU. Yes, they work it into their retail prices, but their new pricing for the UK market is simply retail ex-VAT. Not retail ex-VAT ex-duty. So duty is getting collected twice by two governments on anything not made in the EU. Once on things made in the EU - only on import into Britain.

Duty only applies to goods not made in the EU, such as Chinese-made items being fronted by a box-shifter.

prowla

Rob1742 said:

It would be better for them if they collected it. It’s a barrier to purchase for me personally. There is an extra transaction involved, a delay of a day for delivery and if you ever want to return an item you need to reclaim the VAT from our government. I don’t know how easy that would be, but again it’s a barrier.

I buy quite a lot of clothes, and I resisted this year for a while  but then found out  two of my three favourite suppliers collect the VAT so it’s business as normal. I have now started to buy like I used too. The third have lost my business because of the new process.

Maybe Thomann decide to do the same at some point, but for me it’s a barrier, and I would now only buy from them if I couldn’t get it from the UK or another supplier who collects the VAT and takes the hassle away. 

I believe companies can do this; it's just that the brexit deal caught them on the hop and they weren't in place at the outset.

thegummy

I'm not a big orderer from Thomann but I have previously used the site to browse before because it has a really good selection of filters.

Now that the prices show without vat it's not so convenient to use even for that.

Yamaha77

I had a post brexit order that I wanted cancelled because of the shipping delays in Jan. Had requested the cancellation with Thomann but they had already shipped into their container. The order eventually made it to the UK and UPS then added on way beyond reasonable fees and tried to take a bit of extra cream as well as the vat+duty+handling fee. Needless to say the delivery was rejected as instructed by Thomann and they refunded in full. UPS were arrogant and inefficient to deal with.

@Gizmo is correct in the above post. It even works out cheaper for me to order a few bridges from Thomann (with £8 shipping and vat/duty) than order from the UK. I actually reached to a company in the UK if they could offer a multi purchase discount and was shot down. 

Loobs

What about the other way? Anyone know? I'm in Germany but have thought about importing from the UK (Andertons). 

prowla

Loobs said:

What about the other way? Anyone know? I'm in Germany but have thought about importing from the UK (Andertons). 

Same routine, unless the item is MIUK, in which case there's no Duty.