Lothian
should be banned
A zero registration threshold would be a big barrier to trade. Not a good move imo and against the Government's objective of keeping trade flowing.
Last edited:
- Status
Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
That's exactly what they have done though.
https://www.avalara.com/vatlive/en/...lling/distance-selling-eu-vat-thresholds.html
Confirmed in the last line of that table. Anyone distance selling into the UK must register for VAT.
Airfix
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2016
- Messages
- 1,047
Incorrect, the process for changing UK law requires the MPs of one country to change. The Lords can suggest amendments and even reject the bill, but the Parliaments act can overrule them.
The process for changing EU law requires the Commission to propose an alternative, MEPs and also the Council to approve by Qualified Majority Vote. And even then there's the chaos of what can happen if there's a veto by a member of the Council of Ministers.
Lothian
should be banned
MPs of one country? So Welsh MPs can change UK law?
The EU approves on average 80 directives a year compared to 33 acts of the UK parliament per year.
No evidence that it is harder or more complicated in the EU.
You missed the key questions in my post. At what point does sovereignty stop?
And so the predicted apocalypse begins - it's more difficult to buy spare parts for your bicycle now.
Joking aside, the rule seems ridiculous. Why should companies in the USA, India, China, that sell the occasional small item to someone in the UK, need to register for UK VAT collection? And what does the UK think it can do if the company just ignores the rule and sends the parcel anyway?
If every country implemented such rules then it would make international trade a nightmare: "We've just sold one of our T-shirts to a guy in Bengal. Does anyone know how to register for paying tax there? Who speaks Benagli?"
Surely it's better to just do what non-EU countries have been doing for years already. Don't charge any sales tax (or sellers often still charge the sales tax for their own country if they just sell the occasional item overseas and can't be bothered repricing). Then it's up to UK customs to intercept the parcels and charge the receiver VAT and import duty. Sometimes they do this, often they can't be bothered for smaller cheaper items and you, as the buyer, get away without paying the extra charge.
Companies that sell loads of stuff to the UK probably wouldn't mind registering, so that they could offer their UK customers a cheaper faster service with the customer not running the risk of being hit with extra customs and handling charges - this is going one (very small) step towards setting up a UK-based daughter company to handle your sales there. And of course, companies that sell tons of stuff into the UK will already have UK-based distribution agents, or UK distribution offices of their own.
Joking aside, the rule seems ridiculous. Why should companies in the USA, India, China, that sell the occasional small item to someone in the UK, need to register for UK VAT collection? And what does the UK think it can do if the company just ignores the rule and sends the parcel anyway?
If every country implemented such rules then it would make international trade a nightmare: "We've just sold one of our T-shirts to a guy in Bengal. Does anyone know how to register for paying tax there? Who speaks Benagli?"
Surely it's better to just do what non-EU countries have been doing for years already. Don't charge any sales tax (or sellers often still charge the sales tax for their own country if they just sell the occasional item overseas and can't be bothered repricing). Then it's up to UK customs to intercept the parcels and charge the receiver VAT and import duty. Sometimes they do this, often they can't be bothered for smaller cheaper items and you, as the buyer, get away without paying the extra charge.
Companies that sell loads of stuff to the UK probably wouldn't mind registering, so that they could offer their UK customers a cheaper faster service with the customer not running the risk of being hit with extra customs and handling charges - this is going one (very small) step towards setting up a UK-based daughter company to handle your sales there. And of course, companies that sell tons of stuff into the UK will already have UK-based distribution agents, or UK distribution offices of their own.
Last edited:
catsmate
No longer the 1
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2007
- Messages
- 34,767
But it superficially appeared "tough" to the dumber, flag waving, anti-foreigner type of Brexiteer hence the Bouffant Buffoon's games.
That's something that most Brexiteers simply can't accept.
Lothian
should be banned
So you think we should operate as the Europeans do. Why so you hate UK sovereignty? Typical remainer always whining about how things were better.before we got freedom.
Seriously I suspect this is because brexit has and will continue to cost us so much money we are squeezing the pips to minimise the inevitable tax rise.
No. I think we should operate like nearly every other country in the world does. How do people in, say, Brasil, buy items from a company in India? How do people from all over the world buy cheap items from companies in China using AliExpress and similar? How is it that I've sold items to people in the USA, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere via eBay - and the only extra hassle for me was sticking little labels on the packages describing the items and indicating their approximate value?
Last edited:
Speaking of Aliexpress......
Over the last year I've bought a number of items from Aliexpress, mostly cycling clothing but also a cover for my BBQ, some kitchen tongs and so on.
Yesterday I had a floor light arrive and the UPS delivery person demanded £23 in customs duty. I've never ordered anything more expensive than £30 in the past (this was £80+) so maybe no customs duty was due in the past, but if this is an indication of the post-Brexit retail landscape, Aliexpress will be in trouble IMO.
.....and in some of those countries, the recipient would have customs duty to day on arrival (we had this early on with my in-laws sending presents until they learned first to lie about the value and eventually to order from UK-based suppliers instead).
Lothian
should be banned
Just had UPS turn up asking for £88 for some items from Holland that cost less than that to buy. I recall EU membership cost each person about £92 a year so the misses has only £4 left for the remaining 360 days.
Ethan Thane Athen
Illuminator
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
- Messages
- 3,033
You also have to pay a handling charge.... We ordered an item from China and the vat was a few quid (fair enough) but Royal Mail slapped on an £8 handling charge for having to work out the VAT. That was an Amazon reseller and it wasn't clear that VAT would be charged but, as I say, no biggie, it was the handling charge that blew my mind.
Last edited:
lomiller
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2007
- Messages
- 13,208
That cuts both ways. It makes it easier for bad laws to be made in the first place and easier for a mobilized minority to keep bad laws in place.
The people pushing Brexit the hardest also favor a LOT of bad laws the general public doesn't support and the EU won't allow. They want an easier environment to make and keep these bad laws much like Republicans in the US have done in the US. If fact most of them want the UK to simply adopt whatever laws the far right in the US tell them to adopt. It's not about Sovereignty it's about making the UK into a vassal state of the US.
ponderingturtle
Orthogonal Vector
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2006
- Messages
- 54,545
Ah the good old british traditions of smuggling are coming back I see. Quick start digging proper smuggling tunnels.
lomiller
Penultimate Amazing
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2007
- Messages
- 13,208
This is more or less how most of the world works. If it isn’t VAT or Sales Tax it’s other barriers. While there are some cross border sales in the rest of the world, the system you are accustomed to where you can readily and regularly get items from other countries was a function of being in the EU with a common system of product standards and commerce rules.
And the EU has specific trade deals with many countries that we in the UK benefited from but now we don’t.
Plus because the EU is such a large single trading block it is often advantageous for a company to have a “local” office somewhere in the EU that handles customer sales in the EU so that the amount of red tape is massively reduced.
The UK has now lost the benefit of all those arrangements.
And we in the UK still have to abide with the terms of a completely undemocratic organisation that we as UK voters have no say in or ability to change anything i.e. the WTO, which can make judgements against the UK and fine the UK.
So if it mattered that there was a “democratic deficit ” whilst we were in the EU, why doesn’t it matter we have an even greater one with the WTO?
One suspects this inconsistency may indicate the democratic deficit was not such an important part of many peoples’ decision.
So if it mattered that there was a “democratic deficit ” whilst we were in the EU, why doesn’t it matter we have an even greater one with the WTO?
One suspects this inconsistency may indicate the democratic deficit was not such an important part of many peoples’ decision.
Last edited:
Archie Gemmill Goal
Banned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2015
- Messages
- 8,324
I wouldn't use Brazil as an example.
Extortionate import fees and duties, long waits in the post office depot while they check and process it and a 50/50 chance of the contents being stolen before they arrive.
I guess these changes have been requested by UK online sellers trying to compete with cheap imports from China and the like? I hadn't realised until yesterday that the exemption for imports under £15 had been removed. That's going to make it pretty much impossible to import low value items efficiently
- Status