Max wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I am not sure I understand how and why Max has had to pay such a premium. Is that to do with Italy and its tax laws rather than the UK? I looked at the same book from Amazon UK who take the import at checkout and the totals are poles apart. If I order an item to my German address with a German card I see a total not much different to before Brexit. €7 more on a €70 sale.

Took a closer look at the invoice included in the book. Here it is:

Book+shipping= 73,96€
VAT (In Italy it's 22%) = 16,27€
Administrative Expenses for duties payed in advance (by DHL) = 16,47€ (!?!)

What? Did I pay 16,47€ so they could pay those 16,27€ for VAT in advance?

I just wrote DHL for clarification on that line of the invoice.

Thanks Max. Geez that is disgusting treatment right there. I was not questioning your comment by the way, simply could not understand why you were being made to pay so much.

It seems then to me that companies like Amazon who take import and apply the correct taxes in advance will be the big winners going forward and the little guy will further fall behind. Blackwell's really need to know how this could impact them. They need to implement (if they can) the process of applying the correct taxes and import at basket.

Will this affect any current Blackwell's purchases? I recently bought a book from Blackwell's with delivery to the US and didn't pay anything more than the listed sale price (USD 15.19). Can VAT/other tax still be charged at this point?

EDIT: Worth clarifying that the book has not been delivered yet, the estimated delivery time is 1-2 weeks.

^ The answer is, yes, you can be charged VAT/taxes by US customs (if this is applicable), after you've paid the seller. Long after.

onthetrail wrote:

Max wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I am not sure I understand how and why Max has had to pay such a premium. Is that to do with Italy and its tax laws rather than the UK? I looked at the same book from Amazon UK who take the import at checkout and the totals are poles apart. If I order an item to my German address with a German card I see a total not much different to before Brexit. €7 more on a €70 sale.

Took a closer look at the invoice included in the book. Here it is:

Book+shipping= 73,96€
VAT (In Italy it's 22%) = 16,27€
Administrative Expenses for duties payed in advance (by DHL) = 16,47€ (!?!)

What? Did I pay 16,47€ so they could pay those 16,27€ for VAT in advance?

I just wrote DHL for clarification on that line of the invoice.

Thanks Max. Geez that is disgusting treatment right there. I was not questioning your comment by the way, simply could not understand why you were being made to pay so much.

It seems then to me that companies like Amazon who take import and apply the correct taxes in advance will be the big winners going forward and the little guy will further fall behind. Blackwell's really need to know how this could impact them. They need to implement (if they can) the process of applying the correct taxes and import at basket.

No problem mate, I was curious as well and yes, it's disgusting to pay that much.
Also, I ordered it before the end of the year hoping to avoid such scenario but blackwell took 10 days to ship the book which I find a lot. If they ship it by the end of the year everything would have been fine I guess.

Khamûl wrote:

^ The answer is, yes, you can be charged VAT/taxes by US customs (if this is applicable), after you've paid the seller. Long after.

Oh no. Had I known this I would have bought from a different seller. Is this charged relative to the size/price of the item or is it a fixed value? I don't think this War of the Ring paperback is worth an extra $30.

Faramond wrote:

Khamûl wrote:

^ The answer is, yes, you can be charged VAT/taxes by US customs (if this is applicable), after you've paid the seller. Long after.

Oh no. Had I known this I would have bought from a different seller. Is this charged relative to the size/price of the item or is it a fixed value? I don't think this War of the Ring paperback is worth an extra $30.

No clue. Nobody here has mentioned there being any problems with US-UK trade; this may be continuing as normal. But if it were charged, it's normally a percentge of the stated value (book usually including postage, but whatever the seller states on the custom declaration) + administrative charges.

Khamûl wrote:

No clue. Nobody here has mentioned there being any problems with US-UK trade; this may be continuing as normal. But if it were charged, it's normally a percentge of the stated value (book usually including postage, but whatever the seller states on the custom declaration) + administrative charges.

Great, thanks for your help. Nothing to do but wait.

Khamûl wrote:

Max wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I am not sure I understand how and why Max has had to pay such a premium. Is that to do with Italy and its tax laws rather than the UK? I looked at the same book from Amazon UK who take the import at checkout and the totals are poles apart. If I order an item to my German address with a German card I see a total not much different to before Brexit. €7 more on a €70 sale.

Took a closer look at the invoice included in the book. Here it is:

Book+shipping= 73,96€
VAT (In Italy it's 22%) = 16,27€
Administrative Expenses for duties payed in advance (by DHL) = 16,47€ (!?!)

What? Did I pay 16,47€ so they could pay those 16,27€ for VAT in advance?

I just wrote DHL for clarification on that line of the invoice.

So do you pay VAT on books in Italy? If so, then this would seem correct. And, yes, you are being penalised for customs/DHL/whoever having to process this rather than the seller. As I said, in the UK they charge £10 simply to administer these processess, so that charge doesn't look particularly unusual.

Should everyone in the EU not be subject to the same EU-UK ageement though, that's the question?

Yes, of course, we all have the same EU-UK agreement. But now every EU-country adds its individual VAT on your UK purchase. For books this is in Germany a reduced VAT of 7% (for other subjects 19 %) In Italy it seems to be a full VAT of 22%

This means, every purchase from UK is now much more expensive than before Brexit - unfortunately :((

Max wrote:

onthetrail wrote:

I am not sure I understand how and why Max has had to pay such a premium. Is that to do with Italy and its tax laws rather than the UK? I looked at the same book from Amazon UK who take the import at checkout and the totals are poles apart. If I order an item to my German address with a German card I see a total not much different to before Brexit. €7 more on a €70 sale.

Took a closer look at the invoice included in the book. Here it is:

Book+shipping= 73,96€
VAT (In Italy it's 22%) = 16,27€
Administrative Expenses for duties payed in advance (by DHL) = 16,47€ (!?!)

What? Did I pay 16,47€ so they could pay those 16,27€ for VAT in advance?

I just wrote DHL for clarification on that line of the invoice.

Just am update: DHL answered stating that last line of the invoice is there for the fact they pay duties in advance.

The amount they request is 2% of the duties BUT... They set a minimum: 13,50€+VAT = 16,47€.

Ridiculous, but it is what it is.

I have received today an order from Amazon.co.uk I placed 3 days before Brexit and sent by Amazon itself: I didn't have to pay more as they included the VAT in the order.

The very last order I placed on Amazon.co.uk however is sent from a third-party seller, on the invoice there's no mention fo VAT so I think I'll have to pay it to the courier or at the post office. I hope they didn't use DHL then