Barriej

Did they refund any money?
Prime spain is half the price of the uk version.

Most of the stuff you buy on Amazon.uk is available in Spain anyway.

The TV side includes all Amazon exclusives no matter where you are so there should be no issues. I'm finding it easier using Amazon.es

EuroTrash

Why would you need one? As an EU resident visiting the UK your EU licence is fine, just like a Spaniard visiting the UK would not have a problem driving on a Spanish driving licence.

britishbull

There are no import duties, it is VAT that ebay and amazon are charging for goods under £135 but it is only supposed to be charged once, not in both countries, so should not be any different and the customs clearance charge is supposed to only apply to goods over £135 so you typically save £8; Goods under £15 are now charged for VAT as well so they are more expensive than before when there were no import charges. Goods over £135, the VAT is paid by the recipient plus the customs charges.

Having said that, it does not make much sense because of the way VAT works, ie it is already in the system from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer so it is probably anyone's guess how much you will pay. Aliexpress is not collecting VAT on orders so in theory you can buy for less than £135 and have no charges...

Barriej

Ive been looking into the VAT thingy.

I might be wrong BUT as I see it.

Selling stuff as a business from anywhere (not just the EU) means having a VAT number from the UK.
i.e Business seller from China, etc needs to be VAT registered in the Uk to sell on eBay, Amazon etc.

Selling from the Uk to the world (now includes EU)
nothing, the vat and import duties are levied in the receiving country, according to the rules of that country.
So as a UK seller I could (if I still lived there) just carry on selling on the auction sites and my own website as before the 31st Dec 2020. Fill in customs forms and as long as the value was below the value for import duties all would be well.

I sort of see this as a benefit from brexit because in essence it makes Uk made stuff 20% cheaper when made and sold in the UK and the Uk benefits from all the increased Vat payments from the Eu sellers (like it does now with the US etc.).


BUT does this not already break the "level playing field" agreed in the deal with the EU???

Selling personal items however is more of a grey area, from what I can find stuff carries on as before, unless the country its going to decides to open it and check and then implement charges (I had this when selling on some of my model railway stuff before we moved)

Am I wrong???

I'm planning on selling or giving away at cost some of my artwork here in Spain and continuing to make special order Jewellery as I have a client in the Uk (they may have to visit me in future) or my son can deal with them through his business.
The odd piece of artwork I may sell will be listed on my tax return here in Spain (have cleared this with the accountant as its not a business just an occasional sale)

Now Mr Shatner by no longer selling to the Uk has in effect been breaking the law by not having a VAT number (something I see listed on almost all sellers from China).

DLC

Up until the end of 2020 businesses outside of the UK could sell to the UK and the importer would pay the VAT along with any customs duties, just as UK sellers did when selling to rest of the world. This was not illegal, in fact it's pretty normal for online sales between two countries (not counting the Single Market countries in this). The problem with was that sellers underdeclared the value on the parcel to be lower than the VAT exemption threshold and parcels got missed when imported.

A seller would only be breaking the law if they sold goods worth less than 139 pounds to the UK in 2021 without a UK VAT number, collecting the VAT, and forwarding it to HMRC. William Shatner looked into it and found out that this would cost him 1000 pounds a year to do, so he decided to pull the plug on selling to the UK from yesterday, as maybe many business not using online marketplaces will do I guess.

I'm saying UK here, it could be GB but I'm not sure. NI is in the EU's customs regime but the UK's VAT regime.

The EU has similar planned legislation coming in on the 1st of July called Import OSS but the seller can opt to make the importer pay VAT along with the customs duties and they also don't need to register for VAT in each EU county (see here), i.e. it seems to be simplifying the process. The only thing which is more complicated is the seller has to submit Import OSS returns online so parcels aren't missed in the post. I guess online store software that sellers use like Shopify and Magento will be updated to do this automatically.

As for sending personal items out of UK, the Royal Mail has info here. It requires a customs declaration. Correos will also need one for sending from Spain to the UK.