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shipping from abroad.

edwin

Enthusiast
Messages
833
Location
Lichfield
Hi. Has anyone shipped anything from Franzose or elsewhere in Europe , to the UK since January.
I want to place an order with Franzose for a series of bits. What happens now? They tell me that there is no German VAT, but that I will have to pay UK Vat and customs charges. Where does that happen? Does the package arrive at Dover and then customs contact me and I pay by card and then its sent on, or does it appear at my door and I have to pay then, or what? Thanks for your help. Edwin
 
hi
I have bought a number of items from vehicules-anciens.fr, and had no problems with the purchase, and everything was calculated on their side, with no hidden costs when the items arrived.

hope this helps
 
This is really interesting. I'm in France now but a lot of UK based motorcycle restorers that I know, are bemoaning the fact that they are being charged import vat and the dreaded admin fee to import parts from EU businesses.
As an aside, I discovered a couple of years ago, that the import vat on used car/motorcycle parts or new old stock parts is 5%. I used to import bike parts from the US and Canada and ended up making a decent claim from HMRC.
 
I don't know if this is relevant, but I import numerous parts from the Czech Republic (now called Czechia) for a 1961 Skoda Octavia I'm restoring. Many (almost all!) of the parts I'm buying are bought from there, and I have had no problems obtaining these. Some of the orders have been from Czech companies and others via the Czech equivalent of E-bay, and some have been of the order of £200, but there have been no problems in them being delivered and I have not received any excess charge bills from either the Post Office or H.M.R.C.

I did receive a humorous note in one of the parcels however, clearly written by the dispatcher in the depot in Prague, to the effect that their country had only been IN the E.U. for a few years and already Skoda's biggest export market was now OUTSIDE the E.U.!
 
I've been ordering bits from Autodoc recently and not had any extra charges or customs fees although shipping is slower, taking around two weeks.
Some EU based sellers now have a UK VAT number so they collect UK VAT at point of sale so in those instances, you shouldn't have to pay anything else. With none VAT registered sellers you are likely to be charged but only if the order is over £80 or thereabouts.
 
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