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VAT at Ministry Of Pinball NL

Solar Sailer

Solar Sailer

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Went to by a few bits not available in the UK.
Noticed they added VAT to a UK order under €135 and asked why as sub 135 is tax free.
They replied they no nothing about the sub 135€ tax free deal with the EU, so went with Pinball Center on Germany who knocked the VAT off.
 
I don't think they have done anything wrong here, under a certain limit they have to collect VAT and pay to HMRC directly, over that limit and they don't charge VAT and it's paid for and then collected as per the old rules by the courier.

Unless you are talking about business to business in which case I'm not aware of the rules.
 
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Fantazia2 said:
I don't think they have done anything wrong here, under a certain limit they have to collect VAT and pay to HMRC directly, over that limit and they don't charge VAT and it's paid for and then collected as per the old rules by the courier.

Unless you are talking about business to business in which case I'm not aware of the rules.
Click to expand...
Yep, you are right, Ministry of Pinball were right and Pinball Centre were wrong - assuming that the VAT they added was UK VAT, and not Dutch VAT.

Although the rules are quite burdensome in my opinion, especially expecting a foreign company, which does negligible trade with the UK, to follow and administer our tax processes (in addition to their own!). These rules changed recently-ish too, so it's no surprise that it's a cause of confusion, really.

More details for OP in the two updates to the first post in this: https://www.pinballinfo.com/communi...mpany-a-pre-and-post-brexit-comparison.53309/
 
Under £135 they should collect the VAT

Over £135 they should exclude the VAT and let customs handle it.

The irony here is that they don't exclude the VAT over £135 as I've been double taxed in the past. I still need to claim about £80 back...
 
JT. said:
Yep, you are right, Ministry of Pinball were right and Pinball Centre were wrong - assuming that the VAT they added was UK VAT, and not Dutch VAT.

Although the rules are quite burdensome in my opinion, especially expecting a foreign company, which does negligible trade with the UK, to follow and administer our tax processes (in addition to their own!). These rules changed recently-ish too, so it's no surprise that it's a cause of confusion, really.

More details for OP in the two updates to the first post in this: https://www.pinballinfo.com/communi...mpany-a-pre-and-post-brexit-comparison.53309/
Click to expand...

Started in the beginning of 2022 I think.

The interesting part is that this was a new EU rule that was due to come in and the UK brought it into our rules as part of Brexit and actually instigated it before the EU even did, as they delayed it for a while.

I remember there was a lot of reactions from US/foreign companies who stopped selling direct to the UK due to the new rules expecting them to apply to HMRC and pay for the privilege of collecting VAT from UK customers and sending it to them. But I believe the EU has now implemented it so the same applies for someone in the EU purchasing from the US, China, etc. they have to collect the tax and send it to the EU.
 
Solar Sailer said:
Went to by a few bits not available in the UK.
Noticed they added VAT to a UK order under €135 and asked why as sub 135 is tax free.
They replied they no nothing about the sub 135€ tax free deal with the EU, so went with Pinball Center on Germany who knocked the VAT off.
Click to expand...
They did it correctly, I ordered something from them last year. They collected the VAT on behalf of uk customs and therefore, I got no other charges
 
What makes me laugh is that people can STILL throw things in the post and the Vat/Duty is sorted by UK Customs... so i really dont see the issues... Just because UK Govt say this SHOULD happen, there's no legal requirement outside the UK to do so...
 
I would have thought for orders under £135 it would be better getting it charged directly at the point of sale, as that way your not paying the overpriced Fee that the shipper always adds on and you can be sure you are actually paying 20% and not end up with some dodgy amount tacked on that never seems to work out to be 20% when added to the UK price.

But Im not sure what the crack is with import decleration being under £135 if the VAT hasnt been collected, either they would get ignored and not charged as it was expected the seller had already collected and paid, or it would go to be charged if there wasnt any form of notice on it to say its been paid, or worse case it gets sent back to the retailer for not following the rules, bit of a grey area possibly. I guess we can wait for an update from OP since he hasnt been charged VAT from the seller. Also no idea how it works with private sellers. It alls seems to be a massive pain in the backend, and they also got rid of the lower limit for tax so you could get cheap stuff with being charged.

Also I would recommend to anyone not aware that if you get a revolut account you can pay in the local currency and get the bank rate of the day with no fees (Except at the weekend for some reason), you do have to load it up first with UK currency but you can then refund straight away anything left over, even if its a small amount. Ive used it a few times this year and its been way cheaper than Paypal, eBay or by banks fees. You can also load it into your google wallet etc to use abroad without having to pay for a physical card.
 
Lots of good convo here so I dug out the invoice and noticed this.
 

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