July 1st 2021 'Brexit' Trade deal changes, what they mean and what I'm doing to adapt
Well, we're on the brink of another revision to the post-brexit 'trade' deal, with some changes coming into place as of tomorrow. I have been researching this one a lot and I hope I have a decent grasp on the useful details here.
One of the changes in particular has the potential to make ordering goods under the value of 150Euro from the UK, into the EU ever so slightly more predictable and slightly more cost effective(!) so I wanted to touch on it here in case it is of any help to my EU based customers.
The EU have introduced a scheme called 'One Stop Shop', giving UK businesses for example the chance to charge the customer their countries VAT rate at the time of purchase, rather than at the point of import, therefore potentially removing any miss-calculations by customs in your country, additional customs handling fees and so on.
To do this, the business needs to register for VAT in just one EU state, rather than each country like before which sounds a lot more appealing lol. As a result, I am considering doing to further help my EU based customers and have been researching my options to do so over the past few weeks since the announcement. But, perhaps more helpful in the short term whilst I see if this is worthwhile doing (and the costs involved to do so!), interestingly, products purchased through a marketplace such as Reverb or eBay for example, the VAT is charged and handled by the marketplace themselves rather than me (winner!). So to test this theory & see how the new One Stop Shop VAT charge scheme works in practice, I am beginning to list some products again on my Reverb page (sorry no eBay, simply can't afford to sell on there, reverb is expensive enough as it is sadly!).
This means as of tomorrow, for EU customers, when placing an order from my Reverb store, Reverb will charge you your countries VAT rate, and I will dispatch the order as normal with the parcel not requiring customs clearance and additional fees involved in that. Again though, this is only for goods under the value of 150Euro purchased through my reverb store. I will test the One Stop Shop scheme through there for the short term at least, get a feel for it and if it really helps with EU orders, I will register myself for the OSS scheme so it can be done through the main website.
Since Jan 1st 2021, shipments to the EU have been a real challenge, and I'm grateful for the patience and continued support from many of my EU based customers. But I do hope this OSS scheme is a glimmer of hope at least. Registering for VAT in a single EU state for a business of my size is fairly daunting to be honest, Mainly in terms of finding an overseas accountant I can trust to do a great job of the returns. But it's certainly better than the previous option of having to register in each and every individual EU state, so I'll take the positives from it best I can. So doing this through a marketplace for the short term whilst I get a feel for it is a massive help for me, and hopefully as a result, a massive help for EU customers too so I'll press on with that and see how we both get on!
But for now anyway, I'll get some products set-up on Reverb again, and any questions about international/EU based orders do please feel free to ping me an e-mail. I'll do my best to help.
One downside of the changes coming into place tomorrow (1st July 2021) is that the 22Euro order threshold amount is being scrapped. This means ANY order, regardless of it's low value of goods, is susceptible to VAT charges upon importing into your country. So do please bare this in mind if you plan to import goods.
One downside of the changes coming into place tomorrow (1st July 2021) is that the 22Euro order threshold amount is being scrapped. This means ANY order, regardless of it's low value of goods, is susceptible to VAT charges upon importing into your country. So do please bare this in mind if you plan to import goods.
