In article ,
Chris Green wrote:
Andy Burns wrote:
tim... wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

Chris Green wrote:

Now that we are no longer in the EU you should be able to buy items
from EU sellers without paying VAT. You will then be charged VAT
and/or duty on importing to the UK.

Not quite, no VAT by the EU country, but for items under £135 (same
threshold as duty) the EU seller should add UK VAT at point of sale
and then pay it to HMRC.
It was always thus when importing items from outside the EU, you
paid both VAT and duty (if applicable) on imports.

For items over £135 that's still the case,

No it's not

read what I wrote

under £135, vat at point of sale collected by overseas seller, no duty.

over £135 vat and duty (if not zero rated) collected at point of import.

But VAT *isn't* duty!!!!

You pay VAT on almost everything you buy, excluding only food, books
and a few other things.

When we were in the EU that was it, if you had paid VAT in whatever
country you bought something no further taxes were due.

Now that we are outside the EU whether or not you pay VAT on something
(which I think the £135 rules apply to, so that you pay UK VAT on
things imported by post rather than bringing in yourself) there may
*also* be duty payable. This isn't just for alcohol and tobacco,
there's *duty* payable on electrical goods for example and always has
been when imported from outside the EU.

and, of course, the VAT is charged after the import duty is added, so
you're paying tax on tax

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England
"I'd rather die of exhaustion than die of boredom" Thomas Carlyle