On 13/05/2021 04:22 pm, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 13/05/2021 15:31, GB wrote:
On 13/05/2021 14:05, wrote:
Recently, I ordered something (costing about £700) from the Czech
republic and have just been sent a demand for £143 duty and handling
from DHL. My choices are to refuse the shipment, which means I get
refunded less shipping charges, or pay. Bu&&er!


Hopefully, your Czech seller charged you an ex-VAT price, as they are
exporting the item? You clearly now need to pay VAT on import.

Prior to Brexit, I think, the system was that you paid the price in
Czech Republic including their VAT, and you didn't need to pay the VAT
when you imported the item here?


AFAICR that is how it was, despite variable VAT rates between EU nations
(there were no fuel stations in Luxembourg last time I drove through it
- everyone drove into Belgium, to fill up)

For anyone near the Belgium / Luxembourg border, it's precisely the
other way round. Luxembourg has the cheapest fuel in western Europe.
They do it deliberately in order to, among other things, take advantage
of Belgian demand (as well as demand from north-south travellers on the
E411.

OTOH importing from the USA netted you import duty, handling charge and
VAT on the ruddy lot.