On Friday, 14 May 2021 at 10:59:52 UTC+1, nightjar wrote:
On 13/05/2021 19:05, Tim Streater wrote:
On 13 May 2021 at 16:42:41 BST, nightjar wrote:

On 13/05/2021 16:03, Fredxx wrote:
On 13/05/2021 15:24, nightjar 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!

One of the consequences of Brexit.

The consequence is you pay UK VAT and not Czech VAT.

In addition, like the OP, you also get a bill for customs duty, which
was not something you needed to pay wile we were part of the Customs Union.

Indeed, we just paid it in bulk instead. £350 million per second, or century,
or something, wasn't it? Which included the markup to pay for all those other
nations with their snouts in the EU trough.


Totally unrelated. Customs duty is a levy HM government makes on us for
buying from abroad. While we were still in the Customs Union, the EU did
not count as abroad for the purposes of duty.

What is more, the decision as to classification of goods as to whether they are subject to duty, and the rate, can be complex.

One classic is that the sources of ingredients can switch an otherwise identical product from one class to another. So you might have to know details which are beyond what any ordinary customer would ever know.