Shipping furniture from EU to UK (bought on 31st Dec)

mike_pl

Hi 

 

I'm reading more and more articles around import taxes when sending items from EU to UK, and all the issues and costs related to it..

I recently purchased some furniture back in EU which is still being manufactured and “collected” in EU.

We used the local address and friend’s name to send all individual items to him and was planning to then pay for a Van to collect the lot..

 

Question is.. would this now class as Import and would we have to pay any Tax on top?

 

I’ve seen somewhere that all the purchases before 1st Jan 2021 would still be able to arrive under old rules.. is that still the case? And what proof would we need? As some of the invoices are in our friend’s name, so would this then class as gift for customs?

 

Thanks in advance for any advice and clarification.

soolin

I would think that as the furniture was ‘delivered’ to an EU address then moving it from that address to the UK would count as an import. This is the same as people traditionally using forwarding addresses for goods in the US where many companies won’t ship outside the US but ship instead to a holding unit arranged by the buyer, who then has it delivered on to the Uk , that has always attracted tax duty and handling on arrival in the UK. 

If the delivery address had originally been in the UK and full payments had been taken before 1/1/21 then you would have had an argument that this pre dates the new rules even if it doesn’t arrive until 2021. 

However this is outside my field of knowledge so others might disagree. 

Aylesbury_Duck

Sounds messy.  I think you're wrong about purchases before 1st Jan, I think it's the date of arrival in the UK that counts.  I also suspect that when you bring it back in a commercial vehicle, it'll be checked.

davidmcn

Which country is your friend in?