New EU VAT rules: the end of cheap pens from non-EU countries in the EU?

[ethernautrix]

2 hours ago, Dione said:

Simply put yes.

 

Thank you. I wonder if the postmark matters. My brother sent the package before the end of June.

 

Probably not, according to another reply here.

 

Still, cheaper than airfare. Haha.

 

 

6 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

You're quite welcome. I was curious anyway.

🙂

[senzen]

As someone used to paying taxes twice just so I'm sure things get to me... It's not the end of the world,  but then I don't follow Chinese pens.

[fabri00]

Keeping finger crossed, I got here in Italy since beginning of July one pen from UK and 2 from China in 2 separate shipments, and nobody asked me one cent.

[david-p]

As a result of Brexit, I stopped buying anything from the UK because the additional costs and postal/customs delays were unacceptable. Now I discover that Diamine inks on amazon.de are actually sold from Jersey (which is the uk as far as these charges go). This was not made clear to me when I placed the order. Indeed, the name of the seller is EuroPens, which was also misleading as far as I was concerned. I recently bought CDs on amazon.de, from an outfit calling itself RAREWAVES-DE, which turned out to be in Farnborough, UK. You have to watch them all the time! In this last case, I had to go to the post office and pay vat and import duties (also on the shipping charges!) amounting to 50% of what I had already paid amazon.

 

I read constantly about small traders in the UK going bankrupt because of the delays (e.g. shellfish and other foodstuff exporters) and extra costs — not to mention the vast amount of paperwork involved. I also read that things get sent back by the EU because the paperwork is in the wrong colour of ink, or something is mis-spelled. Meanwhile, many EU companies cannot be bothered to supply their goods to the UK for the same reasons. People in Ireland are being particularly badly hit by Brexit.

 

As we do not have brick and mortar shops that keep a full range of inks*, papers or pens in Vienna, one is forced to buy on the internet, wait and pay for delivery. The additional burden of avoiding the new hurdles is very tiresome, to say the least.

 

* I am referring to inks like Iroshizuku and Lamy of which one is lucky to find more than two colours in a few stores other than black and blue! I found one store with a few inks by Caran d’Ache and Faber-Castell, at top prices; but Diamine and US makes like Noodler’s are not stocked at all here.

 

David

[Dione]

55 minutes ago, david-p said:

As a result of Brexit, I stopped buying anything from the UK because the additional costs and postal/customs delays were unacceptable

You will find that many UK companies that you might have previously bought from are still charging prices inclusive of VAT as they always did and will now supply the required IOSS number that will mean your items won't be stopped at customs if they are under the €150 threshold. If you pay the VAT up front then you should not be required to pay it again. If you don't then the carrier will charge it and will add on his fees.

[david-p]

I found some Diamine and other rare species here. I ordered four bottles and was only charged €4.08 for shipping.

 

Otherwise, Holland appears to be a good place without excessive postal charges, Akkerman, for instance. They have highly imaginative and useful bottles. And Penworld, which is in Belgium. They file inks under "refills".

 

In Germany, there is Fountainfeder, which seems to have good stocks and reasonable shipping rates.

 

That said, I do not understand why, given the lack of country boundaries within the EU, postage rates go up dramatically as soon as a parcel leaves the country of origin.

 

David

[Misfit]

On 6/15/2021 at 12:59 PM, mizgeorge said:

You might think so, but the massive handling charges that are attached to the exercise are passed on to the customer. Plus, of course, it's a great way to stop people in the rest of the EU from buying from the UK (which I suspect is the real reason for doing it). 

 

It's an absolute kick in the teeth for the small businesses that these governments claim to encourage and support. Most will now only be able to realistically sell through channels that can collect tax for them (like ebay/amazon/etsy) and it discourages everyone from buying from overseas.

 

I have no problem with paying VAT (both as a buyer and seller), but I deeply resent the extortionate handling fees charged for collecting it, and firmly believe that it is a protectionist approach, which does nobody any good, especially at the lower ends of the scale.

Ah ha! I noticed Cult Pens collected tax from my order to the US. Who gets the tax money I wonder. 

[david-p]

On 7/23/2021 at 10:34 PM, Dione said:

You will find that many UK companies that you might have previously bought from are still charging prices inclusive of VAT as they always did and will now supply the required IOSS number that will mean your items won't be stopped at customs if they are under the €150 threshold. If you pay the VAT up front then you should not be required to pay it again. If you don't then the carrier will charge it and will add on his fees.

Many thanks for being positive about things! But I have learned never to assume that customs will not charge me a tax that I have already paid. There is really no means of redress. In addition, postal travel times from the uk can be exceedingly long -- three weeks is not uncommon.

 

David

[Dione]

9 minutes ago, david-p said:

Many thanks for being positive about things! But I have learned never to assume that customs will not charge me a tax that I have already paid. There is really no means of redress. In addition, postal travel times from the uk can be exceedingly long -- three weeks is not uncommon.

 

David

I am 100% positive that I will never, ever, pay VAT twice on anything. No matter what it took I would get an over-payment refunded as per the law: Here VAT = 20% and there are means of redress. If someone here makes a mistake they fix it. Shame on Austria if they are that desperate for funds they will charge people VAT on one item twice and tell them it's correct. That's not the EU view.

There are probably many who might not consider 3 weeks postal travel from UK to Austria through two lots of Customs "exceedingly long."

[david-p]

1 hour ago, Dione said:

There are probably many who might not consider 3 weeks postal travel from UK to Austria through two lots of Customs "exceedingly long."

Have they forgotten so quickly what life was like in this respect before Brexit?

 

David

[Dione]

32 minutes ago, david-p said:

Have they forgotten so quickly what life was like in this respect before Brexit?

 

David

No they probably haven't. However July 1st was when the new rules came into force in the EU so that's still in it's infancy, and here in the UK we're suffering from NHS Covid app "Pingmania" that is preventing many hundreds of thousands of workers from being able to do their jobs so everything is affected.

[MichaelHall]

Just a quick test... I searched for "Wing Sung" on amazon.de. 4 listings, 3 unique models, which is a small fraction of Wing Sung models. Of the 4 listings, only 1 would ship to Lithuania. And 3 were from China-based suppliers and 1 from the UK (information mostly hidden by Amazon), so I am guessing all would have the customs handling fees added (which are more than the cost of the pens) plus VAT.

 

Also, I have not found any Wing Sung pens for sale by any EU-based dealers.

 

I don't actually want to buy any more Wing Sung pens; I am just curious about the limitations of the EU market.

[Detman101]

Package sent to Sweden today from the US.
$15 first class.
Not too bad!

[david-p]

On 7/25/2021 at 10:24 AM, david-p said:

I found some Diamine and other rare species here. I ordered four bottles and was only charged €4.08 for shipping.

 

Otherwise, Holland appears to be a good place without excessive postal charges, Akkerman, for instance. They have highly imaginative and useful bottles. And Penworld, which is in Belgium. They file inks under "refills".

 

In Germany, there is Fountainfeder, which seems to have good stocks and reasonable shipping rates.

 

That said, I do not understand why, given the lack of country boundaries within the EU, postage rates go up dramatically as soon as a parcel leaves the country of origin.

 

David

 

My Diamine inks arrived today from Seitz Kreuznach in Germany. They were well packed.

 

Although I hate the narrow openings of these unstable plastic bottles, the 30 ml size was a bargain at €4.50. I bought three: Kelly Green, Chocolate Brown and Eau de Nil and like the colours. I also paid €11.00 for an 80 ml glass bottle of Bilberry, which I like too. Combined postage was €4.08, which is exceptionally reasonable these days across EU country borders, and they were well packaged.

 

As Seitz Kreuznach seems to be a store that carries whatever stuff they can get hold of that they can sell cheaply, and appears not to be a pen/ink specialist, I dont think there is any guarantee of these inks being available indefinitely from them. However, buying Diamine there was a refreshing change from the amazon.de rip off, in which I had to pay additional customs charges from the UK. Amazon did not make the country of origin clear to me.

 

Caveat emptor!

 

David

Edited August 3, 2021 by david-p

[ethernautrix]

The parcel from my family, which left the US on June 28, arrived yesterday (August 2) (w Polsce), with VAT and duty owing. 

 

Either I was merely lucky before, or the maximum value for gifts was reduced.

 

Whatever, I'm glad the parcel arrived intact and undamaged. Tomoe River notebooks and some gel pen refills (hard to find the variety here in Wrocław; I'd have better luck in Warsaw, but...I rarely visit the capital city). And Japanese ramen. Thanks, Big Brother!

[david-p]

5 hours ago, ethernautrix said:

 

 

Whatever, I'm glad the parcel arrived intact and undamaged. Tomoe River notebooks and some gel pen refills (hard to find the variety here in Wrocław; ...

But... Poland is in the EU. Why not order from Germany or Holland?

 

David

[ethernautrix]

14 hours ago, david-p said:

But... Poland is in the EU. Why not order from Germany or Holland?

Hi, David.

 

The short answer is habit. I like Nanami Paper's TR notebooks, so I ordered a few from them and learned that they won't deliver to Poland because of its long waiting times in customs. So I had the notebooks delivered to my U.S. home, which was habit from pre-pandemic times when I'd return at least once per year. I have two blank Nanami TR notebooks here, so I wasn't in a hurry for these new ones; I just wanted to have them for later, which could be a couple of years down the line. 

Blah blah blah, discussions with my brother, stuff going on there, okay, go ahead and send me the notebooks.

I didn't even think about looking for TR notebooks in Poland (there's one vendor I'm pretty sure sells it, at least loose pages; I've bought from her before), because I was playing the long game. I was sure I'd be back in the U.S. before I'd need another TR notebook (I use them as commonplace notebooks and not daily journals (anymore)).

The gel pen refills were just cos there was a bit of room for them and the Japanese ramen cos my brother used them instead of bubblewrap for packing, haha.

So, yeah -- when I ordered the notebooks, I didn't expect to have them here. At least not this year.

[Dione]

On 7/26/2021 at 7:02 PM, Detman101 said:

Package sent to Sweden today from the US.
$15 first class.
Not too bad!

Cheap in fact. I've seen stamps worth over $16 for ink samples

[nibtip]

In fact well over 25$ for a fistful of samples sent to Geneva. 

Germany has a quite competitive shipping fare (so does Japan, Spain etc...), under the condition that it is not registered and that is sent outwards the country.

I can send a package (from France) marked "print" of 250 grs to any European country for about ONE $ (yes!) 2$ worldwide.

One kilo package 3$ and 5$. etc... And transit takes anywhere between 5 and 20 days. 

But no tracking. With tracking the cost skyrockets. 

It takes time to learn all these disparities. 

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, Dione said:

Cheap in fact. I've seen stamps worth over $16 for ink samples

Wow! Ink samples are so light! I can't see how it could cost so much to send them...

My shipment was much cheaper than expected considering I sent a full bottle of Sailor ink.
I guess i'll have to make more friends in Sweden to send inks to...haha.