21 April 2021
The Great Britain has finally left European Union starting January 1, 2021. In December 2020 the free trade agreement was conducted between EU and the UK.
Despite its title the agreement has several subtleties that may cause various issues and expenses.
Until January 1, 2021 the orders could be placed on any online platform all over EU and they were delivered to any country within EU (including the Great Britain) without any related technicalities and fees. The situation has changed now.
From now on a purchase within EU with the subsequent delivery to the UK address will have the following courses:
- With the purchase price under £135 there aren't any customs fees or additional charges. This is with the exception of alcohol and tobacco products.
- With the purchase price above £135 two variants are possible: The first variant is you place an order with the store that has British VAT-registration. The majority of vast European stores have this VAT- registration. VAT will be automatically included in the purchase price and inevitably paid upon placing the order. Such orders will not have any additional charges or customs fees once on the territory of the UK and will be processed with our warehouse as before Brexit.
The second variant implies EU stores and sellers without British VAT-registration. There is a huge amount of them. And in this case the VAT is exclusive of the purchase price. But don't get your hopes up! This type of purchase will have VAT to be paid once on the territory of the UK. Otherwise the order will never be delivered to its final destination. But the most unpleasant thing about that is courier services clearance fees will have to be paid apart from later added VAT. For example, such fees with UPS courier service amount to £11.50. There are also Alfa.uk fees of £3 for processing such orders with our warehouse. Moreover, the delays should be expected with such purchases what with the time required for delivery services to notify, discuss and pay.
All the aforesaid to summarize a buyer/Alfa.uk client should decide whether the virtual address service is valid for them or not. This issue is also relevant for EU orders placed through Alfa.uk order placement service. If an order correlates to the criteria of an "easy" purchase the virtual address service meets your demands. In case it doesn't the option should be used if considered necessary or additional expenses are of no significance.
