Duty payable on EU purchases

Notices SOTA Shop
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I have just learned that, from tomorrow 1 July, the EU are planning to introduce duty payments on all goods imported into the European Union countries.

Currently we send all SOTA shop purchases as “Gifts” so different rules apply - Purchases less than €45 (about £37) are exempt while purchases between €45 and €150 might attract a duty payment. I usually declare the “Cost Price” of SOTA items rather than the added value of engraving and postage so trophies fall below the limit.

Any shipment that exceeds the lower limit will be sent DDU (Delivery Duty Unpaid) so the recipient may find they have duties to pay. I will advise any purchaser that they may experience a delay while they are asked for duty payment.

Some EU countries have been applying a duty rule for some time which has caused delays and return of packages - please try to avoid this happening!

73 Barry M4TOE

SOTA Awards Manager

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Just to clarify, this is kicking in EU-wide from midnight tomorrow. €3 slapped on to every unique item, even zero VAT goods e.g. books.

Be careful as well (recipients of goods in the EU) as additional charges may apply from your carrier e.g. An Post are slapping an additional €7 ‘fee’ on top of the €10 fee they charge for non-EU parcels already.

It’s pretty much a waste of time ordering a variety of items from outside of the EU now, which I assume was the point of this exercise but it is said to be an attempt to reduce Temu landfill and the likes.

Also, it doesn’t matter if you order something tonight or last week. If it arrives in the EU after midnight tomorrow where you live, you’ll be charged a hape of fees.

It is basically scrapping Deminimis. It was so well marketed nobody had heard it was happening until it appeared in the news today.

More info here:

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From my experience yesterday, it appears that multiple of one item only incurs a small increment of a few cents. I wanted to buy a vertical antenna ground spike from a Chinese seller along with a threaded M10 adapter and was looking at €7 extra import tariff on what was a €7 order. Dropping the threaded M10 adapter (getting it from a local Chinese stock warehouse instead) but increasing the spikes to two, left me with a customs duty of €3,25 or something like that. Obviously a €3 charge on an item that costs only a few Euros hurts but this charge on something costing say €30 or more is not a major impact. If buying multiple of the low cost item (if needed) seems to be one solution to minimise the impact of this new tariff on low cost items.

Ed DD5LP.

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Buying multiples is certainly a good option to reduce cost. Though the charges are supposedly designed to reduce buying landfill. It seems to have the opposite effect if it is a better option to buy 10 of the same cheap, plastic, unsafe kids toy.

Using Amazon as an example, I can’t fathom how they are working prices out. I left some items in my cart just to see what happens over a short period of time including the charges being applied.

Result appears to be the price remained the same but when you examine the charges breakdown the price now includes the fee.

So are they swallowing the €3 charge? Also, the €3 charge is ex VAT so is actually €3+whatever your countries tax rate is.

The other elephant in the room is each postal service, wherever you live, adds an 'admin fee" (aka a conveyor belt plops a parcel in a bag nestled in the back of a waiting Ford Transit before leaving the depot). In the case of Ireland it is an additional €7.95 ‘admin fee’ plus, if your place of purchase is not IOSS registered, all the other gubbins e.g. taxes, duties and all the reat of it - because deminimis is abolished, and because of the existing thresholds.

Yet with Amazon as the example, this isn’t applied. I noticed that a lot of ‘sold by’ and ‘shipped by’ now says ‘Amazon IE’ or ‘Amazon EU’. I can only assume they have found a loophole somewhere.

Someone with mega tax skills will know far better and may be able to provide some insight. All I can assume is most items incur no shipping admin fee due to Amazon having their own fulfilment centres and global logistics.

Cost has to be absorbed somewhere though no?

Depending where you shop now outside the EU, some stuff has gotten to be not worth buying.

In an interesting plot twist, I had some bags of components arrive for the CW key I liked building earlier this year (I want to make loads of them in a zillion colours just because :sweat_smile:). Post-charge implementation deadline and from Alistair of the Express variety.

No charges attached. No automated ‘Dear John’ letter from hired corporate goons through the letter box a week or so later either.

Go figure! :face_with_crossed_out_eyes:

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Many places such as Amazon will have their own IOSS number. If the item has been sold by a retailer via such a marketplace, then that marketplace’s IOSS must be used. Under recent EU rules, a €3 flat customs duty is applicable per tariff line (HS code) per shipment on arrival into the EU.

If the shipping is DDP, any carrier clearance or handling fees are paid by the carrier and billed to the seller. There is no mandate on how that cost is to be covered, so the online store is free to either absorb it entirely (unlikely?!), list it separately, or add it to either shipping or the item price. If listed separately, this should not be a last-minute surprise because pricing transparency is a strict EU consumer requirement. Also, under IOSS rules, the €3 customs duty itself is not subject to VAT at checkout because the duty is applied at the time of import, whereas the VAT is collected at the time of sale.

And it’s all set to change again mid 2028!

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While I can see the reasoning of taxing complete retail products like children’s toys, clothes and home electronics - putting this import tariff on individual components that simply are not available from anywhere else is (IMHO) unjustified. This will impact Europe-based companies who build using parts that are only available from China, as production in Europe of those parts closed down years ago. A short-sighted, not thought-through action by the EU parliament (but that’s nothing new).

When buying small components in small quantities as needed in our and similar hobbies, buying from EU suppliers rather than Chinese ones often means you are actually buying from the European warehouse of one of the well-known Chinese marketplaces but just under a different name.

73 Ed.

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That’s what it looks like Amazon appear to be doing (the former part of your quote there).

You can click in to the fee structure and it shows the €3 inc tax as part of the final price. Which, when the price of the item never magically changed post-new rules coming in to force, makes it appear to my very amateur mind when it comes to this stuff, that they are absorbing the cost.

It’s odd. Or maybe I just have it totally wrong! :sweat_smile:

It’s Amazon though. Trillion-Euro goliath who are well able to find a loophole with their armies of expensive lawyers.

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…or invent one and dare the authorities to challenge it. :ogre:

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