"Brexit - paying customs on UK figures?" Topic

Straightforward, politics-free, gaming economics question:

One of the biggest advantages for us in EU countries of ordering from UK figure lines instead of American ones is that we can avoid customs duties – in my case it's an obscene +25% over 20e (approximately). Given the probable realities of Brexit (as opposed to wishful thinking), will customers in the EU have to start paying customs duty on figures ordered from the UK?

Cheers,

Christopher

Hi Chris,
I am worried too about what you say and I am afraid that custom duties will become a problem for EU customers.
Probably, I think, stockists of UK products based in EU, will be able to sell at better prices thanks to agreements with UK manufacturers. However, so far, the future is not so clear. Let's hope and see.
Cheers
Marco

Chris

Firstly in Finland you are paying VAT of 24% on imports from the USA not customs or import duty. The 20€ limit is "small consignment relief" from VAT.

Three things are likely for EU customer buying from the UK post Brexit:

[1] Countries will levy import VAT at the local rate on all parcels from outside the EU including the UK.
[2] "Small consignment VAT relief" will no longer apply. You will pay import VAT on all parcels from outside the EU even if it's only a few packs (due to be implemented in 2017).
[3] The national postal services will charge you for the privilege of collecting the import VAT. In the UK this is at least £8.00 GBP.

You will notice this has nothing to due with import duty which, if applied to toys & models, will only add to the misery. The WTO duty for toys & models is actually 0% so you might be lucky.

EU agents for UK products will still be hit by [1] & [2] but [3] will be less of an issue as it is a per consignment charge and their orders will be that much larger.

If the UK supplier is VAT registered they have the option of not levying UK VAT for trade sales effectively cancelling out [1]. Smaller businesses that are not VAT registered won't be able to do this and so EU trade prices will rise by the local VAT rate (20%+).

Happy days!

--
Martin Stephenson
Vexillia: Wargames Miniatures & Accessories
Shop | Rules | eBay | Twitter

This all depends on the nature of brevet.
brevet means brevet. But how long is a piece of string.

The UK may remain in the common market, and or the customs union, or it might be in the European Economic Area, or it may go for hard Brexit and revert back to WTO only rules. We won't know for a couple of years (NB: the Uk has not activated Article 50 to begin the process let alone started the formal negotiations).

Otherwise Vexiliia is on the spot with specific options.

Safest thing to do is buy now !

Brexit will take another 2 years at least and the official start is now slated to be "by end of march 2017".

As we only had an advisory referendum, which the government decided to act on, we don't yet know what Brexit will entail, and indeed what was actually voted on i.e. how treaties will be renegotiated, whether we'll continue to pay into the EU to maintain access to markets, etc etc.

So, there will (probably) be no change to anything until mid-2019 at the earliest.

And that's when we get to find out what's happening as well!

Fortunately, the crashing pound will reduce prices enough that the VAT will decline precipitously in absolute terms, making UK products cheaper overall.

I voted remain, but who listens to me….

question.. where are UK manufacturers sourcing their casting material from? Is it from outside the UK? because although the weaker pound will reduce costs for overseas buyers (at least 15% since June), if raw materials are sourced from outside the UK, then that import cost to the manufacturer is up 15%. In general terms, UK customers can expect a lower purchasing power as so much of the basics of daily life is imported (and therefore at least 15% to date, more expensive) so lower disposable income. UK manufacturers can expect a tough time.

Everything comes down to the negotiations, all the politicians are posturing and shouting in the end I think because of the jobs in the uk and in the EU after brexit there will be some sort of half way house. Mind you that depends if in 2019 there is still an EU with Netherlands and other countries either going to have there own referendum or already in outright battle within the EU.
just wish the posturing would end and out mean out NOW, so the world can turn

Thank you (especially Martin) for the detailed information on how it may play out. It seems to be a case of counting the blessings of a low GBP now, and hoping it remains low enough to counter-balance whatever tax increases will eventually come along.

However – although I realize that this is a justifiably emotional topic and will be sure to remain so – it might be best if we refrain from bringing in discussions of personal voting preferences? God knows I've striven mightily to do so myself! ;)

Cheers,

Christopher

I vote for more plastic figure and kits, Britian does them very well IMO.

question.. where are UK manufacturers sourcing their casting material from? Is it from outside the UK?

Metals are commodities and their prices are set in US dollars. Although UK wargames businesses will buy from a UK supplier such as AIM Solder, that supplier will base its UK prices on the cost in US dollars. Therefore a weak pound will result in higher prices on casting alloys. That will eventually force price rises on figures.

If the metal used by UK manufactures is imported then we can expect a price rise. So buying now is probably a good idea where ever you live.

Or perhaps smugglers will help, kegs of Legio Heroica being trundled up an isolated Cornish beach. Be they Ghulams? Aye, Jim lad.

Marmont is a manufacturer maybe he could give us an indication on the metal sourcing issue.

As the man with two bryans said all commods are priced in US $ . The tin ( KA ) price sold has gone up significantly . Approx a year ago it was £1,300.00 GBP for 100KG now its approx £1,800.00 GBP for the same amount . Expect lots of UK companies to put up their prices soonish .

I'm not an economist, but it don't look good to me.

This year, pewter from GWN was £19.90 GBP/kg in March, £21.66 GBP/kg in July, and this month £23.58 GBP/kg (all prices inc VAT). So that's an increase of £3.68 GBP/kg since March, or a rise of 18.5%.

I should add that in the past it has been higher, for example, when China was buying up tin, and that casting alloy costs are just part of the cost of a figure. The main driving factors in figures costs are being able to pay the bills and being able to buy food, i.e. the cost of living.

Welcome to my world anything I buy from another country that has the value of £35.00 GBP or more (including shipping) gets VATed. 25% but that's not the worst of itm post office takes about £30.00 GBP(on orders valued at less then £100.00 GBP, more if above) to "process VAT" which means a lot of small to medium orders the "processing" is much higher then the actual VAT.

On some orders I have to add almost 100% to the actual price of my order.

My you lot are tolerant.

No sarcasm… just amazed you'd let yourselves be taxed and fee'd to that extent.

Sorry, that was OT… back to the topic.

Let ourselves be taxed? We don't have an awful lot of choice. Maybe if some of your global corporations paid their fair share of taxes instead of routing profits earned here through various low tax regimes?

Wasn't there some dust up about your taxes over here some time back?

Yes metal already up and having kept prices the same for last 4 years I'll be putting up prices at the end of the year.
L