RedBubble

Thanks foer letting us know!

Boo!! The British Government would tax breathing if they thought they could get away with it!

2 more days… here i come with my credit card!!!

everywhere you go, its ‘fat vat’ !

Thanks for letting us know!S

Fair enough

Oh, ok, thaks for letting us know, tax, tax, tax, tut!

flippin government lol, whats gotta be done has gotta be done

Does this include books (I’m thinking In the Moment, for example)? Normally books are zero-rated. Or do things get complicated when shipping from abroad?

time to go shopping!

No matter the country, if they did not waste our tax money I would not mind paying it so much. But the government forgets its OUR money not theirs.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

go nuts and buy everything… buy it all…. and do it all over again…. then again and again and again and then wait… eat 2 minute noodles…. and smile… you know it’s worth it

thanks for letting me know, good job today i had 10 cards of mine purchased by somebody, my its hard enough to sell them as it is, I have sold 23 items and not even earned £15 poounds yet, and i got to make £20 to activate my paypal account, and i wanted to use what i earned on other artists pictures (wail) oh well hopefully more will sell fingers crossed and it was only a matter of time before they done it Dawn

OUCH and OUCH again

dang!!

What about us in the land of Ire? We get caught for VAT too. Stinking Bertie Ahern taxes the bollix out of us.

It seem redbubble do eventually pay you in sums less then £20 i got my paypal payment for £13 recently.

and BOOO to Tax.

damn! lol

Sounds about right, the Government have to get their money from somewhere to waste.

What a wonderful government we have!

Any room for another graphic designer/photographer and his family over there?

Thank for the heads up on this!

I’ve moved back to the USA as UK will tax the air you breathe.

it’s about time Gordon Brown and his pal Alastair Darling were told to get off, I do not see them paying for my camera gear or printing costs or anything else for that matter, just a continual take, take, take, take and more take, ...................... it’s about time the Brits voted with their feet and had a tantrum in London.

OMG that makes me feel better now

oh wow thanks a lot, i did not know that, silly me, well i had better start making a list again, thanks so much for letting me know Dawn lol god i am so excited now

ANY JOBS AT RB GREATFULLY APPRECIATED, NEED HELP WITH THE RELOCATION COSTS…................LOL

I’m with Chris lol…Thanks for letting us know red bubble…Please buy my artwork now before it goes up…..Ta Bev, Cumbria, Uk… ;) x

RB – Do you know how expensive it is to move to London? surely it would be better to move to a cheaper town/city in the UK?

Excellent on the TAX front I haven’t sold anything yet and now the price goes up so I might as well leave ;)

I am glad this tax will be paid at source rather than an unsuspecting buyer being hit with an unexpected tax bill.

I think I might advertise my VAT FREE work while I can … only 2 days to go !!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Redbubble

Thanks British Government (NOT!!!)

Thanks RB. You could try just not telling them, they’re pretty amateurish.

Good old Gordon Brown – taking more money from our artistic pursuits to fund his international skullduggery. Tosser.

This is typical British Govenment!!! I would not mind but they are a buch of buffons manageing our money!! And it’s not like it is even a great country anymore!!!
Sick to death of being taxed to death!!!! Sorry for the rant and thanks RB for letting us know!!

That sucks. How can the UK Government charge VAT on purchases made outside the UK.?

A very interesting site to look and to consider is http://www.paypalsucks.com/

In reply to Steve Sharp, I have to suggest that GB is not EVEN a tosser

Hey, it could be a whole lot worse, they could be starting one of their witch hunts for non VAT payers, which would result in what it normally does. IE, the rich couldn’t give a monkies about the VAT, and can probably evade it anyway, and the poor people who might actually make a little extra cash, which would improve their life vastly have to cough up. Don’t it make yer proud, I say, lets all sing the national anthem or something. The only thing were export nowadays is injustice.

reply to RB: this is the incontravertible proof that Robin Hood never died

I lived in Australia once for a long time…... i am beginning to wonder why i came back!!!! it stinks

A hypothetical enquiry to RB (or anybody with accounting skills out in the UK) about the VAT status on goods sold. We as individual artists (some self employed, some not) list our goods on RB for sale and pay a fee to you for any we sell. Surely if we are traders and not liable for VAT because our turnover is insufficient then the goods we sell through whatever agent (RB being an agent) we use should not be liable for VAT and on the other hand if we are VAT registered traders then surely VAT can be reclaimed on items sold? I don’t profess to be very knowledgeable in this field and so any thoughts will help me understand the best way forward.

In response to RedBubble, have you got any plans to set up a printing centre in the UK? And how would that impact on the VAT, if the product was produced here? (I’m guessing that it would still be liable for VAT).

RB – I work in London and to be honest it doesn’t rain very often – I have a long walk to the station and have got wet a couple of times in the last 6 years… A shoe box is about £500,000 in West London but move out to Romford and you may get a couple of rooms for that price ;o) – If Tom every wants to meet up for I beer I’d show him around London.

If you need any networking/security done – hint hint.

well, this is a bummer, i’ve only made one sale and i’m not expecting too many more now :( cheers for the heads up tho :)

We have thing in the UK called Import Tax. I’ll pay one or the other but VAT (value added tax) aswell? Sheesh!!!

How exciting. RB will have London Bureau!! Sorry about your tax!

I’m going to try emigrating to Australia. I’ve heard the weather is better too. :)

and in response to shitehawk, you’re probably right!

Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
Thieving little runt
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
Money grabbing **
Taking from the poor
To fund his phoney war
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown

John Nelson is right – this is from the direct.gov.uk website about VAT in the UK:

Businesses with annual sales below £67,000 (2008-2009) don’t have to register for (and therefore charge) VAT, but they may choose to do so voluntarily. If they don’t, the price you pay for their goods or services may be cheaper than if you bought the same goods or services from a VAT-registered supplier.

ps, no singing, they’ll charge you for royalties and then tax that as well.

in response to steve sharp:
I think your song should be adopted as the ‘new’ national anthem of Great Taxed Britain

Sometimes I hate living in England!

I am not a business but a sole trader and would be very lucky to earn from sales £67,000 a year :o) I wish….

Here is another quote from that site you may find interesting as RB mentioned the goods come from outside the EU:

VAT is a tax that you pay when you buy goods and services in the European Union (EU), including the United Kingdom. Where VAT is payable it’s normally included in the price of the goods or service you buy. Some goods don’t attract VAT.

catchy isn’t it, I’ll have to teach it to my son, with a few dum de dums in the appropriate places, erk herm…

The registration threshold for UK VAT is £64000 with effect 1st April 2008. Does this not apply to us small people?

Thanks RB – I understand what you are syaing more clearly now. This is actually not a VAT but an Import Duty which is different and something I have been liable to pay on items I have imported in the past. I think when you begin manufacturing in the UK and shipping to the UK (and maybe Rep Ireland) from UK then this Import Duty can be removed and prices should be able to revert back to what they are now.
All I can say is: RB hurry up and get producing here in the UK before the buyers stop buying from UK artists.

thanks fer letting us know :o)

Oh, just a thought, my sole purchaser (who I suspect is my mum, bless her) would definitely stop buying my stuff if she thought she had to pay VAT as well, it’s not that good.

RB – That’s the very page I had been looking at and this one

OK this is getting more and more complex to follow as the rules on the link RB listed state

2.3 Are import duties and import VAT always payable?
No. Customs duty is waived if the amount of duty is less than £7.

Import VAT is not payable on:

commercial consignments eg goods purchased over the internet with an intrinsic value not exceeding £18, but this does not include alcohol, tobacco products, perfume or toilet waters….

Now what happens if some purchaser only buys 2 or 3 cards for example. The UK GVT state the duty will not be collected yet the prices will have been raised to cover such payment.

I appreciate this is quite complex for a company to follow but surely the best possible course of action would have been to let the buyer be subject to any charges the UK GVT want to levy when the goods are delivered. Prices would not need to rise online and most small purchases will be exempt anyway.

One final question which does not seem to have been asked is what will the UK ‘new’ prices be?

To all you guys at Red Bubble thanks so much for taking on the cost over the last few months. I accept what you have to say. Thought of having a uk outlet?

I was wondering when the blood suckers were going to get their bite of the pie

Thanks RB for letting us know! Will VAT be added when we go to the checkout?

Yikes! Better get shopping!!
You guys having been paying our VAT? You guys are the best! Thank you! :o)

Bloody British Government, they even take our money when we DIE!

Thanks RB for all your help and explanations. I don’t wish to come across as complaining because all we want to do is display and sell our work.

What happens if someone in UK buys work through RB from a US or AUS RB member for example? Is there still duties and VAT to pay and if so by who? I am unclear as to why no other countries prices increase when they are being shipped to the UK.

Hey, Tom, try out the UK but don’t live in London! In that city, every time you step out your front door you open a vein and bleed money until you get back home. At home, of course, you pay council tax ;-)
But hey, why complain about tax when it all goes to towards the good cause of subsidising taxes for millionnaire non-doms? It’s like Robin Hood with dyslexia these days.

P.S. Oxford’s nice. I’ll take you punting!

Naffa cakes! Thanks for letting us know!!!

and thanks for paying it all this time! How very awesome of you!! :o)

Awhhh…. shucks! Money…

RIP OFF BRITAIN…THIEVING GITS…I will have to buy some works now but thanks RB for the heads up…..if you want digs come to me…I will put you up in a put you up…lol.
Cheers RB….POXY ENGLAND…DAMN THE BLOODY GOVERNMENT!!

Next they will be asking you to declare your intrastats

LETS ALL BUGGER OF SOMEWHERE ELSE THIS COUNTRY STINKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with Teresa :)
This bloody country, grrr… I am so angry (and i am usually mild mannered) – is this so they can pay for another war nobody wants – it makes my blood boil.

I thought art work was a lower VAT tax bracket. Maybe that only original artwork though.

*GO THE BLUE LAKERS TEAM *

whoops wrong journal
sorry

They will tax your last breath if not already

This is excellent news.

Not the tax of course (although not all tax is wasted), but rather the fact that RB are collecting it and dealing with HMG direct. This means I can now without reservation recommend RB to my UK buyers.

And once local production comes on-stream there will be an even larger incentive to use RB and less of a carriage issue if RB can expand to include larger products in the future.

Keep up the excellent work and well done to everyone invloved.

If nothing else, reading all the comments in response to your tax announcement has really made me laugh! You are a great bunch of people on Red Bubble and I am glad to be part of the group. Guess we’ll all have to drop our profit!!! margins to make up for the shortfall (wish I had a profit margin – boo hoo!

Hmmmm. Dubious about all this – Its a nice try RB, and certainly a sensible approach – but with a higher price to the buyer as it includes VAT at source, folk in the UK will also now get screwed for import duty as well probably. Sales figures are not wonderful for most individuals in any case, but this will probably kill selling higher value quality RB products such as the canvasses into the UK stone dead as buyers will get hit twice.
What happened to opening ofices in London and New York as I’m sure Ive seen a reference to these locations somewhere on RB in the officially bit in the past – or am I mistaken?

Hello Socialized Healthcare! sorry but we are paying up the yang for health costs here in the US I would pay more taxes if they would reform the system here and get rid of insurance companies that are fat and happy!

Typical! They don’t miss a trick!

@Graeme – Peter just mentioned they were sending troops to London to start a UK base in the next month or so (it’s lost in the responses above) ;)

“Yep – we’ll set up UK production over the next 3 – 6 months (and probably some production in Germany). The situation becomes more complex at this stage – because we won’t have to charge VAT for those artists who aren’t registered (but we’ll still have to charge VAT for shipping).”

I pay income tax.

I paid VAT on all my art materials.

I paid VAT on the purchse of my computer.

I pay VAT on my internet connection.

I pay VAT on the electricity that keeps my computer powered up.

Please guys DO NOT under ANY circumstances purchase my prints. I’ll have to pay bloody Income Tax all over again.

:O :O

Why can’t we go back to using the old service? This only started happening when you guys switched to UPS!

What a flipping shame- thank you so much British Government !!!
Thank you for letting us know!

Might sound like sour grapes a bit from me, for which I apologise, but I’m beginning to feel RB is a victim of its own success. Thanks Natalie – I missed that post scanning the replies.
Just for the sake of interest, my highest viewed image on here, has been on 6 months, and still has less than 300 views. I put an image on show on Fotopic, which had had few views here, but received just short of 500 views at last check, and whilst it sat unviewed (well, 15 views) for a couple of weeks, over one week, it picked up the rest!
Kinda makes me wonder where my work is best off! As a community, RB is the best, but for views and sales, it has a long way to go yet in my opinion, and folk I have spoken too lately who are RB members are feeling the same thing deep down. RB is easy – wonderfully so, and friendly, but is not bringing in much by way of sales for the vast majority, and there are some excellent works here on RB which never get seen and deserve sales – in that, I am NOT including my own. RB are to be lauded for taking the initiative, certainly, but when I buy anything from abroad, inc RB, I tend to buy a lot in one hit, so get clobbered for import duty – which means I have to then have a day off to go collect the purchase and pay the dues – makes it a bit pointless when I can get reproduction done in the UK cheaper to the same quality. I will watch the London developments with interest! – But these comments are moving off the VAT topic, so I’ll close here for now.

Buy BUy BUY!

Moving to London is a silly idea… It isn’t even the centre of England any more, Manchester is. Not only that but, it is twice as expensive to live in London as Manchester.

Graeme, in answer to your post about sales, don’t forget that over ALL the internet at the moment there is a mass decline in sales from all ventures, but especially art. America is having a downturn in their economy, as are people in the UK. People are more worried about keeping their homes at present than buying art, and although corporations will always need art for Directors etc, they tend to not use sites like RB.

But, like all things economic, this will pick up once the general buying public have confidence in their economy again.

Looks like you have opened a pot of worms there my friend.

aw guys! thanks for being complete angels and paying up for us thus far….
am i right in assuming then that all prices, site-wide, will be increased by a further 17.5% – what about postage – is that affected too?

I am still a little confused and rather more concerned about what you are intending to do regarding increasing UK based RB members prices only.
Imagine these 2 scenarios; Mr Smith in USA buys one of Mr Jones prints who is based in UK. Mr Jones prices have been increased by 17.5% to cover this charge the UK GVT want for imports and so the item is shipped to Mr Smith in USA by the RB production depot in USA. The print comes nowhere near the UK and still Mr Jones prices reflect a higher cost to the rest of the world. Where does the increased charge that Mr Smith in USA has paid go to? Certainly not the UK GVT as no importation has taken effect.

Mr Jones in UK buys a print from Mr Smith in USA at his reasonable price because there is not a 17.5% increase to cover the UK GVT tax. The item comes through the post and Mr Jones gets a knock on the door by Royal Mail saying customs duties are due because its an import and from outside the EU. Mr Jones now has to pay the cost of the import duties, which by the way is standard practice for any purchaser when buying from outside their own economic area.

Mr Smith in the USA is now getting favourable prices listed on RB compared to Mr Jones because RB have decided to increase retail prices to reflect IMPORT / VAT DUTIES.

I have concerns that RB have decided to take the mantel up for ALL UK buyers on RB by discriminating against RB members in UK. We may sell our work abroad and still the higher price is listed, and the very listing of a HIGHER price during this credit crunching time is enough of a deterrent to put off any buyers no matter where in the world they are. RB are also penalising members elsewhere when they buy (or probably not from Thursday) from UK members because our price is higher. Offers of ‘refunds’ to these buyers does nothing to help UK sellers and only complicates the situation for everyone.

I implore RB to simply place a disclaimer on their checkout pages indicating what is, and has been, common practice over many years – simply that purchasers of goods should be aware that IMPORT & CUSTOMS duties may be payable on delivery by the purchaser. That way the responsibility still remains with the buyer but is less complicated for RB because they have done their legal duty in displaying the notice, less stressful for sellers in UK because our prices will be comparable with the rest of the world, and everyone will know where they stand and less unfavourable for non UK buyers because they will not be penalised for buyer from a UK member.

I know there is a lot of information contained within this post and am happy to accept a bubblemail direct with your reasonable response.

UK based members should not think I am being annoying with this; I am simply of the opinion that RB’s good intentions may be unfairly baised against us and want every possible avenue examined before we lose out again because of complicated methods when a simple disclaimer notice at checkout is sufficient.

I’m just guessing this counts to anything to Wales as well?
Damn. I swear they’ll tax people going into public toilets soon enough.

And, would you only base a printing centre in London? Or could there be a welsh based one. Might be cheaper for you to move to somewhere like Cardiff or Newport than going to London. Even though it does have it’s fair share of rain…. and more rain… he-he. Just an idea like. =).

I think rb have done a very admirable thing in actually explaining the reasons behind the increase, and admitting it is only the uk prices with an increase at the moment, they could easily have put the prices up and said very little, letting us believe it was site-wide.

I think – correct me if i’m wrong please admins! – the extra VAT charge will be added only if you shop within the uk – so the prices of our cards/prints will not be increased for buyers elsewhere….

Fair enough!

dont you just love our government, they raise the price of everything apart from our wages! grrrrr….thanx for letting us know redbubble!

I wonder if this same thing applies to Canada as well?
We do have a VAT here called the GST (Goods and Services Tax), but I don’t know if it applies to artwork purchased outside of the country.

Have not been able to find anything on the web about this yet, but will keep looking.

Goodness, I didn’t realise you chaps had been stumping up the VAT payments. What awfully nice chaps you are. On the plus side I’ve not been very successful on RB, so I’ve managed to save you a fortune!

Oh well, another goldmine for our useless government….lol! Thanks for all your hard work RB, we appreciate your great service. And thank you for clarifying this for us :)

Come on folks, as UK people we all know that if there is even the remotest possibility of the little personl, making a single penny, out of any activity, the government will want, no demand it’s share. It has always been the case, always will. It’s just that in the computer age we are all actually making it easier for them. And it’s gonna get worse. Sell your art at a boot sale if you don’t want to pay tax, but believe me, if you do well, they will still find you.

Bah, I’m up to my neck with Mr Brown and is bleepin’ taxes! shakes fist.

o wank…

Taxed on what we earn
Taxed on what we spend
Taxed on what we save
Taxed on what we use
And when we croak, if there’s anything left they take that too!!!
Rant over!

@ John Nelson – I may have got the wrong end of the stick (it’s been a long day) but I understood that it’s not the prices of our own work that will change but the prices we pay if we want to buy something from an artist on RedBubble? So if I’ve set the price of an item of my work at £20 it will stay the same price for everyone apart from those in the UK who will pay a little extra to cover VAT.

You could just post them as gifts… nicely wrapped with a ribon on top! Then they would be free! I am in the UK… If some one buys my work from Ausie.. I’m guessing they do so at the cheaper price (with out VAT)
... I hope you people are all adding the £2.45 you make every year on here to your income tax decleration Don’t forget Gordon wants a piece of that pie too!!

death and taxes . . .

if it all goes to taxes, let me think. If we donate our sales to a charity via RB, how would that work?

doom gloom doom gloom HANG ON I SAY!... i think we’ve all missed a vital point here….rb have been paying our vat all this time? how ruddy lovely!

oh the joys of living in Britain yet one more thing to tax us on! no big surprise there. thanks for letting us know RB, very kind of you. :0)

Jings crivens helpmabob! Time Scotland was a nation again.

where’s robin hood when you need him

The only reason we are on this planet seems to be to pay, pay ,pay for some fools ideas of how we should live, eat, travel & die

Argh. And I just moved here two weeks ago. The weather is colder and the Redbubble gear is now more expensive as well. This had better start paying off soon 8))

“Ouch” is right.
Hate to see the bills you guys ave been having to pay. Either way, we all thank you for that work and dedication RedBubble’s done to help us sell our art.

But you can’t do everything, and we know this. So thank you for the good run. ;)

Just a thought here to get over the VAT for the U.K.Wonder if our friends in Australia,and the States could receive the purchases for us and ship them over to the U.K.! and mark as gift items,,bit of a pain in the rectum but this way we get our products and Customs and Excise are none the wiser…would this be possible as I do this wheeling and dealing on Ebay.
Anyway,I have bought a few bits tonight and I got in just in time…sorry I can’t buy anymore though…Borasic Lint NOW..DOH!!

The Sherriff of Downing Street strikes again…
...Just as the Creative Industries are being encouraged around the realm…
It’s just a thieving game that never stops.

FWIW imports from within the EU are zero rated. If you buy a camera from France on the internet, it will come with no VAT. Its one of those odd little quirks of the EU VAT system. Imports from outside of Euro land, however will be taxed. I’m not sure if Art is VATABLE (I am VAT registered btw, but not as artist)

@John Nelson: USA buying from UK will not attract a VAT charge. Only orders that have a shipping address in the UK will be charged VAT (at this stage). It is unrelated to the location of the seller.

Mr Smith does not pay tax when he orders from outside the UK (regardless of seller).
Mr Jones does pay tax when he orders from within the UK (regardless of seller).

Hope that clears things up

Wouldn’t it be simpler if we just overthrow the government?

Just a thought.

Overthrew, sorry.

thanks for the reply – you just confirmed what i had initailly thought :)
perfectly understandable – if we were buying from anywhere else this would apply so we can’t really complain!!!

this might isteresting for some one I just copy and pasted from other site
I would post the whole article but it is extremely long. http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=Columns&article_no=3605&%3E%3Cimg%20src=

The basics are this. The US government and European governments are trying to make it so that all artworks, even those that are registered with the copywrite be registered with a privately owned registry office.

Each artwork, photograph, song, poem and literary work would have to be registered with a minimum $5 fee. Otherwise the artwork is considered “Orphaned” and will be allowed to be used by the general masses for anything. THIS IS THEFT!

Imagine spending months working on an artwork piece. Then when you decide to display it for sale on ebay or the web, that anyone can take that image and use it for their own benefit. They can make prints of your artwork and then sell them without giving YOU the creator any of the profits from that sale!

It is tough enough to make a living as it is..I work a real job and do freelance and artshows on the side. It is hard to pay for gas just to get to my so called “real job”. Let alone pay to registered every piece of creative artwork or writing I do.

Writers have to beware too! The Orphaned Works Bill going through congress affects YOUR WRITING TOO!

Write your congress!!! Not just about the high cost of medical care! NOt just about the high cost of gas!
Write six letters ONE FOR every topic you feel upset about. If you are not a registered voter it doesn’t matter if you pay taxes YOU HAVE A VOICE! That even includes teenagers that drive because guess what if they work teens pay taxes too! If they drive they pay gas taxes! and sales tax! YOU HAVE A VOICE _{~~ USE IT}~~

How to contact the US Elected Officials:
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

and this from other guy!

This is even more disturbing than you’ve initially hinted. Every artist on this site and everywhere in the world seriously needs to look into this.
Its not just the $5 registration (or whatever these private corporations will decide to charge), its the fact that your works, unless registered by you, can be LEGALLY stolen by anyone and registered by them! You could ultimately be breaking the law for using the very art that you personally created!

Seriously, everyone needs to look into this and contact your government officials – tell them the Orphan Works bill is just simply wrong.
We will all be terribly affected by this. Our works will be worth little or nothing should this go through congress.
As artists, our careers will be over and sites like FAA will be shut down. This is NOT an exaggeration. Check it out.

Should this bill get passed in congress, it will be in all artists best interest to remove EVERYTHING of theirs from the internet (if that is even possible…)

Yikes!!!
Good luck to us all.

17.5% – BOOOOOOOOOO!

Stinking taxes.

Eugh!! Taxes!!! Thank you for informing us RB susie :)

Lame :(

As an American, I was about to yell, “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!”, but then I read that those buying from outside the UK will not attract a VAT charge. Whew! :)

This is why the majority of us Scots want HOME RULE and get rid of Gordon Brown!!

it’s a bummer but at least you’ve let us know the situation and that IS good customer service! I love you guys at redbubble and I’ve never bought so much art before.

You guys rock

Thank goodness the govt. is getting more money! I was beginning to think the country might go bankrupt!

Thanks RB for the info.
At least setting up a new print works in the UK, we wont have to pay freight import tax, and brokerage surcharges, which a lot of people got ‘stung’ for when ordering their callenders last Christmas.

Angel Oritz. The information you posted is incorrect and stems from the ramblings of one Mark Simon who has completely got the wrong end of the stick and it seems to have spread like wildfire around the internet because many have taken his comments at face value without checking the legitimacy of his claims.

Try the link below to get a more accurate opinion.

Regards

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/12/countering-the-fud-a.html

I think I’m reasonably clear on RB’s position here. However, there are a few things that have been overlooked.

Goods with a value under £18 imported into the UK by post with a custom’s sticker should NOT attract import duty or VAT.

Goods over £18, will attract postage costs, 17.5% VAT, plus import duties.

Genuine gifts, with the word “gift” written on the custom’s sticker usually should NOT incur ANY tax. However, this may not be open ended and I expect there is a price limit to where tax will become payable.

I am rather concerned that RB’s changes will be coming into effect without the above tax laws being fully considered. I’d also like to ask RB what options will be available to the UK buyer, ie: If someone is buying a gift, will there be somewhere at the check out to declare this? Will it be clearly explained that if goods come to below £18, the buyer will be tax exempt?

the goverment are only init for the money , ,, lol bummer , , , i think its not fair wyh dont they put fags and beer up drinkers deseve to pay through the nose for it lol

.... Bugger…..

Hi Peter,

Not all British territories are subject to VAT, I come from the Channel Islands and we don’t pay that filthy tax, LOL.

Some of the islands however will soon be subject to a goods and service tax at 3%.

There isn’t such a thing as a service here in the UK any more! not like it once was any way, now everything is a business!
Here to make money and suck the coins and bank notes right out of your wallet and bleed your bank account dry!
The government is the biggest money spinner of them all but run by monkeys!
God i hate going through this divorce!
does it show? lol

Tax system in UK is absolutely ridiculous. It’s all been mapped out to their great advantage. Here in UK we never see anything improving despite the huge amount of hard earned money they steal from innocent citizens every minute.
Half goes in their luxury, and the other half to the military and the spare change they have is spent towards the improvement of our society. However the majority of the UK population seems happy and comfortable with any crazy changes the government makes which i think is even more crazier, as i strongly believe that the government in any country is a reflection of the society. I also believe that the corrupt system in the government will never change because of the 3 poisons. Greed, anger and foolishness. Therefore we all have to change from within.

When are you planning to get a partner in the UK and stop the nonsense of shipping from overseas?

All the stuff I order is so worth the VAT anyway. Not your fault Guys and Girls.
Thank you for this site.
Now if I was going to write about our government then…............

Well, I was born in the UK but I am not actually a resident, having lived in Hungary for 10 years. I have a business based in Hungary and pay the extortionate Hungarian taxes.

I am not going to be happy if someone here is about to tewll me that I shall be expected to pay VAT ou of any slender earnings I may ever happen to make here on any prints I ever sell.

Does anyone know how this might affect expats?