The UK officially left the European Union on January 31st 2020 with a transition period lasting until December 31st 2020. From January 1st 2021 there will be some changes to shipping and billing on orders from the European Union.
Summary
Orders placed by our EU customers from 1st January 2021 will no longer be charged UK VAT. This will be reflected at the checkout when placing website orders and for orders placed with our sales team.
We will continue to ship orders as normal with our couriers on DAP (Delivered at Place) terms. Once your order has been dispatched you will be contacted by the courier to collect the relevant VAT charges and import rates that apply to your country. VAT registered businesses can still reclaim VAT from their own local authority.
Customers will be responsible for paying any duty or taxes that may be incurred at the point of import. All of the products we sell carry a 0% duty rate so there it is unlikely that there should be any duty to pay.
At Intelligent Servers, we are committed to continuing to provide the best possible service for our customers in Europe. We are prepared for this change in invoicing and shipping and aim to ensure a smooth transition for all orders from 2021.
What Brexit means for British Businesses
When the UK left the EU it became a ‘third country’. This means that there are extra administration tasks required for those who trade between the EU and the UK.
Import and export declarations have to be completed for all shipments and duties may have to be paid. Incoterms define whether the buyer or seller is responsible for the extra burdens.
What are Incoterms?
International commercial terms, or ‘Incoterms’, define where the responsibility lies between the buyer and the seller. Incoterms set rules for the delivery of goods between trading partners and are recognised globally. These rules help to clarify; who is responsible for the costs involved in the delivery of goods such as insurance, freight/shipping, disbursement charges, and duty as well as who is responsible for the import/ export declarations and the associated filing costs.
The latest version of incoterms, Incoterms 2020, came into effect on 1 January, 2020. There are 11 incoterms in Incoterms 2020 and at Intelligent Servers, we use Delivered at Place (DAP) when sending orders to Europe.
Delivered at Place (DAP)
The exporter (Intelligent Servers) arranges carriage and delivery of the goods, ready for unloading at the buyer’s address. The seller (Intelligent Servers) is required to unload the goods at this destination.
The buyer is responsible for paying import duties and any applicable taxes, including clearance and local taxes, once the shipment has arrived at the specified destination.
Useful Resources
If you are ordering from outside of the UK, please contact us if you have any questions regarding extra tasks, taxes and duties you may encounter. We have linked some websites below which you may also find useful.
- International Chamber of Commerce Incoterms rules
- Department for International Trade – Exporting is Great
- HMRC Brexit transition communications resources
Intelligent Servers is a leading refurbished server, storage, networking and components reseller. We specialise in HP, Dell and Cisco supplying thousands of businesses across Europe.