Customs and Royal Mail charges.

[John Green]

Well,we've just had another note telling us we need to pay again because "All postal items entering the UK from outside the EU may be assessed Customs and incur a charge".
So...DVD releases in the UK are restricted,in part,because of the costs of Certification,but if you buy something from abroad,outside the EU-you get hit by a tariff,and an unavoidable 'handling charge' from Royal Mail.Anyone else fed up with this?

[Nick Cooper]

You get hit if the item costs more than £15, but then you have to pay 20% VAT on both the item and any declared postage cost. This will only get worse when we leave the EU, within which there is currently an exemption. It is notable that the threshold used to be £18, but it was reduced around the same time (if not the actual same time) the exemption for goods from the Channel Islands was abolished.

It is certainly annoying, though, that Royal Mail's fee is an eye-watering £8, as this will exceed the VAT on many packages (i.e. those worth less than £40 combined). There are theoretically ways of circumventing the Royal Mail fee and paying just the VAT direct to HMRC, but not many people are successful in doing so.

[Simon Collis]

This is why Amazon Germany don't deliver to the UK any more. Never had any problems here in Portugal with DVDs coming from the UK though.