I'm afraid that European Customs won't care much whether Greg pays VAT or not. And so the jacket will cost 1000 GBP + shipping costs + 4% duty + 20% VAT + fees = about 1260 GBP/1400 EUR. Customs are only waived if the product is largely English, which shouldn't be the case with Japanese leather. Where at this price 40 GBP more or less no longer matters.
At least that's how I understood the current customs regulations.
If the manufacturer (e.g. Aero) would deduct the VAT, since he actually does not have to pay it to the British tax office for an export, the British VAT would be canceled out with the European VAT and the jacket would be 20% cheaper. One can also say that in this way the profit is properly maximized when exporting.
But maybe Greg will also send the jacket from Northern Ireland then it would be possible as usual within the EU, without customs / VAT / fees.
(The VAT to be paid corresponds of course to that of the respective EU country. Germany 19%, Austria 20%. Charges are also handled differently)
This!
That´s why I said, it could mean all sorts of things. If Greg is VAT-exempt, it means, that he cannot deduct VAT from EU-orders. He could however
- lower prices for customers ordering from the EU (I understand Iron Heart is doing that; Dundas Footwear from Norway have been doing that in the past)
- arrange for a courier service (e.g. DHL) to handle EU-imports as his expence.
Jacket will be send by the end of this month. Thanks for all your feedback! Once I receive it, I should be able to gain some insight from the paperwork. In any event, I am happy for Greg that he seems to be really busy, and I really do appreciate that he took the admin of handling import duties from me.


