How would customs work if I bought something from Germany?

Well just to update, my quest was pointless anyway, I had a number of items that I was interested in on a website having filtered out places that already up front said they dont deliver to the UK and then filtered out small companies where I couldnt be sure whether it might incur extra charges, I had a number of items in various baskets on ebay and on bike shop website,, getting all excited for when I had found all the things I needed,, looking at measurements and colours etc etc. Clicked on the items today to finally purchase them and they're not delivering to the UK

Im really annoyed because I had 2 bike seats, a bike bag, some grips, saddle covers etc etc and I cant find those items anywhere else. Very frustrating
 
Well just to update, my quest was pointless anyway, I had a number of items that I was interested in on a website having filtered out places that already up front said they dont deliver to the UK and then filtered out small companies where I couldnt be sure whether it might incur extra charges, I had a number of items in various baskets on ebay and on bike shop website,, getting all excited for when I had found all the things I needed,, looking at measurements and colours etc etc. Clicked on the items today to finally purchase them and they're not delivering to the UK

Im really annoyed because I had 2 bike seats, a bike bag, some grips, saddle covers etc etc and I cant find those items anywhere else. Very frustrating

I gave up on the things I wanted to purchase as well as I could not convince some ebay sellers from abroad to ship to the UK. I'm getting a cheap version of things I need here or leaving other things all together and not buying them.

I'll get the good ones I really want when we can travel abroad safely, or maybe at some point, the process becomes better here. We will see.
 
I'm a little surprised that couriers haven't been opening this up more to enable smaller companies to continue to sell into the UK etc without them having to register for VAT themselves
I'm not sure they can. I believe HMRC require the seller to register, collect & pay VAT to them. I doubt a UK based company could appoint a third party to collect VAT on their behalf, so it seems unlikely an EU based one could.
 
I'm not sure they can. I believe HMRC require the seller to register, collect & pay VAT to them. I doubt a UK based company could appoint a third party to collect VAT on their behalf, so it seems unlikely an EU based one could.
HMRC certainly didn't use to care who paid as long as it was being paid.

Unfortunately if you look at the HMRC site right now it still comes under the banner of "Brexit" and appears to have been cobbled together as a last minute job and only in a few minutes. The Brexit page says that if you sell anything to UK customers when the goods are outside the UK and under £135 you must register and charge VAT with a link to register but that takes you to the standard registration page saying you only need to register if your in the UK and selling over the taxable threshold... so who knows.

Certainly most the other countries that now require international sellers to charge local tax have the option of appointing an in country tax representative who deals with the returns and paying on behalf of the overseas company.
 

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