Dutch bike part dealer shipping to every country in the world except UK because of Brexit VAT change

1% of a retail sale is not likely to cover ADDITIONAL transaction costs of managing tax for another country, over an above the taxation admin overhead of the country the retailer is based in.

The obvious natural outcome here is British consumers will:

- buy more from British-focused retailers (some of which will be the bigger EU-based ones)

- which will be a smaller set of retailers, reducing the market distribution of many of the specialist/smaller scale brands

- in return for higher prices, given an inevitable reduction in number of retailers that British consumers have available to chose from and the addition of one more layer of markup for smaller brands

Unfortunately my conclusion from this is your politicians are taking British backwards in time, at a point where many countries are moving forward. but that is the underlying point of Brexit isn't it: better domestic exploitation of your own people? The term "rip-off Britian" comes to mind here, from many years ago when I lived in the UK

I say this BTW as a consumer now living in an EEA country that has in recent years greatly benefited from improved harmonisation of VAT collection procedures from online retailers in the EA. You're being taken where we just came from, and are grateful for having escaped from. Scandalous really.

Hey! Don'tet the facts get in the way of a juicy anti Brexit story!

Zjtm231 wrote:

Hey! Don'tet the facts get in the way of a juicy anti Brexit story!

Only seems fair - the pro Brexit campaign wasn't exactly famous for its adherence to the truth, was it? 

Brexiters haver never been the slightest bit interested in facts, just lies and propaganda.

If we all close our eyes and believe, that border in the Irish Sea will disappear, I'm sure, because Johnson said it doesn't exist.

'Brexiters haver never been the slightest bit interested in facts, just lies and propaganda.' 

...Just like remainers. Remainers have, by and large, been rude, obnoxious, and spouted facts and lies, whilst calling Brexiters thick and uneducated racists. There were lies on both sides. Whichever way we all voted, the result was democratic, and we should all put aside petty name calling, and get together to back our country, Great Britain. In recent years, anyone who is patriotic has been branded a right wing racist by the woke generation. We holiday in Switzerland regularly and have done for decades, everywhere you travel there, you will see the Swiss flag. Homes, hotels, even tiny restaurant shacks high above villages such as Zermatt and Saas-Fee, you will see the Swiss flag proudly flown, yet if someone flew the flag of St. George, for example, they would be denounced as a sweaty vest wearing right wing gammon. It saddens me what this wonderful country has descended into. It is a wonderful country, ruined by people. 

biker phil wrote:

Whichever way we all voted, the result was democratic, and we should all put aside petty name calling, and get together to back our country, Great Britain.

Why? Not the name calling bit, the backing our country bit? Nationalism can be a dangerous thing, and sorry if you don't like it but I'm European first, British second. I'd rather focus on tearing down borders rather than putting them up.

The point of democracy as you call it means we have the right to disagree.

He's also forgotten Northern Ireland. Which is not in Great Britain. Something similar seems to have happened in the minds of Brexiters for a while.

And not forgetting that NI is slightly less part of the UK now...

Just had a request at work to update our VAT registration number.

If you move or sell goods from NI, then you need to have XI at the beginning of the vat reg for EU sales.

slightly different to the rest of the U.K. but not slightly less U.K.

well said that man.. schools seem to be indoctrinating students to think they are global citizens and that nationalism is akin to facism; IMO, the tweet from the dutch business is intended to be a politically motivated anti- Brexit jibe.

Yes but Brexit

When Australia introduced it in 2018, Amazon went and sulked in a corner for a while. Then they realised how much trade they were losing because they arrogantly thought they could bully the government, gave in and complied. It will be the same in the UK with these online retailers. They've had a good run but it was inevitable that countries would act to close tax loopholes. Nobody is forcing them to trade in these countries.

It doesn't matter if a similar situation pertains in Australia - it is a extra unnecessary cost and admin as a result of Brexit, and that can't be denied even by Brexit voters with an agenda.

I posted a calendar to friends in France yesterday, and had to fill out a Customs Declaration. Also the price had gone up from £5.10 in 2020 to £7.80 in 2021 - a 53% increase.

I don't remember anything about extra paperwork and making people poorer in Vote Leave propaganda, or the Tories 2019 GE manifesto.

So Britain is off the EU gravy train.. enjoy the independence.

exactly, countries like Australia and the US already do this so this Dutch firm would have to register in exactly the same way if it wanted to ship goods there, every US retailer I know who ships stuff to the UK/EU has been aware this VAT change was happening for the best part of a year and had already started to price it in.

So its not a Brexit thing, it was actually an EU ruling the UK would have had to adopt anyway if it were part of the EU still, the EU simply delayed their implementation 6months because of Covid to give their member states more time to do it.

the difference not being in the EU makes is this Dutch firm has to register on the UK portal now, as well as the EU portal, as well as any other country in the European continent or around the world it wants to sell to who have adopted this change.

theres a cost associated to that registration, which is why they are really complaining about it, but you balance that extra cost out to your customers in those countries, thats the business sense thing to do, thats what the vast majority of businesses will do or have already done.

my guess is this Dutch firm barely sells any bike parts to the UK, certainly my first port of call is not to google around Holland for bike bits, and so it doesnt cost in for them on the amount of UK business they have, to register on the UK portal, hence they cant sell bits to the UK anymore.

but that is fine, thats their choice surely ? and they should be able to freely admit that its a business decision, instead of trying to blame Brexit.

"my guess is this Dutch firm barely sells any bike parts to the UK, certainly my first port of call is not to google around Holland for bike bits"

Your guess is wrong.

Dutch Bike Bits describe themselves as "Tried and trusted parts for Dutch Bicycles, or bicycles that would like to be a bit more Dutch". They're not a Dutch version of Wiggle. They're a retailer that specialises in parts for utility bicycles of the sort that the Dutch do so well.

If you have a bakfiets - and as a stroll around Cambridge or Oxford in non-pandemic times would show you, plenty of people in the UK do - then retailers like Dutch Bike Bits and Hollandbikeshop are invaluable. I've ordered from them several times - the child seat mounting for our cargo bike, for example - and I know others who have.

Me too, they were good for things like NOS quill stems and the like.

Add bike-discount.de & Bikester.co.uk (ironic url) to the list already

HMRC