UK Brexit Leica service suspended

[willeica]

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1 hour ago, zeitz said:

In the US none of the sales tax goes to the US Treasury.  Sales tax is imposed by state / local governments with the state and local splitting the collected tax according to the rates approved by voters.  I think in my area the sales tax is about 9%.  About 6% goes to the state and about 3% goes to the local city/county governments.  The US government primarily gets all its money from income / corporate tax which is a tax on earnings, interest, dividends and gains such as on stock sales.  Most states also have income tax.  Wage earners also pay into Social Security (like a pension) and Medicare (health care assistance for those over 65).  Local governments also collect annual taxes on real estate and personal property (usually just cars).  Tariffs are really meant to protect domestic industry.

In my mind, the US tax system is a mess.  But you gets used to it.

Thanks, that seems logical. It seems a lot more complicated than our system, although we have separate employee and employer contributions for social protection. We have some local services, but all are more or less funded out of central funds. Local residential races, known as rates, were abolished here  43 years ago. I can see, though, why people in the US talk a lot about numbers and prices as they have to do mental arithmetic every time they go shopping. Or do they just trust the retailer to add the correct amounts? 
 

William 

[TomB_tx]

In most cases in the US sales taxes are automatically added on by the sales counter payment system. In most states some essential items are tax-free, so the payment computers sort into categories before adding tax. By computerizing nothing can possibly go wrogn.

Last I knew there were still a couple of states with no sales tax - but then they generally tax all your assets. I've heard they may even audit your house contents... A sales tax is generally less intrusive.

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[Peter Zapp]

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pay-less-duty-on-goods-you-export-to-process-or-repair

If the UK leaves in the Common Market, the rules above apply. Businesses have to follow from today, because goods exported for repair will not return before December 31. There is a risk that goods returned after repair get stuck in the new customs checks. 

If the UK remains in the Common Market, nothing will change.

If there is deal with something in between, nobody knows. 

With the end of free movement, Leica staff from Wetzlar can visit the UK for vacation, for attendance of conferences or for contract negotiations. But a temporary assignment to help out at Leica's service center would require a formal work and residence permit.  

[pedaes]

12 minutes ago, Peter Zapp said:

nobody knows. 

Thanks - good to be back on topic!

[pgk]

1 hour ago, Peter Zapp said:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pay-less-duty-on-goods-you-export-to-process-or-repair

So simple! Why did I ever worry about paperwork?

[Peter Zapp]

Gentlemen don't bother. They hire someone. 

[pgk]

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4 minutes ago, Peter Zapp said:

Gentlemen don't bother. They hire someone. 

In price sensitive times hiring someone is an on-cost which either has to be passed on or absorbed. I assume that you are going to be happy to pay higher prices than?

[Anbaric]

2 hours ago, Peter Zapp said:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-to-pay-less-duty-on-goods-you-export-to-process-or-repair

If the UK leaves in the Common Market, the rules above apply. Businesses have to follow from today, because goods exported for repair will not return before December 31. There is a risk that goods returned after repair get stuck in the new customs checks. 

If the UK remains in the Common Market, nothing will change.

If there is deal with something in between, nobody knows. 

With the end of free movement, Leica staff from Wetzlar can visit the UK for vacation, for attendance of conferences or for contract negotiations. But a temporary assignment to help out at Leica's service center would require a formal work and residence permit.  

There is no chance that the UK will remain within the Single Market (Common Market) or Customs Union. This was ruled out by the UK Government early on, for reasons I do not pretend to comprehend, and is now no longer even on the table. The current choice is between a minimal agreement on trade, or nothing at all.

[andybarton]

2 hours ago, Peter Zapp said:

If the UK leaves in the Common Market

The UK has already left the EU.

[Anbaric]

It would have been possible to leave the EU but remain in the Single Market (Norway has this arrangement), but both the previous and current UK Governments rejected that option.

[willeica]

3 hours ago, pedaes said:

Thanks - good to be back on topic!

I know this upsets you Keith, but going off topic is a great tradition around here. And we don’t want to break with tradition, do we?

William 

Edited November 28, 2020 by willeica

[pedaes]

58 minutes ago, willeica said:

this upsets you Keith

Not at all - I thought the topic was 'nobody knows'!

[earleygallery]

The EU are in the process of introducing a kind of visa system for non EU citizens - that's right folks, we will soon need a visa to pop over the channel. I understand there is going to be a USA kind of 'visa waiver' which really is still a visa.

So cameras are the least of our worries.

[Michael Geschlecht]

On 11/27/2020 at 7:21 PM, willeica said:

'Old camera parts' is one declaration that I have seen. It could be just a bag of screws or something like that, but they could X-Ray the package. In Ireland if the value is over 600 or 700 Euros you have to employ a customs agent who charges you and settles an exorbitant amount with the Revenue. Sometimes the Post Office will collect the amount due but they charge a smaller amount than the customs agents to calculate and collect. Other times there is no charge. It is as (in)consistent as that and your guess would be as good as mine as what might happen with the next package. The EU has ended all that for us insofar as European countries are concerned. I remember my father having to get a 'tryptich', a triangular windscreen sticker for his car windscreen to bring us all a few miles up the road to visit Northern Ireland for a day trip in the 1960s. We thought that we had left all of that behind, of course.

William

Hello William,

Hopefully the need for wind screen stickers to travel freely & taxes collected between Ireland & Northern Ireland will not come back.

Best Regards,

Michael

[Benj]

Not read the entire thread, however.....

The reason for the temporary halting of service is that to avoid customs problems. 

From the 1st of January we need the export documents for the item leaving the country, which we can then match it up to the import documentation for them to be classed as a repair. 

If we send repairs while in the customs union we won't have the correct export documents. When the repair is shipped back there is no official proof from customs that the item left the UK so it will be classed as commercial import.

There may/will (we still don't know - 3 weeks to go 🙄) be customs duty to pay on import. But, there will definitely be UK VAT at 20% as we are out of the Common VAT system. 

Hope this helps explain it. 

 

Ben - Leica Manchester 

[andybarton]

Thanks for that Ben

If UK VAT is chargeable on repatriation to the UK, it will probably mean that it is not payable to the German authorities. Much the same way that we can reclaim Norwegian VAT when leaving Norway, or Australians can reclaim UK VAT when exporting goods bought in the UK.

The fact that all this is happening in 27 days time, and no one knows what is going to happen, is beyond farcical.

Good luck!

[Benj]

7 minutes ago, andybarton said:

Thanks for that Ben

If UK VAT is chargeable on repatriation to the UK, it will probably mean that it is not payable to the German authorities. Much the same way that we can reclaim Norwegian VAT when leaving Norway, or Australians can reclaim UK VAT when exporting goods bought in the UK.

The fact that all this is happening in 27 days time, and no one knows what is going to happen, is beyond farcical.

Good luck!

No probs Andy, 

Norway is a bit different as they aren't in the EU VAT system but are in the Customs Union, but yes you're correct. 

If we sent it before the 31st it's like posting repairs in the UK, its getting them back that's the issue.

The EU VAT charge back scheme is only on invoicing, doesn't matter on shipping repairs. When we are invoiced for repairs by Germany there is no VAT currently, so there is nothing for us as a UK VAT registered business to reclaim. Im not sure how it will affect users sending directly to Germany, I would guess there will be VAT to pay on any imported non warranty/goodwill repair upon re-import. 

At the end of the year, AG Service from a UK customs point of view is the same Allendale. 

It's more to do with UK customers would be charged (possibly duty and) VAT on re-entry which would be incredibly difficult to prove shouldn't be paid, regardless whether its warranty, service etc. Its the same reason why currently we cannot send a camera from the EU, for a customer on holiday for example, to AG service for it to be then shipped back to a customer outside the EU 

But yes, issues like this weren't on the side of a bus.....

Ben

[pgk]

18 minutes ago, Benj said:

But yes, issues like this weren't on the side of a bus.....

I'm quite sure that we were told that paperwork would supposed be reduced, but as an ex-importer of EU goods, I can say that one of the reasons I will no longer be importing is due to the increasing and ill-thought out (what has been thought out) paperwork which will need carrying out in the future. Can't remember much small print on the side of the bus come to think of it.

[Guest]

Am 4.12.2020 um 14:52 schrieb pgk:

I'm quite sure that we were told that paperwork would supposed be reduced, but as an ex-importer of EU goods, I can say that one of the reasons I will no longer be importing is due to the increasing and ill-thought out (what has been thought out) paperwork which will need carrying out in the future. Can't remember much small print on the side of the bus come to think of it.

In my experience, paperwork has always been greater for goods sent or received outside of one's own country or confederation.
The more different the conditions in the affected states, the more governments try to compensate for this with tariffs to protect their own industries.
And now? - Will 2020 be extended at will? - For further negotiations the leap days of the next 100 leap years could be preferred.☹️

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Hallo,

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[andybarton]

I was told this morning that from 1st Jan, DPD have taken the UK off its list of viable shipping destinations and another courier company, GLS, have stopped accepting private UK bound from this Wednesday.

So, even if you have something in Wetzlar, physically getting it back into the UK is getting more difficult.