Post Office offers customers help with new post-Brexit changes affecting good being sold to the EU

• From Thursday 1 July 2021, a new post-Brexit VAT change will apply to goods being sent from Great Britain to the EU
• Items sold to EU destinations from Great Britain with a value of €22 or less will no longer be exempt from VAT.
• The EU has now established its Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) which businesses in Great Britain can use to comply with new VAT e-commerce rules when sending goods from Great Britain to the EU*
• Post Office has put in place new checks to ensure correct information will be collected when posting at any Post Office branch so marketplace sellers can continue to trade and send their items at branches with confidence
• People sending gifts from Great Britain to the EU are unaffected by this post-Brexit change

Post Office is alerting its customers that a new post-Brexit change concerning VAT will affect goods being sent from Great Britain to the EU from Thursday 1 July.

Items sold to EU destinations from Great Britain with a value of €22 or less will no longer be exempt from VAT. They will be subject to the local rate of VAT and charges of the destination country.

The EU have set up a new scheme called the Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) that allows businesses that register on the scheme to apply VAT and customs charges at the point an item is sold. For Post office customers, the change predominantly affects marketplace sellers who sell via marketplaces registered on the scheme. Post Office has put in place new checks to ensure the correct information will be collected for the IOSS scheme, so marketplace sellers can continue to buy their postage in Post Office branches with confidence.

Mark Siviter, Post Office Mails Product Portfolio Director, said:

“Whilst these changes don’t impact customers sending gifts to the EU, we’re concerned that thousands of marketplace sellers, particularly smaller ones could get a shock on 1 July when having to deal with these new VAT arrangements. We have put new checks in place to ensure marketplace sellers can continue to come to their local Post Office to send their goods with confidence. Crucially they can also receive advice and specialist knowledge from their Postmaster if they need it.”

Marketplace sellers that use Amazon, Ebay, Etsy and Not On The High Street can continue to visit their local Post Office and the Postmaster or their staff will capture the necessary information now required following this post Brexit change to the VAT rules.

Customers sending gifts to EU destinations are not affected by these changes either. Gifts under €45 remain exempt of VAT or charges.

These new changes do not apply to anyone visiting a Post Office in Northern Ireland and posting gifts or sending items sold to EU destinations from Northern Ireland.

Ends

*The EU’s Import One Stop Shop (IOSS) has been established which businesses can use to comply with new VAT e-commerce rules on distance sales when sending goods from GB to EU. This enables business sellers who register on the scheme to charge VAT at the point of sale for consignments with a value of €150 or less avoiding any VAT charges on delivery.