Import/Export - South America

[RanchoGrande]

Hello - perhaps someone with a bit of import/export experience can help me?

if I import an item from Colombia to sell in the UK will I pay import duty just on the wholesale cost of the item OR import duty on top of the wholesale cost of the item plus shipping/handling.

After this, when do we apply VAT? On top of the import duty?

This question may be for the accountants amongst us: If I pay VAT on the item I am importing, can I then claim this back as a VAT input (I will be VAT registered)

thanks in advance

[RanchoGrande]

I am also surprised it took that amount of time before a reference was made to cocaine. To be expected though.

[RanchoGrande]

davepoth said:

Duty is on the CIF value - that is the cost of the goods, the cost of the freight (including handling) up to the UK border, and the cost of the insurance (if paid for). The VAT is on all of that plus the duty. You can claim back the VAT in the normal way.

thank you, really appreciated.

[RanchoGrande]

Hello again, going by the below link it would suggest that as we are importing from Colombia there will be a 0% duty rate. Am I misunderstanding this?

https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/621111...

[RanchoGrande]

sgrimshaw said:

I think you'll find it's 12%, being the third county duty.

If you set the country to Columbia you get:

https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/621111...

Best to contact HMRC to verify.

It's very confusing as when you look at the below link which is set to Colombia it initially says 12% but underneath it says measures specific to Colombia: 0%

https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff/commodities/621111...

[RanchoGrande]

davepoth said:

Look across to the right and it says "Tariff Preference". This means that there's a preferential tariff rate for Colombia of 0%, provided the goods meet the requirements. and there's a link there to the full Free Trade Agreement but it's a full book in length:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid...

So what you really want is the HMRC website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa...

Which gives it in a more concise fashion. If your supplier can provide an EUR1 certificate which states that the goods you're buying meet the rules to be considered of preferential Colombian origin, there will be no duty to pay. If not, it will revert to the third country rate of 12%.

thanks davepoth

I did start reading through the agreement document but found it a little heavy going!

Perhaps it will be a shame if we leave the EU when we have agreements like this in place. That's a topic for another thread though.