Brexit impact on shipping to UK, alas!

[Mab]

I have tried to buy a deck directly from the creator in the US, only to find that there is now the requirement for sellers outside the UK to register with the UK to be VAT compliant and collect and remit VAT fees to the UK government. This requires costly paperwork and administration fees.
I don't blame her for saying that that this is just too much for a small business.

Ridiculous.
I am very fed up

[Joan Marie]

I am very fed up

There is a lot of discussion about this in the deck creator groups on facebook.
There was a big effort for people to comply but the rules were so obtuse no one could figure out how. Several people actually tried and failed.

I'm not sure their assessment of the situation is exactly accurate. I personally don't think it the new rules apply to small scale sales, however some of these deck creators do sell a ton in the UK so maybe that's why they are worried.

Myself, I have no idea what any of it means or how it works.

And the thing is people who earnestly are trying to follow the rules simply can't because it's all so convoluted so most are just not selling to UK.

I think the worse problem is for deck creators in the UK to ship outside the country.
It really is a sorry mess that's for sure.

[BlueStar]

The recent changes were for EU countries - Brexit doesn't affect the US, so its 'trading as usual' as far as I know. It's possible the seller has misunderstood what's happening (unless the products are actually dispatched from the EU, in which case it would be problematic).

As for EU countries...it's a bit of nightmare. So many UK sellers have stopped trading to the EU because the new rules are so complicated and troublesome. Even bigger companies are struggling with it so just imagine how hard it is for the small sellers. And then EU sellers choosing not to sell to the UK too. Yes, it's a real mess.

[Joan Marie]

The recent changes were for EU countries - Brexit doesn't affect the US, so its 'trading as usual' as far as I know.

This is really interesting and maybe explains why all these US deck creators have been unable to get it sorted, they've misunderstood the whole thing. Apparently it doesn't apply to them.

EDIT: I'm now hearing that in fact it does. It is not business as usual at all.
this is from Nicola Allen, someone who has looked into this extensively:

The rules that apply to any import have changed so that whereas previously a UK buyer would pay VAT when they received goods, it must now be applied at the point of sale and the seller must account to the UK for that tax. And Brexit initiated all these changes as the UK was previously part of the same VAT region. Now every country sending goods to the UK has the same tax treatment applied. As a US seller you can apply for a VAT registration number and trade with the UK but you also have to be prepared to keep VAT accounts and submit a return/pay on account and many sellers just won’t be prepared to do that.

And the threshold is £0, meaning if you sell one thing, even a a pair of shoelaces, you have to pay VAT and it's like 20%
Just a quick google around shows the same.

BUT and this might be a big BUT: there is a VAT exemption for various printed materials (books newspapers etc) and Nicola just found a list of exemptions that includes playing cards. !!! So we are looking into that. I will report back when I hear something.