Just found out the UK Government have tweaked the VAT rules on importing goods from outside the UK.
The old rules were that anything declared under £15 was not subject to VAT.
The new rule is that the VAT rate starts at zero - this is to try and stop the VAT fraud where sellers from outside the UK declared goods that were well over £15 as being just under .... suppose its closing a bit of a loophole.
The issue is that if it's not paid the Postoffice charge you an additional £8 to collect it, so if you buy something from China for £2, you could see a charge of £8.40.
Please don't make any political game out of this, just wanted to make you aware that if you do buy imported goods you need to consider the new VAT rules.
Ebay have said that for anything sold under £135 (thats the import tax start limit, not VAT) they will collect the duty, but on lots of the auctions I have only seen one with the VAT added?
