Now we have a bare-bones UK/EU Brexit deal, I can summarise how this will affect things:
tl;dr: EU customers can order as normal, the cost should still be the same. UK customers, if you use the price lists or configurators from HPVelotechnik or Hase, add 14% to the price.
- Rules-of-Origin now apply to all imports and exports – basically, if 55% or more of something is made in the UK or EU, then duty won’t be charged. It gets quite complicated working out what “made” means, and this is a problem for many bike companies who make frames in the Far East and use mostly components also made in the Far East.
- This means that most bikes I import – from HPVelotechnik, Hase etc – will now have 14% import duty added by UK customs. There’s nothing I can do about this, I’m afraid. Riese & Muller electric bikes manage to avoid this, by using Bosch electric motor systems that are made in Germany.
- Some parts in the UK will also go up in price, if they’re bought from EU distributors, but the duty on bike parts is 4% compared to 14% on complete bikes.
- Most things I export – Bromptons, Brompton upgrade kits and parts – do meet rules-of-origin, because I manufacture the frame parts here in Scotland. So they should not attract duty when sent to the EU.
- This is all very new, so I’m still working out how to document and prove the Rules-of-Origin so couriers don’t charge you – hopefully things will settle down a bit over time.
- I can also send EU orders as DTP – that’s Delivered Tax Paid, so you pay the VAT to me just like a UK customer, and then I pay the courier to clear your order through customs, the order should just arrive with you as if you’d ordered from the EU. This is also a new thing, so again there might be some teething problems but we’ll work them out.
- The slight advantage/disadvantage with DTP, depending on where you are, is that VAT rates vary across the EU – so depending on where you are, if your VAT rate is different from the UK’s 20%, then you might slightly win or lose this way, but only by a small amount.