Importing Spare Parts from Europe

Methvano · November 8

2009 LS 600HL dash screen just stopped working, no reason just stopped, old age likely!

The search was on for a replacement and found on eBay and part was located in Estonia. What I did not realise was that import duty would need to be paid.

Therefore a part which was for sale £253.76, which seemed reasonable given the rarity, ultimately cost a further £110.53 in import duty and taxes. So good to be outside the EU!

Most members are probably aware of this addtional cost levy but thought I would flag it for information. By the way the part works really well and I was happy to install myself which gave a great learning curve for me on how all of the instrument clusters operate.

steve2006 · November 8

Unfortunately HMRC will get you on anything above £30.00.

IIRC up to £130.00 you pay just VAT @ 20% over this you pay duty at between 1-5% then VAT on that total.

This however doesn’t just apply to the price of the goods it also applies to the total cost with shipping.

On top of all this you then have the courier “Admin fees”

So if your total cost including shipping was say £300.00, duty at 5% ( very complicated system with codes) you’re at £315.00 add VAT £63.00 at you now have a cost of £378.00 plus the admin fee which seems to be excessive as most couriers charge a fixed fee of around £12.50.

Main result is it fixed your Lexus and you still saved on a new unit 😀

Malc1 · November 8

John hi, might the part be available thru Autodoc economically …… they sell and import from Europe wide too ……. I was impressed with them earlier this year 😄

Malc

VFR · November 8

Estonian ?

Ah yes one of the places that many of the UK vehicles that go missing end up in parts (how strange ?)

Methvano · Saturday at 08:52 AM

No joy through Autodoc, eBay was only option at the time.

BigBoomer · Monday at 10:32 AM

Just another "Brexit Bonus". 🙄

In 2022 I sent my sister (who lives in Brussels) a small package with a birthday present in it, total value maybe £45.
She ended up having to pay nearly £30 to get the package from the shipping company and it took so long that it missed her birthday by nearly 2 months.
Now I simply don't bother sending to or buying from the EU any more, and a great many small businesses feel the same.

I tried to get some parts shipped from a specialist supplier in the USA and he told me that for small value shipments he has to register with HMRC and declare on their website for each shipment.
He apologised but said he really couldn't be bothered to spend the time and effort to go through that hassle just so that a foreign government can collect it's taxes. When I suggested that he could charge more for UK shipments, he said he didn't care about the money. He just did not want to go through the hassle for maybe 10 shipments per year.
This is typical of what I hear from other small businesses outside the UK (not just the EU) who ship to the UK. We are not worth the hassle of doing business with until there is a certain level of income to make it worth their while.

rich1068 · Monday at 11:07 AM

Agreed. About 18 months ago I ordered a replacement OEM head unit for my Mercedes from a supplier in Germany. It wasn't cheap to start with and by the time I'd paid VAT and duty it was ridiculous. Turned out to be faulty and the supplier was happy to replace it but then I had to go through the customs rigmarole myself and he had to go through it all over again at his end. He informed me later that he refuses orders from the UK now.

Malc1 · Monday at 01:47 PM

But my radiator from Autodoc was ordered from them and delivered to me from Lithuania within a very few days

Lithuania is in the eu

Malc

BigBoomer · Tuesday at 09:29 AM

19 hours ago, Malc1 said:

But my radiator from Autodoc was ordered from them and delivered to me from Lithuania within a very few days

Lithuania is in the eu

Malc

And Autodoc probably sells enough volume to the UK to make it worth their while registering with HMRC and doing the bureaucratic double-step needed to sell/ship to the UK. Some large suppliers also include the import duty and shipping cost in their final price if they ship enough volume to the UK. Brexit didn't stop trade, but it has effectively limited it to the larger players in the market and we are all worse off because of it.