Reclaiming VAT on goods returned to EU

Good luck with posting things to HMRC. I had to submit evidence of self - employed status by post and was told "Do not expect a reply within 6 months". It's 2024, not 1724.

The amount in question is £40, and I've already spent 1.5 hours to get to this point. Might cut my losses.

We bought a load of clobber in Austria, then flew home from Switzerland. That added yet another layer of complexity to the point where you simply just cannot be arsed.

Should it not be posted in here?

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/brexit-benefits-lets-start-a-list/

As much as I hate Brexit, it's not an excuse by now for the state and companies not to have a reasonably smooth process for handling this scenario.

This isn’t a temporary transition blip. This is in place ‘till we align and then sign up for transaction and friction free borders with our neighbours.

I wasn't suggesting that it was. I'm complaining about the lack of effort to offer a usable customer facing process and systems. That would be perfectly possible within the current Brexit arrangements.

All that’s happened is that consumers are now importers, and face the same burden of time, money and hassle that companies do when bringing stuff into the UK from other European counties. The government isn’t going to remove that hassle without changing our relationship with a neighbours. Which consumers need to be calling for…

…if the state could unilaterally put in place systems to make all this easy, don’t you think they’d have done it for imports from non-European countries long ago? And for SMEs as well as consumers.

OP, it's a pain in the hoop for you just now, but big picture it's probably a good thing.

The more that folk have these incredibly frustrating events take place and impact their lives, only increases the probability and speed with which we will look to rejoin the EU in some manner making all this much smoother in the long run.

Oh and BAcK BRITTIUSH SELLurZ! Obvs 🙄

The government isn’t going to remove that hassle without changing our relationship with a neighbours. Which consumers need to be calling for…

…if the state could unilaterally put in place systems to make all this easy, don’t you think they’d have done it for imports from non-European countries long ago? And for SMEs as well as consumers.

They absolutely could offer a less crap process, while accepting the constraints of the relationship, with only some basic (in state level terms) improvements:

Logistics companies to provide online access for access to customs declarations and clearance notifications. Don't require being bounced around customer support departments to get them. This isn't at all technically challenging.

Government to accept the C285 form online. This isn't at all technically challenging either, there are lots of other government services online that are more complex and even ones that hand out refunds without human involvement.

Obviously sorting out our relationship would be much better. But while Brexit caused these problems, Brexit isn't a valid excuse for the government and companies not to do things that are within their power that would partially mitigate the problems and inconveniences.

The more that folk have these incredibly frustrating events take place and impact their lives, only increases the probability and speed with which we will look to rejoin the EU in some manner making all this much smoother in the long run.

Unfortunately I think a fair share of those who still support Brexit would be delighted to learn that I'm having trouble while importing nice bike things. It's not a thing they do. And poking people like me in the eye was part of the reason for doing it for a fair few of them, and they succeeded - this paltry amount of VAT is a trivial fraction of what they achieved against me.

This isn’t at all technically challenging.

Well, it is.

Why?

It's well within the levels of IT complexity that the companies and the government already operate. Yes you need the right people to do it, but it's just normal business systems stuff.

What’s your exposure to the systems used by HRMC and the UK branches of the international courier and shipping cos?

None, I don't need any to make my statements.

By "not technically challenging", I don't mean that it's easy. But it's not R&D, you don't need to partner with leading universities, nor do you need to start headhunting the top staff from Google and Microsoft. It's the sort of thing lots of countries and logistics companies have managed to do around the world already.

Go on… what’s your experience of importing from UK to one of the EU countries? Which of them have made this nice and simple with the application of IT systems?

None, and that hardly matters either. I'm not talking about fixing it, just making it appreciably less crap with modest effort. Surfacing already available information directly to the customer, and accepting an existing form digitally, things that have been basics of government and business moving online over the last decade.

Brexit caused this, but we can't blame it for our not making an effort to improve things that are under our own control.

The problem with your argument is that the current government does not want to make it easier to import consumer goods from the EU.
they want you to buy from UK based suppliers.
which is no bad thing (although Brexit was not necessarily the best way of achieving this).

Fair point. But to be precise, I think it's a problem with my goal, rather than my argument.

There's no incentive for logistics companies or HMRC to improve the current situation. Look what HMRC managed with self assessment, and Royal Mail with arrange postage online.