New VAT rules for the EU.

For the first time my Belgian swap partner was notified by the post office:

Your parcel seems to be arrived at the post office. However, they refused to give it to me because I have to pay 20,94 € as customs clearance.... a new law of july the 1st 2021!!

This is from the Belgian Post office:
https://www.bpost.be/nl/shoppen-buiten-eu
Online shopping outside the EU?
Extra import costs on all shipments from 1 July
The European Union is introducing new customs rules for online purchases from outside the EU. Do you buy something in a British, Chinese, American or other non-European webshop? You pay VAT and import costs on all shipments delivered in Belgium from 1 July, also on shipments of 22 euros or less. This also applies to shipments ordered before 1 July. We will guide you through the new procedure.

Does that mean we can no longer swap with EU based collectors? Even if no money changes hands?
Any more info is welcome.
Ben

Sad news indeed. More expenses and hurdles to overcome.

How does it work with swaps? In case of no cash payment it shall be no tax. But a question is what to put in CN22

If items entering the EU have value, then the tax man wants his cut, even if no money was exchanged.

You can receive a gift without payment of Customs Duty or VAT. if:
The value of the gift (including insurance, freight and postage costs) is €45 or less, and the gift is correctly listed as a 'gift' on the declaration form, and the gift has been sent from a private individual outside the EU to a private individual within the EU.

As the postage costs can be excessive, you will need to declare the item value as worth close to nothing.

If you declare a 'gift' but list the true value of the items sent (for insurance) and it exceeds this amount, they will be taxed regardless (around 20% in most EU counties). This will be on the whole amount including postage cost, not just the amount above €45.

Collecting this money can be a lot of work, so lots of packages get through untouched, unless the person who stopped it is an overly officious 'by the book' type.

Even before these new rules anything arriving from the US was held for "ransom" at the customs office because nobody would be so dumb and send a >20€ item for 45€ so the treasury wants its cut (not counting the gift route and a couple others).
Also more and more countries require machine-readable customs declarations before exporting anything so I guess this will help flag any potential profitable income sources automatically in the future.

Have a nice day colleagues.
Yes, since the new year, the Czech Post has also gone mad. I sent shipments and had to log in to the system for the first time -the post office worker had to write "in English" what the shipment contains and what its value is.
,, Our post office worker does not know the language of English and we put it together,,
I had a birthday present written on the envelope - it doesn't have to be what the gift contains.
What is the price ? -does it increase the cost of tracking mail?
-I know a post office friend and a branch employee is a neighbor:
We found this solution- Write on the envelope and in the declaration for the customs service outside the EU and on all envelopes.
,,, Birthday gift - graphic designs,,,
( add a paper printed design coin to the coin envelope if the shipment is open -just some advertising coin nonsense)
price -5 euros or up to $ 10
This is true for our exchanges, but the terrible thing is still true in the huge increase in shipping prices, our exchanges up to $ 20 don't make sense and they are a waste of time - it's sad .

When buying from stone shops is a different situation and these are not private gifts. Large companies in Asia have set up intermediate warehouses in the EU and are already offering duty-free offers.
We are witnessing huge changes - unfortunately to our detriment, and there is a need to share recommendations or consider a virtual added sales window in the form of declared gifts.
Ivan

If I'm not mistaken Germany has been doing this for awhile now. Since I am an American living in Germany, I can go to the PX and Commissary (US Military retail store) But have to go to customs once a month and pay customs on everything I buy. Asked them about the swaping of coin/banknotes and they said If the money is still being used as normal currency there is no customs. But if it money no longer in use then it's the same as merchandise and they tax the value of the coins/banknotes. And we can no longer send coins in an envelope, only paper can go in a envelope. Yes it's getting harder and harder to enjoy a hobby I had just starting getting into.

I've been doing my best to "cheat" the system by labelling the letters as "printed matter" (coins are printed disks of "matter" after all ) or "photographs", as Canada Post doesn't seem to care for anything 'paper'. I know they may be inspected and I'm not sure what would happen in that case, but so far it's been working out well. The day it fails I'll figure out how to compensate my swap partner I guess.
In a couple instances due to weight I had to send as "small package" and declared them as GIFT with a value of $10.
My typical swap is in the $30 to $50 range so it wouldn't be the end of the world if this fails from time to time.

Same here in Poland. all incoming letters from non eu are taxed

Hello,
as said this is a EU regulation. In Germany it has been implemented on July 01 this year, in many other EU countries obviously as well, but not sure if for all of them.
Until then any items received by postal mail from outside the EU were taxed, with an exemption of items valued below EUR 22, incl. postage.
Since then the taxation is imposed from the first Cent, even though in Germany no tax amounts below 1 EUR are collected. So at a rate of 19%, technically there still is a threshold of EUR 5.26.
That 19% does not really hurt, what hurts is that Deutsche Post (German postal service) is charging a 6 EUR fee for collecting that tax at your door.
This means, an item worth 10 EUR incl. postage would cost me an additional 7.90 EUR in taxes (1.90) and service charge (6.00).
You may register though as "self taxation" meaning you have to go to the customs office and pay there - that would save you the 6 EUR for the post but brings you other efforts of course. So this only makes sense if you regularly get such items and not only once in a while as do most of the people here.
This is all meant to hit cheap imports from Asia or somewhere else that were untaxed so far. This of course was a disadvantage for EU stores who had to pay import duties and therefore had to charge higher prices.

But there still is a threshold of 45 EUR for gifts. So in short words: if it is a commercial item, it is up for taxation from 1 Cent, if it is marked as a gift, only if exceeding 45 EUR (value + postage), but then also from the first Cent. In such cases of course the sender should be a natural person and no company...

The fact that since about 2 years it is not possible anymore to send any goods (incl. coins) in regular international letters is another story but has the same background. And if I send goods any other way I am obliged to electronically fill in a CN22 customs form. This is why there still is a barcode on every such envelope even though it is not registered. This is to electronically access the CN22 declaration.

Verweis : "Bavariat"​But there still is a threshold of 45 EUR for gifts. So in short words: if it is a commercial item, it is up for taxation from 1 Cent, if it is marked as a gift, only if exceeding 45 EUR (value + postage), but then also from the first Cent. In such cases of course the sender should be a natural person and no company...
​

​It seems to be a hint for swapping with Germany:)

@ Grinya: indeed our last swap was the first one that made me aware of changes :-)

There should be something comparable concerning gifts in the other countries as well...

The charlatans who get elected & then sit on their thumbs all day dreaming up new ways to stick it to the 'little guy' have always made life miserable for the average "Joe." They rarely go after the big sluggers, corporations like VISA, idiotic ideological interest groups like the "Better that Cash Alliance" or the billionaires who keep profiting from e-commerce painlessly. Really annoying to read in the media how little taxes the 'fat cats' pay & then hearing about petty schemes like this. So sad to read how difficult they're now being in the EU with a few imported physical coins/banknotes.

Verweis : "Serial_Number_8"​The charlatans who get elected & then sit on their thumbs all day dreaming up new ways to stick it to the 'little guy' have always made life miserable for the average "Joe." They rarely go after the big sluggers, corporations like VISA, idiotic ideological interest groups like the "Better that Cash Alliance" or the billionaires who keep profiting from e-commerce painlessly. Really annoying to read in the media how little taxes the 'fat cats' pay & then hearing about petty schemes like this. So sad to read how difficult they're now being in the EU with a few imported physical coins/banknotes.

​Very true.
Absolutely next to nothing on the tax front with huge profits.
The common man can never get away with what the big corporates do!!

Alas, all letters with a content other than paper from The Netherlands to EU and/or outside EU countries must to be registered and it cost me 19 EUR. It doesn't make any difference if I send a letter to France or Thailand.
Swaps within the Netherlands however just cost the stamps according the weight of the letter.

As Bavariat has putting so nicely: "​This is all meant to hit cheap imports from Asia or somewhere else that were untaxed so far. This of course was a disadvantage for EU stores who had to pay import duties and therefore had to charge higher prices."

Resuming: international swaps are still possible as long as you dont forget to mention the words gift with no value, and the swap can compensate the costs.

Same here in Australia, the Federal Government about 2 years ago started to apply GST (Goods & Services Tax, same as VAT) on all overseas purchases. Previously it was only applied if the value of the goods was over AU$1000. Now it is on everything. At least our GST is only 10%.

But if the parcel is marked as Gift and has come from a private person rather than a company they do not bother to apply it. So far I have not had to pay it on any swaps I have done. But if I buy something on ebay or similar it is applied at the point of sale.

Basically all governments suck.

Mike

I am forming parcels as letters, NOT PACKAGES.
No extra payments and issues so far.
Good relations with post office employees also can make sending a bit less complicated.
And Yes, prices are higher starting from June this year.