All Engines Go NEWS

Holy bank roll...25% Tax on imported personal purchases. 

And not just on imported personal purchases. On absolutely everything, imported or not. It's simple: if you buy a product, train, book (at a local store or online), or if you buy a car, company or a factory, or if you use any service (fix shoes or teeth) - 25% goes immediately to the state treasury. If you pay the bill (any bill), you also pay an additional 25% on the amount of the service or product you used (fixing windows, paying gas, electricity, etc.).

If you buy online, when shipping & handling is added to the product price, 25% VAT is added to the price already increased for shipping & handling on eBay, Amazon, AliExpress, etc. The value of goods and postage is added together, so you pay 25% VAT on all that. If you buy from an online seller who does not automatically increase the total price by 25% (like Plazajapan), then you pay for it at the post office (with an additional fee you pay to the ‘customs postal administration’, for their 'services') when you pick up the shipment.

This includes gifts sent to you by someone - in which case the local 'postal customs administration' determines the fee you pay according to the value indicated by the sender of the gift on the consignment, or - if not indicated - in a lump sum.

Just look at what would happen if I (God forbid) order one train from American Amazon, for example. VAT is charged on the amount increased by the huge postage (all postage from America has been incredibly high lately). The seller is Amazon.com, not a third party:

As I've repeated a number of times here over the years, we have  20% VAT on all imports valued at over £15 including postage here in the UK, plus Import Duty if they're over £135, also subject to VAT, plus a collection fee from the shipper to collect the tax and duty from you. 

I had hoped that the only possible good outcome from Brexit might be a reduction in these tarriffs to encourage trade, but no sign of anything so far.

On top of all that, shippers from Japan haven't had SAL (formerly the cheapest postage option) available for several years now.

When you see eBay sellers in the UK charging £28 for a BNIB train that nominally costs £12 at Plaza Japan, you can begin to see that they're barely making a profit on each transaction.

[Super]

Dr Chris, do you also pay that VAT tax on items you buy in the UK and does that include services performed?

A question for both Dr Chris and Mr No....in your country do you also pay yearly Income Tax to the government?  Just curious.

Income Tax, yes, and another income-related tax called 'National Insurance' which nominally funds both free health care and a state pension.

VAT is charged on most goods and services in the UK, and is just considered part of the normal price, it's not like in the US (last time I was there) when purchase tax is itemised even on a grocery shopping bill, and varies from state to state. Some goods are VAT exempt, books, children's clothes and shoes, most foodstuffs, plants, animal feed, helicopters, the list goes on. Also zero-rated are financial and property transactions (for those there other applicable taxes!). Some goods are charged VAT at less than 20%, such as 5% for home energy, child car seats and a few other things.

When you're paying a local tradesperson you'd normally try to do a deal where most of the VAT mysteriously disappears in return for cash-in-hand payment, easier in a rural setting such as mine where everyone knows everyone else. If I'm a tradesman buying building materials from a builders merchant I wouldn't pay VAT, but if I identify as a private buyer I would, so another negotiable grey area there! However these sorts of arrangements are getting more difficult to, er, arrange, even here in bandit country.

There is no “yearly income tax” in my country, because you pay tax on every salary you receive and every other income you earn. Everything is taxed. Then, from the salary you additionally pay the obligatory pension and health insurance. That is automatically calculated before you get your pay, of course. In this way, the net salary is just over half of the gross salary. Through taxes and mandatory insurance contributions, the state thus gets about half of everything you earn. (Pensions, on the other hand, are about half the salary you received while working.) And, as I explained, of what you have left over from your salary, every time you buy any product or pay for any service, you pay extra every time 25% VAT, which is included in the price in advance, but the invoice shows how much you paid for the product or service, and how much VAT. There are also (rare) exceptions to which tax rates of 13% and 5% apply.

Avoiding taxation by not issuing an invoice (even for buying a newspaper at a kiosk) is punishable by law. This is often and thoroughly controlled.

Oh, I forgot to mention another interesting point regarding online ordering. When I order, for example, from Amazon.de the price I see includes German VAT (19%). Since the VAT in my country is much higher, the price I will pay will be automatically increased by the difference between the two amounts. This Amazon.de states below the price of each product: "Prices for items sold by Amazon include VAT. Depending on your delivery address, VAT may vary at Checkout."


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May I suggest that this money talk be moved to another (separate), more appropriate topic? I don't think it really has a place with cheerful Thomas & Friends characters, cartoons and models...

[Super]

Thanks fellas

In recent times, I've noticed amazon (especially amazon uk) trackmaster/tomy stocks have become really skimpy. There appear to be less and less avaliable and the prices for plarail can be high.

Also last christmas when in ASDA, there were a lot less thomas stock than previous years.

From my memory these were the only tm items:
A single tm2 kevin
A single henry
A single Lexi
A single glowing thomas
A single shane
A single glowing ashima
A single glowing Nia
and a Gordon and 2 bog standard Thomases.

That's it. That was every motorised thomas item in the ENTIRE store.
Its weird how there was no "stock" of each engine (multiple of each engine). It was just one of each.
I think covid may be one of the culprits.

I’m really worried about postage prices on Amazon. For example, the postage for an engine + truck that costs about $20 is exactly $60.37, regardless of whether the seller is Amazon or some other store that sells through Amazon. It would be unbelievable if everyone agreed on that amount, so the possible cause is the increase in the price of postal services by the USPS... If postage prices remain so high, I doubt that this will have a positive effect on business.

Many new products (especially AEG) cannot be purchased anywhere online. I see on the net that many have already bought the first AEG set (Fix 'em up Friends), but it seems that for now it can only be obtained in physical stores in America (Target).

There are some novelties online at the Tootalythomas store, the postage price is OK, but they do not ship to many EU countries, including mine. They deliver to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Montenegro and Vatican Holy See, though. I wonder how many trains the Pope ordered lately.

I’m really worried about postage prices on Amazon. For example, the postage for an engine + truck that costs about $20 is exactly $60.37, regardless of whether the seller is Amazon or some other store that sells through Amazon. It would be unbelievable if everyone agreed on that amount, so the possible cause is the increase in the price of postal services by the USPS... If postage prices remain so high, I doubt that this will have a positive effect on business.

Many new products (especially AEG) cannot be purchased anywhere online. I see on the net that many have already bought the first AEG set (Fix 'em up Friends), but it seems that for now it can only be obtained in physical stores in America (Target).

There are some novelties online at the Tootalythomas store, the postage price is OK, but they do not ship to many EU countries, including mine. They deliver to Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Montenegro and Vatican Holy See, though. I wonder how many trains the Pope ordered lately.

Perhaps enough for 300 metres of track ?

To be honest, I wasn't expecting there to actually be a railway to the Vatican, but the more you know I suppose   Why this wasn't one of the destinations in Big World Big Adventures I don't know - Thomas getting Papal approval might have made an interesting episode lol 

I knew about the special train track in the Vatican (It was on National Geographic or some channel like that), but I really wonder what's the business logic of an online shop that delivers train models to the Holy See and not to some EU countries... 

Oh, I just noticed Tootallythomas delivers to the Turks and Caicos Islands. I admit I googled that country, because I never heard of it.