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The Brexit Thread

WillPS said:
I'm not a Brexit supporter, but is it just me who sees somebody who imports a £200 coat being charged an extra chunk of domestic taxes and thinks 'good'?
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So because you personally wouldn't buy something, other people who do want it should be penalised?

BarryZola said:
In the long term it may even lead to some growth in home-grown companies.
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Unless I'm mistaken, these taxes cut both ways so companies can either set up in the UK and fulfill the UK market, or set up in the EU and fulfill to all EU countries. Which would you do?
 
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Alsty said:
Unless I'm mistaken, these taxes cut both ways so companies can either set up in the UK and fulfill the UK market, or set up in the EU and fulfill to all EU countries. Which would you do?
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Apparently government advice to some companies who have asked the best method to avoid the new red tape processes has been to *checks notes* open an EU based off-shoot.

So I'd imagine a few businesses will be opening sites where they can in the EU, which of course could be at detriment to the existing UK one(s).

At the end of the day the blame lies with the government messing around and coming up with a last minute solution because at that point it is the only solution available.

Public perception has become more important than actually doing a good job in government. The amount of people who think "Boris is doing what he can" shows its unfortunately working too. Leaving decisions until the very last minute is an awful way to run a country. Especially in a pandemic and the biggest economic decision of our time.
 
jon81uk said:
but you won’t need to pay German VAT of 19% just British at 20% so the overall cost should be roughly the same, unless the item is over £135.
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How would I avoid paying the (German) tax on the goods? Surely the VAT is just subsumed into the cost of the goods being purchased at the point of sale? I know you get counters at airports and so on, but making online orders? I doubt when you click "UK" it suddenly deducts their VAT? If that was the case, there'd be no issue.

I have had a brief look online but it's far from clear.

If anyone can make out the wood from the trees then please enlighten me, as it's quite confusing.
 
AstroDan said:
How would I avoid paying the (German) tax on the goods? Surely the VAT is just subsumed into the cost of the goods being purchased at the point of sale? I know you get counters at airports and so on, but making online orders? I doubt when you click "UK" it suddenly deducts their VAT? If that was the case, there'd be no issue.

I have had a brief look online but it's far from clear.

If anyone can make out the wood from the trees then please enlighten me, as it's quite confusing.
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I may be wrong as nothing is completely clear about Brexit, but it is my understanding that goods being imported outside of the EU don’t attract tax of the country they are being exported from, only the one they are imported into.

I know when buying from the USA I don’t pay sales tax of the state I’m buying from, I just pay UK VAT.
But I might be wrong and Germany is different.
 
WillPS said:
I'm not a Brexit supporter, but is it just me who sees somebody who imports a £200 coat being charged an extra chunk of domestic taxes and thinks 'good'?
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I’ve nothing against paying tax when tax is due.
It’s the confusion following Brexit that is the issue. And also going from paying just VAT (of the EU country) to now paying UK VAT and Import duty on items over £135.
In a years time I’d expect people to know what to expect, but right now things are very different to a few month ago and quite confusing.
 
jon81uk said:
I may be wrong as nothing is completely clear about Brexit, but it is my understanding that goods being imported outside of the EU don’t attract tax of the country they are being exported from, only the one they are imported into.

I know when buying from the USA I don’t pay sales tax of the state I’m buying from, I just pay UK VAT.
But I might be wrong and Germany is different.
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There are some edge cases such as export license fees which apparently sometimes operate effectively as an export tax.
 
AstroDan said:
Mastercard are joining the party. It's OK though, all just #projectfear...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55796426
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Well by "tearing up those EU regulations" and "getting rid of red tape" it means companies aren't restricted by EU regulations any more and are free to charge UK citizens more!

Still haven't seen any actual benefits of Brexit or significant examples where there is now less paperwork.
 
Maybe some of the people who voted for Brexit weren't bothered about buying stuff from the EU?

I know we can easily throw some examples around about how these people would unknowingly be indirectly effected by these extra costs when buying from the EU but I'm guessing a lot of people genuinely don't care very much, as if they don't run a business or buy much from the EU they don't feel the direct repercussions. It shouldn't come as a surprise. Covid has only strengthened the fact that we are a nation filled with very selfish people (from all backgrounds and social classes). If it doesn't hurt people directly then why should they care? Sad, but true. And it works all ways.
 
BarryZola said:
Covid has only strengthened the fact that we are a nation filled with very selfish people (from all backgrounds and social classes). If it doesn't hurt people directly then why should they care? Sad, but true. And it works all ways.
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I think Brexit showed the selfishness of the nation long before Covid. If there was more thought of "it doesn't hurt me so why should I care" I think we would still be in the EU. But many people who aren't having to change the way their company operates or places they buy goods from, or where they go on holiday or where they go to work, still all voted to leave the EU despite the membership having no negative effects on them, but selfishly they wanted the country out of the EU without considering the potential issues it may cause others by removing the ease of trading (in both directions) and movement.

Many of those people who don't run businesses or buy from or sell to the EU still voted to leave without considering the wider effects. Some of those people will discover when they take a summer holiday in the next few years what the effects are when they have to apply for visa waivers and queue up for immigration checks.
 
AstroDan said:
Let's be honest here.

Joe Bloggs from [insert town name here] didn't have a clue *what* being in the EU affected apart from open borders and the fact that Brussels made laws.
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Again, there is no absolute definition as to what can and can't happen when you leave the EU. What we have now was defined as part of the negotiation.
 
Rick said:
Again, there is no absolute definition as to what can and can't happen when you leave the EU. What we have now was defined as part of the negotiation.
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Indeed, and clearly provisions were not made in areas such as this.

I hope that's just because of the last minute nature of the negotiation and that over the coming months this sort of thing will be ironed out *if* there is political will. But, there could end up being that pig-headedness and so on that we have seen time and time again over the past few years.

"Global Britain" doesn't mean everybody in the world except the EU - and the less barriers we have, the better for all of our businesses and people.
 
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Rick said:
Again, there is no absolute definition as to what can and can't happen when you leave the EU. What we have now was defined as part of the negotiation.
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If only they'd starting planning it seriously 4 years ago. A lot of things would've been solved but because no one actually could decide on what it meant...
 
Benzin said:
If only they'd starting planning it seriously 4 years ago. A lot of things would've been solved but because no one actually could decide on what it meant...
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Quite, which is why it was problematic for either side of the argument to pre-empt the exact perils, danger or indeed, benefits throughout the campaign.

It's so important that future generations understand and remember that the Brexit we now have was crafted by the Tory party - the outcome, good, bad or indifferent was not inevitable.
 
Sorry if I should know this, but what is the Erasmus scheme, out of interest, and how does it work? I’ve heard it talked about numerous times in the context of Brexit and never known what it actually is...
 
Student exchange scheme in Europe, that we are no longer part of.
Positive experience for many, but has received criticism for being expensive, middle class and academically elitist.
 
rob666 said:
Student exchange scheme in Europe, that we are no longer part of.
Positive experience for many, but has received criticism for being expensive, middle class and academically elitist.
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Was it being criticised by those of the people the Conservatives?

(Honestly no idea about it tbh, it didn't cross my mind to do something in Europe during HE)
 
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