Fighting 15s reopens to EU customers

The Fighting 15s online shop is now open again to EU customers. Happy new year! There are some changes:

First, VAT will be deducted by the shop once it knows a customer is from the EU. Just like rest-of-the-world customers, this happens either because the geolocation software works or because a customer enters their shipping country in the shopping cart to estimate delivery charges.

Once that happens, prices in the shop will show without VAT. A pack of Gladiator Miniatures priced at £3.40 inc VAT will therefore show as £2.83 for EU customers, making a single 15mm foot figure about 35p and a single 15mm mounted figure about 71p.

Second, we will be filling in the appropriate customs information for each package to the EU. VAT will be charged on entry into the EU and is collected from the customer by the mail service of the appropriate country. There may be a handling fee, the effect of which is diluted the larger the order that a customer places. Until 1 July 2021, there is still a low-value exemption threshold for orders of 22 euros or less – make the most of it. Customs labels require larger packaging to be used and this will have a slight effect on delivery charges because we can no longer use our smallest, lightest box for EU customers.

Third, as soon as we are able we will look at signing up for the EU’s Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) system. In practice, this will be on or after 1 July 2021. This involves registering in one EU country for VAT, and if done we would again charge VAT to EU customers but be the collection agency ourselves, meaning that there would be no handling charge because our customs declarations show that VAT has been paid. This is a lot of work for a small business. We are yet to decide whether the effort is worth the return.