A decision by the EU to scrap an exemption for low-value items mean that all purchases outside the bloc will now have VAT (moms in Danish) applied.
Under current rules, purchases of under 80 kroner (10 euros) do not qualify for VAT on import to Denmark, but that will no longer apply from July.
This means that anything purchased from, for example, China, the United States or United Kingdom on websites like Amazon and EBay will have VAT added to the price, no matter how small.
The Danish Customs Agency (Toldstyrelsen) said it was working to increase awareness of the incoming change amongst Danish consumers.
A recent YouGov survey, conducted on the agency’s behalf, found that 79 percent of 750 people were unaware of the impending extra VAT charges.
That proportion would correspond to over three million consumers across the entire population.
“It’s a real shame to be left with an extra bill if you think you’ve got a bargain. We want to help consumers avoid this,” said Annette Hove Nielsen, a section leader with the Danish Customs Agency responsible for customs checks on incoming packages at Copenhagen Airport.
Nielsen also directed consumers to the agency’s information page undgåprischok.dk.
Foreign residents in Denmark, particularly those from non-EU countries (including the UK since the beginning of 2021) may be more likely to have experienced VAT charges on parcels sent from abroad.
But those charges have previously only been applied in items worth over 80 kroner.
Goods purchased outside of the EU are subject to VAT at 25 percent of the purchase price. Postage and shipping charges are also generally applicable.
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How will we be billed for VAT under these new rules? Right now, a bill arrives in the post with the amount of tax owed plus a 160 DKK “administration fee” before your goods are released for delivery. Surely a VAT-at-point-of-sale solution will be required to make this viable?
The powers that be are saying they are looking into it POS – (Bangood, Amazon and others do this anyway – but do check and be careful) and the use of the EU system, but that’s a bit ‘ing rich when the change was actually supposed to have happened in January !
The system will be ‘simplified’ by all accounts but it makes no difference to an overzealous or random spot check valuation inspection as we know that happens then they go to google do a product search and search “highest price first” to value your product.