John P Bourke wrote on 31/01/2021 21:21:
What happens now hen you want to send kit or spares to your
installations in the EU ?
There is paperwork. Do you have to pay VAT ?
What if you bring it back for repair ?
I guess you just buy in the EU ?
Moving equipment across customs barriers is a thundering headache and
can be surprisingly expensive. If this is something you need to do on
anything other than a very occasional basis, you should think about
getting professional advice from a shipping agent about what to expect.
I don't know enough about the exact details of the UK/EU trade deal to
know what exact pitfalls are there, but every one of the EU <-> not-EU
shipments that have passed my desk over the last 5 years have caused
inordinate headwreck of one form or another - delays, expense, paperwork
- and in most cases, all three.
There are various options for purchasing kit:
0. buy in UK, ship to EU and handle the awful, awful pain yourself
1. use a VAR in UK who can fulfil orders in EU from UK
1.1. use a VAR in UK who has an EU operating company and can fulfil
orders in EU from EU
2. use a VAR in EU, and pay from UK
3. set up a local operating company in EU and handle everything from there
If you have reasonable volume requirements and a tangible EU business
ops split, option 3 has a good deal of merit associated with it, but it
requires business changes and buy-in from higher-ups. In other words,
it's a business strategy change rather than an operational change in
procurement practice. If you have not-insubstantial business operations
in the EU, it's likely that this would be the best long term option.
Probably you need to bin the idea of return-to-uk for repair, unless
you're ok with the idea of regularly applying power drills to your
cranium and stabbing out your eyes with rusty forks. Not judging, btw
- some people do this for a living.
Nick
