Friend of mine wants to send case of beers from EU to UK. Basically brewer sending samples, douing this the regular way is too much paperwork so he’d like to avoid that. Does anyone have any experience how to this without a hassle?
My understanding is that if it’s a gift, not sent from a company or business address, and not a huge amount, then you won’t encounter any problems. I’ve had beer sent from Poland, around 10 cans / bottles, and it got here fine. I’m sure @Grumbo and others can chip in with their recent experiences.
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I’ve given up sending anything to or from the UK post Brexit, admittedly most of my gripes have been in relation to things coming this way, and it seems no matter the accuracy of filling in the documents correctly I get stung repeatedly by Zoll and DHL and this can be for anything, beer, CDs, records, books, small personal gifts that are relatively small in value etc, the average is usually about 7-8€ often more than half the cost of the item sent. However my experience the other way has also not been without it’s problems either, though rather than things being charged in the UK, they simply never got there or got there incredibly late. If I send a gift to friends or family in the UK I source it online in the UK now.
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I’ve had no issues doing trades to / from Germany & NL since Brexit albeit I’m shipping smaller quantities in the boxes since Brexit - I tend to trade 10-12 bottles / cans now.
I always complete the CN22 Customs Declaration but it only takes a few minutes to type up.
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Receiving into UK sent by private senders as gift by normal post is no problem at all (and long may that continue!). I’ve experienced no customs issues or delays on boxes of beers declared as beers (gifts) with values of €2 each beer and I’ve had plenty of boxes of 20+ beers arrive. I’ve read there’s a £45 gift tax threshold to keep under, but also that there is no threshold at all for beers but so far it’s all got through.
Sending to EU is another matter. Big delays and lots of hassle. Each of the 27 country’s customs seem to have their own rules (or at least the 11 I’ve sent to so far) which vary from “don’t mention beer, declare as hot sauce” through to “declare as beer and I’ll pay the taxes” and often the extortionate handling charge (yes Denmark, I mean you in particular!).
It’s a sad situation. And whilst the receipt of beers is still great for me, any trade I do costs 3 or 4 times the amount to send to EU. Gone are the days of parcel2go £12.50 for 20kg!
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Have you had any beer from Finland? May post myself some becaue the suitcases are bound to be full of Birthday and Christmas presents to bring back.
Yep. No problem by normal post.
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I had my first customs charge on an incoming box from EU this week. £0.88p excise duty charge, which became £23.04 with VAT and handling charges!
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