Good news.
DHL and it’s workers have agreed on new salaries and working conditions.
The strike has ended.
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/lohnsteigerung-fuer-deutsche-post-beschaeftigte-101.html
Good news.
DHL and it’s workers have agreed on new salaries and working conditions.
The strike has ended.
https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/lohnsteigerung-fuer-deutsche-post-beschaeftigte-101.html
Because we have to increase the shipping fees to Austria in order to offset some of the cost of this, we want to give some more background information regarding the Austrian recycling of packaging.
We are a tiny German business.
We pay for the recycling of all cardboard and plastic packaging we ship.
That is not overly expensive and we do so for a long time now.
TL:DR – Austria removed all „small business“ thresholds and requires non-Austrian EU-businesses to name a representative in addition to licensing the packaging for recycling.
With the Austrian
„Verordnung des Bundesministers für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft über die Vermeidung und Verwertung von Verpackungsabfällen und bestimmten Warenresten (Verpackungsverordnung 2014)“
(Austria love long names just like Germany does.)
starting 1. Jänner 2023 (1st of January)
we are forced to have an agent in Austria (as defined in § 16b).
That agent is to act as our representative in matters of recyling of packaging.
This is required because of:
„§ 16b.(1) Versandhändler gemäß § 13g Abs. 1 Z 5 AWG 2002 haben für ab dem 1. Jänner 2023 in Österreich in Verkehr gesetzte Verpackungen einen Bevollmächtigten für ausländische Versandhändler zu bestellen.“
That definition reads:
„Versandhändler, die keinen Sitz und keine Niederlassung im örtlichen Geltungsbereich dieses Bundesgesetzes haben und die Verpackungen oder Waren oder Güter in Verpackungen in Österreich an einen privaten Letztverbraucher im Rahmen des Fernabsatzes im Sinne des § 5a KSchG übergeben.“
The naming of that representative even has to be notarised because of
„§ 16b.(1) Abs.2 Pt 4
4. Die Bestellung erfolgt durch eine beglaubigte Vollmacht in deutscher oder englischer Sprache“
There are no provisions for small busineses.
There are no provisions for small amounts of packaging.
There are no distictions between EU and 3rd country businesses.
Yes, that part of the law makes no sense whatsoever.
We are just glad that Austria laws are written in a language we can actually read.
With 27 EU countries, this could be so much worse.
We do pay for recycling all cardboard and plastic we buy or import.
We do send proof of the amount we licensed to the German authorities.
Sadly, there is no European licensing.
That’s obviously bad with 27 EU countries.
We have absolutely no problem doing the same for the cardboard and plastic our shipment to Austria make up.
It’s a tiny amount. Licensing it is not overly expensive and after serveral weeks of research, easy to do. The price is mainly made up of an administrative fee per license. The actual amount of licensed material is mere cents.
Just even more yearly bureaucracy to handle.
The problem is not licensing our materials for recycling in Austria.
The problem is that Austria demands a company in Austria to act as a representative.
„§ 16b Verpackungsverordnung 2014 „Bevollmächtigter für ausländische Versandhändler (Verpackung)“..“
There is no minimum or threshold anymore
They demany this the very moment any business sends a single paper envelope to Austria.
There was a Minimum business size called „Kleinstabgeber“ but is it discontinued 2022-12-31.
And enlisting with any Austrian representative („Bevollmächtigter“) is really expensive.
While the recycling makes up 40-80ct (mainly due to a minimum administrative fee),
we would have to charge an additional 8€ per delivery to Austria to offset this.
Insted of 8,8€, we will raise the shipping prices for Austrian customers by 3.10€ per parcel to offset a part of this additional cost.
Starting with February update to shipping prices because DHL lowered it’s monthly „energy surcharge“ for German destinations.
All non-recurring cost for registration will thus be paid by us (and thus by all customers collectively) and the recurring cost is distributed based on the amount of parces to Austria we shipped before the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues and global recession.
We have added the new 2021 DHL prices.
Like every year, all DHL prices have become ever so slightly more expensive.
As the (temporarily reduced) German VAT rate goes back up to 19%, so do all the EU shipping fees. non-EU exports obviously don’t include VAT.
While GB has always been a „premium delivery only“ country,
sadly it now also includes +4.49€ just for GB.
But at least the +19% German VAT are gone now.
They are however replaced by 20% UK VAT payed at delivery and we are required to incur a minimum order size of 135£ to comply with HMRC changes in VAT rules independent of BREXIT.
That is, as soon as DHL accepts parcels for the UK and Ireland again.
For Germany the +0.10€ for Maut get an additional +0.01€ for the new CO2 tax.
With the new year, the reduced VAT rate of 16% will return to it’s usual 19%.
Therefore we will soon have to cancel and refund all orders made with 16% that can not longer be shipped (e.g. because they are not yet payed) this year.
We plan to make the required changed to our shop settings, invoice printing and our Amazon presence in two days.
This blog posting will be constantly updated to reflect the current situation.
The following manufacturers are in the EU and thus free from customs (but not VAT):
Bad Wolf
FlurbMe
FurryStyle
GLC
Lizard Lars
Sidewinder Creations
According to a policy document of HMRC, above 135 GBP the customer pays the 20% UK VAT along with the customs fees. Either to the customs office or to the postal service (if the postal services did the paperwork in your name). This is not part of Brexit but a change in the VAT rules made by HMRC.
TL:DR: This requires heavy modifications to our software and processes. Mostly because of the currencies. It is likely that we will just require a minimum order to be 135 GBP.
Doing that will require a modiciation to the shop software to allow for a minimum order quantity to be country-specific.
Below 135 GBP, we would be required to pay the VAT. However doing that is not exactly easy.
https://www.bmu.de/faqs/plastiktueten-verbot/
It was fun to have people waiting for an elevator or crossing the lobby with such a bag.
We are sitting on a large number of our suspiciously unsuspicious black plastic bags.
You can’t buy them in small quantities and still pay a reasonable price. So the plan was to use them over 3-4 years of Dealers Den. Just like we did with our last stash of bags and the one before.
Sadly in 6 month (so next Eurofurence) we will no longer be able to use them since they are less then 50µm thick and thus don’t fall under one of the exceptions for the new ban on plastic bags.
We’re still waiting for the law to be actually passed and then to read the exact wording used.
We have already posted the technical details we where given by DHL and Amazon and the steps we will take regarding Brexit recently.
Given the deadline getting closer, we urge everyone from the UK who intends to order any toys from our store, please to do so no later then next week. Even if there is a delay, there is likely to be at least some chaos after that date. Wheels are already in motion everwhere around us even if the Brexit itself may or may not be postponed for a few weeks or a few month or a year.
Banks, credit cards, Paypal, DHL, Royal Mail, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de delivering to the UK, widely fluctuating GBP/EUR exchange rates,… there are a lot of external entities we have to rely on to conduct business and everyone of them prefers to be on the safe side even if it means turning down business for a weeks or two or suddenly making their service more expensive.
Thank you.
We are currently switching bank accounts.
New orders paying by SEPA bank transfer will already retrieve the new account details for their payment.
The old account will still remain valid for a few weeks.
This should be plenty of time for the very few bank transfer -orders in the shop that have not payed yet. (*)
While being quite an ordeal for a privat bank account, such a switch is a bit more involved when it’s about a company account. Over the past few weeks we have set in motion most of the paperwork involved (including customs- and tax offices) and so far the transition seems to run smoothly.
The advantage for you: SEPA bank transfer payments arrive within a day instead of 2-3 days now. (With Commerzbank, they didn’t become visible in online banking until some time later. Thus we could not ship as quickly as would be otherwise possible.)
The advantage for us: In the end we’ll even pay much less fees. Up to now our Aval for a simplified customs process was quite expensive and every customer paying by SEPA bank transfer would cost us about 0,15€ in addition to a monthly fee. While not free (Company bank accounts that include cash handling and a Maestro card are not) this is now much cheaper and the SEPA payment fees are gone up to a very comfortable monthly limit.
Based on how they handle very long time customers (we’re talking decades here).
Not just one or two or a dozen or 3 dozen customers.
We’re talking thousands. Whole families, businesses, entire diplomatic embassies.
People in good and very good standing. People being granted the elevated „First“ status by this bank. Not only free accounts that never run up any overdraft or loan interest and thus don’t make their bank much money. Even business customers who pay considerable banking fees every month, heavy hidden fees in exchange rates and quite hefty fees for business services such as an Aval or business SEPA debit mandates.
We can not recommend anyone to choose this bank and to leave there while you still can. In case you are with them, here are some sources you should seriously consider:
NDR „Der Mark“
NDR „Panorama“
FAZ
Der Westen (Funke Media Group)
Osttüringer Zeitung
DW Akademie
Hamburger Morgenpost
Comdirect User Forum (1) (2)
Trustpilot
There is a reason they need to advertise a staggering 100eur for new customers there (any seemingly very often not paying that). Think about it!
This is separate from their terrible standing with being thrown out of the DAX index .
As as result 7300 employees where let loose. 4210 of them in corporate banking. In the medium sized business support this ment 50% of staff in southern Germany and 40% in northern Germany. (Handelsblatt late 2017)
This ment unreachable/bad and constantly changing business customer service representatives (1) including ours. We’re not going into details about our own experiences there due to internal details. TL:DR: All business service stopped after late 2018 and it seems all good customer service staff have left on their own for better banks even before the layoffs.
FAZ
Der Westen (Funke Media Group)
Osttüringer Zeitung
DW Akademie
Hamburger Morgenpost
Comdirect User Forum (1) (2)
Trustpilot
There is a reason they need to advertise a staggering 100eur for new customers there (any seemingly very often not paying that). Think about it!
This is separate from their terrible standing with being thrown out of the DAX index .
As as result 7300 employees where let loose. 4210 of them in corporate banking. In the medium sized business support this ment 50% of staff in southern Germany and 40% in northern Germany. (Handelsblatt late 2017)
This ment unreachable/bad and constantly changing business customer service representatives (1) including ours. We’re not going into details about our own experiences there due to internal details. TL:DR: All business service stopped after late 2018 and it seems all good customer service staff have left on their own for better banks even before the layoffs.
*) Given that orders with payment by SEPA bank transfer that still haven’t payed a week after get a gentle reminder with the bank details and after multiple weeks and reminders must get canceled anyway so as not to block toy-inventory that other people would like to buy.)
Yes, none of us can hear it anymore but the date of a possible „hard Brexit“ is creeping nearer. We will update this blog posting as more information arrives from our the companies who’s services we use.
A week before the possible hard Brexit (22.3.2019) we will deactivate our presence on Amazon.co.uk until is becomes clear how this is to continue.
Amazon is urging is to stockpile our products in their UK warehouse but we are too small and our UK sales too irregular to do that. We need our stock right here for our many EU customers.
Starting 26.3.2019 DHL requires us to add details customs documentation to all packages for destinations within the UK, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands.
Delivery times for these destinations can not be guaranteed by DHL and thus also not by us.
In Case of a hard Brexit, DHL will start requiring an additional „Brexit Fee“ starting on the 2019-04-01 „or later“ for the handling. We will add that to the shipping price unaltered. The fee is an additional 10.29€ .