Royal mint order from outside Uk

[Mario007]

I was wondering if someone can share their experiences about ordering from Royal mint from outside UK?

[Jvw]

I would love to share my experience, but I am still waiting for their reply on whether they shipped my 2022 sovereign already. 

[Mario007]

21 minutes ago, Jvw said:

I would love to share my experience, but I am still waiting for their reply on whether they shipped my 2022 sovereign already. 

Could you please tell me how much you paid of shipping and also if they added vat.

 

Ps I will buy silver bullion

[Bruce06]

I didn't buy silver bullion from RM.  For silver proof, they charged me GBP20.  If you want to know the exact fee, you may just add your items in basket, then fill in address, the system will show you the delivery fee n VAT before payment.

 

[Jvw]

11 hours ago, Mario007 said:

Could you please tell me how much you paid of shipping and also if they added vat.

 

Ps I will buy silver bullion

I will, once they confirmed my order....... 

[sgcoins]

I have some experience🙂

When I ordered my 3 Graces coin at the Royal Mint from The Netherlands, the shipping costs where 12 pounds.

The do not include the vat, but when it arrived the Dutch customs add the 21% vat. So you will pay the same as a UK customer.  

[westminstrel]

I have ordered to Australia. For silver proof coins and those BU type coins, VAT is deducted from the Royal Mint advertised cost. However, customs is charged here in Australia.

For gold proof coins and other things like books, the advertised price is what is charged. And ofc customs is also charged here in Australia on top of that cost. So a rather crappy situation overall. 😐

P.S.: Sorry I have never purchased bullion so can’t help there.

[Oddjob]

Just rec'd my first RM purchase (1/2 sov). It took a bit of messing about with RM to not only ensure my account profile was correct on their system (thus allowing me access to purchase) but also ensuring the delivery address in Aust was correct. There's one too many similar town/ village names between the UK and Aust and the initial step-up / online form fill-in wasn't too clear, so ensure you check with RM customer service re delivery address.

Having to pre-fund my account with them was a PITA...no ability to check out (pay) with Paypal / credit card which is average on the part of RM.

Note: Some RM items will appear in USD for non UK buyers. This is what they told me when I questioned the change in advertised sale price between viewing prices when not logged in v being logged into your RM account.

RM system appear somewhat behind the curve on purchase information. Whilst you get a confirmation email of the purchase, there is no follow-up emails with tracking info. You have to go on line to get that yourself....and my first purchase didn't have any tracking info so that became a leap of faith. That said, some other purchases I've made at RM since all show stuck at Heathrow (which I understand is par for the course with Royal Mail)....so not expecting any updates on tracking info from RM until old mate from Australia Post knocks on the door to hand me my package.

If I can give RM one positive tick out of this whole process was that the item was securely and well packed.

[tpcob303]

Managed to order 2022 Half and Full Sovereigns on release day. I used the website but was able to sneak around the queue with a button clicking routine, that had me go backwards and forwards. 
 

Then today, well I was on since 7am or 8am for me as I’m in Germany right now. And I ended up 3993 in the queue for the gothic. So I ended up calling the international phone number and got through straight away, no multiple choice hit number for this department. Got my order sorted and was on my merry way, only bought 1 coin as I didn’t want to be greedy and only had enough for a 2oz silver anyway. 
 

Though I was speaking to someone who said they set up multiple accounts to be sent to multiple addresses so they could buy up as much as possible which I find really greedy, which is why most people never got anything today, people like that sickened me. 

 

[tpcob303]

On 25/11/2021 at 18:09, sgcoins said:

I have some experience🙂

When I ordered my 3 Graces coin at the Royal Mint from The Netherlands, the shipping costs where 12 pounds.

The do not include the vat, but when it arrived the Dutch customs add the 21% vat. So you will pay the same as a UK customer.  

@sgcoinsI just write the people an customs an email and tell them to waive all fees as it’s legal tender so I won’t pay them as the coin is under a certain value. They oblige and the charges get removed. 

[Jvw]

On 07/12/2021 at 04:21, tpcob303 said:

@sgcoinsI just write the people an customs an email and tell them to waive all fees as it’s legal tender so I won’t pay them as the coin is under a certain value. They oblige and the charges get removed. 

I got my full 2022 sovereign just a week ago, and got charged 21% VAT on importing it. I explained exactly that, but customs still charged me as the Royal Mint marked the package with HS code 7118100000. (Whatever that means?) And according to customs a HS code 7118100000 is charged with 21%VAT. 

They told me they can not waiver the fees. 

I think Royal Mint just used the wrong HS number and now I am am billed extra.

Edited December 31, 2021 by Jvw

[Skyfiller]

Yup, wrong commodity code

”Coin (other than gold coin), not being legal tender”

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/7118100000

 

[Mario007]

i want to order a sovereign but i'm scared of the custom fee, so i should make sure that RM mark the parcel properly so i will not be pay the custom?

 

[Jvw]

36 minutes ago, Mario007 said:

i want to order a sovereign but i'm scared of the custom fee, so i should make sure that RM mark the parcel properly so i will not be pay the custom?

 

Yes, make sure they use the right RN number. I found out that it should have been 711890( https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/headings/7118 ).

But now I need costums to understand that it is investment gold. Sigh..... I think this will be the last time I import any gold coins from outside the EU tbh.  

[Mario007]

37 minutes ago, Jvw said:

Yes, make sure they use the right RN number. I found out that it should have been 711890( https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/headings/7118 ).

But now I need costums to understand that it is investment gold. Sigh..... I think this will be the last time I import any gold coins from outside the EU tbh.  

thank for the info i was thinking even if RM mark the parcel with the correct code, i guess the custom will charge me the service fee anyway on monday i will try to contact them and see before actually order the sovereign 

 

[Jvw]

The fees are minimum. All packages handled through customs will be charged a handling-fee. 
The Vat is where the real hurt is.

Seems like dutch customs is still learning about investment gold coins, and how to handle the packages. 

The real problem i encountered is that the shipping company pays the custom fees and charge them straight to you. Even when customs made a mistake then you will have to pay the full amount and then the shipping company will investigate. 
If customs tell the shipping company that the Vat charge was correct, then the shipping company will drop the investigation. And writing to customs directly is a difficult process. 
 

[Skyfiller]

If the sender states the wrong code then it’s nought to do with shipping agents or customs, they are just following their sop’s. If that’s what the paperwork says then that’s what it is unless they decide different. Which they are not going to do in this case. A. it’s just a coin as the paperwork says and B. rarely do they reclassify something that declares a VAT liability to something that doesn’t. As a company we could just offset this if it happens and stick it on our deferment account but as an individual I presume you’ll have to contact your equivalent of our HMRC in your country and fill in a claim form.??

[Jvw]

6 hours ago, Skyfiller said:

If the sender states the wrong code then it’s nought to do with shipping agents or customs, they are just following their sop’s. If that’s what the paperwork says then that’s what it is unless they decide different. Which they are not going to do in this case. A. it’s just a coin as the paperwork says and B. rarely do they reclassify something that declares a VAT liability to something that doesn’t. As a company we could just offset this if it happens and stick it on our deferment account but as an individual I presume you’ll have to contact your equivalent of our HMRC in your country and fill in a claim form.??

You are right! Hence the investigation/claim. I had to provide all paperwork, pictures, invoices, payments etc etc. And it was clearly a gold sovereigns what was in the package, still they charged me the VAT due to a wrong number so it seems. 

I'll write them again on Monday.

[CollectForFun]

2 hours ago, Jvw said:

You are right! Hence the investigation/claim. I had to provide all paperwork, pictures, invoices, payments etc etc. And it was clearly a gold sovereigns what was in the package, still they charged me the VAT due to a wrong number so it seems. 

I'll write them again on Monday.

EU has an annually updated official list of gold coins that meet the conditions to be treated as VAT exempt investment gold. You can find it here (and Tap for document text) and it does include the sovereign. So just refer them to this list and you should be able to claim 0% VAT.

By the way, the list does not include all eligible coins, also those that are not included but meet the conditions are eligible for 0% VAT.

The HS code is for assessing the customs duty and while there may be different codes for monetary/non-monetary gold, it's in general subject to 0% duty anyway.

Edited January 1, 2022 by CollectForFun