US company, importing from China to UK for ecommerce - EORI and VAT basic questions

[m0untain]

I own a US company, and we are importing a consumer product from China into the UK, and will distribute the product in the EU using Shipwire's London warehouse.

Our shipment is leaving the warehouse in China in 3 days, and is being shipped to London via air.

This is my first time to import into the UK, and I am nervous about making any stupid mistakes that get my products stuck at customs.

My questions:

1) Here is what I am doing to prepare to import the shipment into the UK:

- submit C220a online to get an EORI
- mail VAT application for Non-Established Taxable Person (NETP)

Have I missed anything really obvious...?

2) I am planning to prepare and submit the the EORI and VAT applications on my own. Is this naive? Should I be hiring an agent or other professional to handle the paperwork for me?

Any advice would be much, much appreciated!!!!

 

[Ali-v-8]

Your company is US base - Why are you importing here? or is your plan to distribute in europe.

 

[m0untain]

Exactly. We want to sell our product to the EU, via Shipwire's UK warehouse (we also are using Shipwire's warehouse in the US).

Does my company's situation make sense?

 

[Ali-v-8]

in which case I would have had an agent here acting on your behalf. safer in the long run to avoid hiccups.
Also take the headache out of UK paperwork.

Whats the product?

 

[m0untain]

Our product is an iPhone attachment.

Yes, I can imagine that it would be smoother to do a distribution agreement with a UK company and have them import the product.

However, we decided not to use a UK distributor for 2 reasons:
- the UK distributor would need to take out a product liability insurance policy for selling the product, which we have judged to be too costly and burdensome (whereas my US company already has product liability insurance that covers sales worldwide, including the EU).

- for my company, there are also advantages to distributing direct to the UK/EU; the main advantage is control - I can control how the product gets distributed in the EU, and also I don't have to split the profits with another company.

My understanding is that any non-EU/non-UK entity can import directly into the UK, as long as the C220a (for EORI) gets submitted. So, I figured there must be a lot of foreign companies that want direct access to the EU market, and are doing the same thing as my company.

But is this not the case?
Is my company a really unusual situation?

 

[keytop]

Our product is an iPhone attachment.

Yes, I can imagine that it would be smoother to do a distribution agreement with a UK company and have them import the product.

However, we decided not to use a UK distributor for 2 reasons:
- the UK distributor would need to take out a product liability insurance policy for selling the product, which we have judged to be too costly and burdensome (whereas my US company already has product liability insurance that covers sales worldwide, including the EU).

- for my company, there are also advantages to distributing direct to the UK/EU; the main advantage is control - I can control how the product gets distributed in the EU, and also I don't have to split the profits with another company.

My understanding is that any non-EU/non-UK entity can import directly into the UK, as long as the C220a (for EORI) gets submitted. So, I figured there must be a lot of foreign companies that want direct access to the EU market, and are doing the same thing as my company.

But is this not the case?
Is my company a really unusual situation?

Regarding the paperwork for customs clearance,
Maybe you can call the agent company to handle for the first time.

Here is Soros here,Who work for some importers from Euro as theire sourcing&buying agent in China,Any related problem,Will try to give you some advice.

 

[hemibag]

I once shipped 2 leather Ipad carry bags by DHL to one of our customers for sample review, and it goes smoothly...,normally, the Express company will handle custom, you just need to pay the import tax, I assume.

 

[keytop]

I once shipped 2 leather Ipad carry bags by DHL to one of our customers for sample review, and it goes smoothly...,normally, the Express company will handle custom, you just need to pay the import tax, I assume.

But if with a mass of products,It will be more complicated.

 

[hemibag]

But if with a mass of products,It will be more complicated.

Exactly, mass products differs.

 

[m0untain]

Thank you everyone for your input!

Well, my shipment is leaving China via air this coming Tuesday.

I will put an update on this thread about how everything goes!