Page 8 - CBM18

~ PostNL ~

In principle, shopping outside of the EU will become more to make sure their customers have an easy journey receiving
expensive for consumers who are used to buying goods their goods, also after 1 July.
valued at €22 or less, as they will have to pay VAT over this.
This might create annoyance and questions. It may also PostNL makes sure the goods can be processed as quickly
mean that more people will shop within the EU. as possible by making an easy payment system. As soon as
customs clearance is done, the receiver gets a notification
What is clear is what it will mean for Logistic Services, like that there is a shipment for them, and a payment request is
PostNL who handles import shipment. Because even though sent.
logistical services did not come up with these new VAT
rules, in the EU, they have to handle customs clearance. They can pay this online. If this does not happen, the goods
Thus, when goods come into the country, these goods must will be sent to the nearest PostNL pick-up point, where they
be declared at customs and VAT (if not paid upfront) must will be kept for one week (after that, they will be sent back
be calculated over it. to where they came from), and the receiver can pay there on
pick-up.
PostNL notifies the customer that their parcel has arrived
and that they have to pay the customs clearance fee. This fee They can also choose to tell PostNL that they do not want
consists of the VAT (which differs per European country, in to receive the goods, in which case they will get sent back
the Netherlands, it is 21%) and the cost of handling. as well. So, what might seem like a small change has a big
So, for PostNL, this means that from 1 July, customs impact on lots of people.
clearance will have to be handled for every item coming in
from outside the EU (as opposed to only those that have a But PostNL is ready. Bring on the goods and a COVID-19-
value of € 22.- or more). In other words, going from having free summer (and years to come). ••
to customs clear about 1% to 100%.

SOURCES
1 GFK CONSUMER RESEARCH: HTTPS://WWW.SHOPPINGTOMORROW.NL/NL/CONSUMENTENONDERZOEK
How does PostNL handle this?
2 HTTPS://WWW.EY.COM/EN_BE/E-COMMERCE/WHAT-YOU-NEED-TO-KNOW-ABOUT-THE-NEW-VAT-RULES-FOR-E-COMMERCE
Lots of work, but PostNL is prepared and is working hard

8