Haha, no worries
It looks like aliexpress has started charging taxā¦. 
You know, I donāt actually mind being charged VAT, Iād rather not obviously but thatās the way it is - my objection was always and only with Royal Mail taking Ā£8 to collect it - this should stop that farce, which may actually work out better for some items.
The bit I donāt understand, or maybe āscenarioā is this - most Chinese sellers LIE, well we are used to that, but on ebay they OFTEN claim the item is in the UK, but it actually comes via speedpack from China - this could be a nightmare customs wise, and you wonāt know until you get it. You think you are buying from the UK, no duty - then it arrives on the doorstep with an Ā£8 RM collection charge and obviously the VAT/duty.
I guess the best course of action would be to refuse it. Fighting customs is a mare, though I did do it and won triumphantly lol!
So far everything I had ordered from BG and AE prior to Xmas has shown up. Some Vapcell batteries came via Turkey and have just made it to the RDC. I will be interested to see what happens there. Stuff ordered this year seems to be moving along as normal. However I did order a knife and the supplier had to refund me as his shipment was sent back to the US because of (he says) Tier 4 restrictions.
I ordered batteryās from aliexpress and mine went to turkey
And said at turkey , aliexpress refunded me
Seems a lot of batteryās goto turkey from China, someone else had this also
Postman just dropped my blitzwolf light in the box, no charges for my received first order of the year 
some sites haven`t added the VAT thing yet, I bought a P60 host from Lumens Factory After Jan 1`st and wasn`t charged VAT, so how will they know when it arrives? and worse what`s to stop them charging you VAT twice!? at the point of sale AND when it arrives in the UK.
Just received a Convoy delivery this morning, no problems. It should be only EU to UK is affected. Some Chinese companies have warehouses in the EU, but it shouldnāt effect them if the end to end sale is China to UK. It might highlight some VAT fiddling if it has been going on. Iāve never been charged duty or VAT on a delivery from China. The invoice value is always below the Ā£15 limit or sent as a gift.
From what I can figure out, EU companies now need a UK EORI number and UK companies need a EU EORI number to get shipments through EU and UK customs. These are given with VAT numbers, so as a UK company we now need a UK and EU VAT number. This is why some EU companies are not shipping to the UK at the moment. They donāt have a UK VAT number and there are delays in issuing VAT and EORI numbers.
āThe invoice value is always below the Ā£15 limitā
But I believe that changes now, everything gets VAT, or at least thatās how I read it. Couldnāt make it nice and simple could they lol, Iām not sure anyone really understands!
apparently BoJo`s making another anouncement at 5pm, this time it`s about Borders, so maybe that will clarify things or not? who knows! LOL
Clarifying is something the Government arenāt capable of because of the huge holes in guidance/policies! Confusion yes, they are experts at that.
You might be right:
Low value consignment relief (LVCR), which is an import VAT exemption for goods valued at Ā£15 or less, has been removed in:
Great Britain for goods imported from outside the UK.
Northern Ireland for goods ordered remotely that are imported from outside the UK and EU.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-and-overseas-goods-sold-directly-to-customers-in-the-uk
That is correct and also applicable for all of the EU:
Various countries have already implemented this change or will in the near future. So if you live in Europe or the UK, you have to declare VAT from the first penny spent. I donāt know how the actual process in each country would look like though. If there is a high āhandling feeā by the national post operators (like Royal Mail), then it wouldnāt make sense to buy low cost items from overseas any longer.
Not sure if this is related to Brexit or Covid or none of the above.
But I did notice some weird shipping prices on Banggood two nights back.
I wanted to order some bits. But they had shipping rates of $25 other similar items with the same shipping option and location were more like the normal $1.50 shipping. Not sure what is going on.
I wanted a Convoy S2+ to use as a host. The host kits are $11 with $1.50 shipping. The flashsale S2+ with driver and LED (shipping from CN) was $9 with $25 shipping.
My Vapcell batteries turned up with no problems, and importantly no additional charges.
When did you order them Auditor? was it pre Brexit? - if so supposedly itās exempt.
Yes pre-brexit. I have other orders showing as in the UK but they have not been delivered yet. Those were ordered this year.
So one of my first post BREXIT orders was delivered by Hermes at 23:59 on the 7th and they claim to have a signature. Unfortunately they initially claimed to have missed delivery on the 7th and were going to try again on the 8th. So I have opened a dispute and informed BG as well.
My Astrolux VC04 costing Ā£10.53 was delivered today by Hermes. No additional charges. I havenāt got anything else on order now except Hanks new flashlight, and I am hoping that will arrive with no issues.
Interesting. When was this ordered and paid for?
I currently have a light coming from Poland that was paid for on the 1st Jan, so weāll see what happens with that.