“in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”
(Benjamin Franklin, 1789)
The trouble with imports is, half the time, you never really know what you will end up being charged. IOSS changes this.
Under the IOSS terms, for customers within the EU, we will collect the VAT with your order, up to a 150 euro cart value (as defined by IOSS terms).
What this means is the price you see on checkout for basket values under 150 euros will be the price you pay. There will be no further charges or taxes upon import. The purchase experience will be no different from purchasing from a retailer in your home country, or from any other VAT registered company within the EU.
When your basket exceeds 150 euros total, the vat will automatically be removed from your order, and the product will be sent out without VAT being charged, as per the IOSS guidance. At this point, your local delivery agent should bill you for the charges directly. In practice some do, and some do not, but they all should.
In real terms, what this all means is that, for smaller orders, you can be sure that there are no further fees on import whatsoever. Again, under IOSS, ordering from thebeast provides the same certainty as ordering from any other retailer within your home territory, or anywhere else in the EU. Our IOSS registration removes both additional charges and also customs processing delays.
Larger orders, where the IOSS collection is not applicable, are generally sent out with one of the premium couriers (UPS, Fedex and the like) who have pretty slick internal processing, again, avoiding slow government departments.
A significant amount of effort has been put into our IOSS compliance in order to boost consumer confidence in easy purchasing.