Which Warehouse Should I Use - UK or UK Tax Free?

forward2me has always been trying to help people all over the world to receive goods that are not available in their country. Our service is constantly improving and this year we went a step further by finding a way to reduce your shopping costs. Having a tax free warehouse means that our customers could save 20% tax on the purchase price of their shopping.

You might be wondering how is that even possible?

Well, the location of our warehouse is the key, it’s an island in the English Channel between France and Great Britain. Guernsey is a self-governing Crown Dependency, that is neither a part of the United Kingdom, nor a member of the European Union. The benefits are coming alongside that, because they have negotiated a special status, the island is within the EU for most of the purposes of the free movement of goods but outside the EU for other purposes.

If we take Amazon for example, when you enter a Guernsey delivery address, it will drop the VAT from the cost of your goods. Another thing to keep in mind is that the exports outside the EU are typically free of VAT.

It’s important to note that, however, this is not always the best option in every situation. The international shipping options from the UK Tax Free warehouse are limited to DHL only and the cost for international delivery is different compared to our regular warehouse in the UK. So, for some particular orders it makes no sense to choose the tax free option.

Something we notice for the past few months is that our customers feel overwhelmed with the options we offer. It has become a struggle for them to decide which warehouse is more cost effective for their needs.

Well, the good news is that this is actually not that complicated and after reading that blog you will easily make the right decision in every situation. To avoid any confusion we decided to go into details with a simple comparison.

Let’s assume that we have 4 separated parcels. Two of them will include socks and the other two will be for an iPhone. We will have each product shipped with DHL Express Service from both Preston (the regular warehouse) and Guernsey (the tax free) to the USA.

example
Example of regular delivery cost
Example of tax free delivery cost
Example 2
Example of delivery cost
Example of tax free delivery price

Things to remember about the Tax Free Warehouse:

  • Not all UK retailers ship to Guernsey (the base of our Tax Free warehouse). Please see some examples of some retailers that do ship there & do deduct the 20% sales tax.

  • Not all retailers comply with the deduction of the 20% sales tax - please check before making your purchase.

  • The 20% sales tax that you save is on the purchase of your products and is not applicable on the international shipping costs.

  • Be sure to check that your purchase would normally include 20% sales tax - things such as books, baby clothing and baby milk don’t have the 20% sales tax applied.

  • Our UK Tax Free warehouse is available only if you are a resident out of the EU.

  • You can’t ship dangerous goods and alcohol from the UK Tax Free warehouse.

Here are some cool examples that will show you how much you could save if you decide to use our UK Tax Free warehouse.

 UK Tax Free warehouse
UK Tax Free warehouse

If this is the first time you learn about the warehouse in Guernsey you are probably now wondering how it works and which retailers you could choose from. We prepared two lists that will show you where to start from.

SHOPS THAT DELIVER TO GUERNSEY AND DEDUCT VAT DURING CHECKOUT

UK shops that deliver to Guernsey

SHOPS THAT DELIVER TO GUERNSEY AND REFUND VAT AFTER DELIVERY

Online stores that deliver to Guernsey
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