Paphos Life

We have been placing orders with Healthspan from Cyprus for the last 16 years.

In recent years our orders have been despatched from Holland by post which have not attracted any import duty or additional VAT. In earlier years they did when they were despatched from Jersey. As a result of listening to their ex-pat customers they subsequently arranged shipping from Holland.

We have just placed a large order, over €200, which they have shipped by courier from Swindon. We have received notification from DHL in Cyprus to give them either our ID or Passport Number for customs clearance purposes.

Has anyone else recently come across this and, if so, did they have to pay import duty and VAT?

I’ve also been using Healthspan for a very long time. My last order was on 24th July.
I’ve never used the courier service & using Royal Mail Healthspan dispatch the products individually so I had 9 packets of vitamins etc at a total cost of £134, including post & packing.
My order was dispatched on 27th July & on 2nd August I got notification from Cyprus Post to log into their Thalisupp site to pay VAT & customs duty.
On average I had to pay €0.77 VAT & €3.50 Customs Fee on every package, about €38 in total.
Payment was acknowledged but i’m still waiting for delivery but that, hopefully, is down to the holiday period.
One of the products I don’t think I can get here so I will probably bite the bullet & pay the extra costs but the others I will source here.
A friend had a large order delivered by courier & didn't have to pay anything but that was before the rules changed on the1st July.

VAT & Customs information here:
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/b ... country_en
https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/b ... w-value_en

I also like Healthspan and have been using their vit and min products for years.
But this new and cumbersome tax and duty payable on entry plus the fact that Healthspan usually send an order to you in several packages, would mean repeated visits to the main post office seems too much phaffing about.
I plan to order enough stuff from them while I am in the UK, if I then run out of something while in Cyprus, most things which I use regularly can be bought at H and B.

Dee

I too have been using Healthspan for years and usually get the letterbox friendly packets in my post box or if too many to fit in the box the village postie asks me to collect from his house.
However, with a 50% discount offer, I ordered more than usual and discovered if you order 15 or more packets, Healthspan now ship the lot by courier (DHL) and there is a small duty to pay on collection from the DHL depot. My order was over €100 and duty was something like €16. With all the scam emails going the rounds, I was at first unsure whether my notification was genuine, so checked it out but didn't pay the duty online, just being extra cautious.

Up until this last order we had been receiving packets through the post with no duty or VAT.

We placed a large order two weeks ago with Healthspan to last at least 6 months. The duty and VAT came to €69.26.

We will be ordering from Amazon DE in future. They do all of the supplements we regularly use, some at a lower price and they're sent by DHL on a standard delivery charge.

Up until this last order we had been receiving packets through the post with no duty or VAT.

We placed a large order two weeks ago with Healthspan to last at least 6 months. The duty and VAT came to €69.26.

We will be ordering from Amazon DE in future. They do all of the supplements we regularly use, some at a lower price and they're sent by DHL on a standard delivery charge.

Holland and Barrett are now shipping from Ireland to EU countries and prices include taxes etc. Haven’t ordered from them yet however.

As Holland & Barrett have a shop in the Mall, its very easy to just go to the shop and pick up the things that you need... no need to order and pay any extra charges...

Dee

Kili01 wrote: ↑Fri Aug 27, 2021 11:12 am As Holland & Barrett have a shop in the Mall, its very easy to just go to the shop and pick up the things that you need... no need to order and pay any extra charges...

Dee

I normally go to Holland & Barrett in the Mall and agree it is convenient however they don’t have the same special offers as they do in the UK.

If you go online to Holland and Barret you can make an order and have it delivered to your door free of charge over a set amount ( which is not very much) I ordered some on Wednesday about €34 and it was delivered Yesterday.
Cheers Norman.

In a way, you are fortunate that the Carrier / Courier will actually deliver to your door.
Admittedly we have an obscure address, but we always have to collect carcels or meet the delivery guy in the village.

For information :

https://www.simplysupplements.co.uk/

Simply Supplements ship their products from Spain avoiding import taxes etc.

Hope this helps

Thanks Aphrodite. I've just sent a message asking them to confirm that they still do this.