With just 27 days till the UK leaves the European Union (EU), January the 1st 2021 is set to be a bad day for Precious Metals stackers here in the UK! Now while I'm all for taking back sovereignty and seeing if the UK can still stand on her own two feet, I will miss the cheaper silver being part of the EU provided me.
You see, that when buying anything from inside the customs Union of the EU, items can travel freely from member state to member state without any import tax being added to it. This gave savy silver buyers, like myself, the opertunity to source cheaper silver from anywhere within the 28 member states without the fear of the tax man getting his sticky fingers and adding a great big tax bill.
Cutting ties could end up costing me thousands of extra pounds over the next few years of silver buying. Let me try and break it down, so you get an even better understanding of how I'm going to get screwed over.
First up, we need to know and understand what the Spot price of silver is and how it directly effects the minimum price expected to pay. Its highly unlikely that unless its a special promotion zyoull never buy silver at spot price, simply because individuals and organisations need to turn a profit and this is done by addi g a margin on top of basic spot price. This can cover the initial outlay for the metal, time, effort and cost of manufacturing what ever product (coin or bar) they are making.
For example if spot is say £17 per ounce - a simple generic 1oz, mass produced silver coin will set you back £18.75 approx. "OK", I hear you saying, "that's not too bad".... But here in the UK the taxman slaps you with a 20% Value Added Tax (VAT) bill on top of that £18.50. This brings your total for a single 1oz coin to a more eye watering £22.50, you're now paying £5.50 over the initial price of the silver spot price. I usually buy my silver in bulk to try and get any deals/offers a seller might have, so when you multiply that extra cost by a factor of 40 coins the price become uncomfortably higher.
40 coins X £22.50 = £900
That's an extra £220 above the price of spot to recoup before you make any signs of a resale profit. I haven't even mentioned the added cost of P&P to factor in, it's usually about £5, which adds an extra £0.125 per coin over a 40 coin purchase. So buying silver here in the UK will set you back roughly £22.60 ($30.35US).
Over the past couple of years, my silver supplier of choice has been the European Mint, located in the small Baltic country of Estonia. Now while there is nothing anyone selling silver can do about the Spot Price of silver or the cost of manufacturing, by buying in Estonia I can cut the amount of VAT I pay on top of my coins. Luckily for silver stacker, the Estonian government has only added a 5% VAT rate on silver, instantly saving me 15%. £18.75 + 5% = £19.68 per coin.
40 coins X £19.68 = £787.20
£900 - £787.20 =£112.80
Even after factoring in P&P, I'm still well over £100 ($130US) better off buying from abroad.
My best case scenario is that the UK & EU reach a trade deal without compromising the UKs position on leaving the EU, but I'm not holding my breath, nor do I wish to remain in the EU at the cost a few hundred pounds to me personally. It's looking more likely that a "no-deal" #brexit will be rolled out, and so end my ability to purchase cheaper silver regularly.
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23/45
Time to move to the US.
Good for you guys, I'd shed off another layer of expensive irrelevant government that's so out of touch it would cost you much more than just a few hundred pounds cash in the longer term.
Hi @welshstacker,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
@hivewatcher, not sure why Welshie on your blacklist, but gotta be something needs to be looked into and reconsidered.
Does the break away have other affects too like with taxes or has that always been local?
@thealliance - it's a fair cop. Trying to juggle life, 2 kids, work, running things here on hive/steem I found very little time to post, so ended up plagiarising silver articles, copy and pasting them as my own. I'm on a 45 day rehabilitation, so it's not all lost and hopefully be OK at the end.
Leaving the EU is going to effect so many things, I may write a complete blog about in soon
@thealliance
As @welshstacker explained.
You have gone halfway through the appeal. It will consider it successful and remove the blacklist now.
Thank you
Ah ok, good to hear, that's what the 23/45 bit was then.
!hw unban
Unbanned @welshstacker.
Umm thank you @hivewatcher, very unexpected, but very very welcome. One thing I could possibly ask?? I kinda liked the auto comments, as no one else seemed to comment on my posts.... Ohh I'll miss our interactions! 😘 Pop in and say hi some times
Ah ok, naughty boy. Santa gonna be angry, might leave coal in your stocking 🤣
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I thing in the long term you will be better off not being inthe EU. But yeah, the big VAT is the shits for sure.
Thanks for continuing to make Hive awesome.