UK Tax-Free Shopping and Parcel Forwarding Service
Shop at the biggest UK online stores completely tax-free, then ship your parcels around the world. Save the 20% Value Added Tax (VAT) from UK retailers including Amazon and John Lewis. Our tax-free warehouse is based on Guernsey, and is ideal for saving you money on tax before re-shipping your items to the US, the EU, Asia, and all around the world.
Our Guernsey warehouse is located specifically with the customer in mind. We chose Guernsey to let non-UK residents shop in the UK and forward their packages with ease. If you’re shopping for more expensive items, valued at £100 or more, this is a great way to save money when you’re shopping in the UK. Sign up to your free UK forwarding address today and shop tax free at the UK’s biggest retailers.
NO SALES TAX (VAT) WHEN SHIPPING TO THE FORWARD2ME
TAX FREE WAREHOUSE
How Does This Help Me?
How Can I Save the 20% VAT with UK Retailers
Value Added Tax (VAT) is a sales tax designed to be paid by residents of a country or trade area. When a resident buys goods the government takes a slice of the sale price. Exports outside the UK are free of UK VAT. The retailer must prove that goods have been exported in order to ‘zero rate’ the VAT. Otherwise the UK tax authorities hold the retailer liable for UK VAT - currently 20%.
In the case of a customer using a UK parcel forwarding service with a UK located warehouse, the VAT has to be collected by the retailer even if the goods are ultimately destined for export out of the UK.
Our British VAT free warehouse allows international shoppers to avoid this problem.
Guernsey is an English-speaking island located in the English Channel between France and Great Britain. It is not part of the United Kingdom or a member of the European Union, instead it is a self-governing Crown Dependency.
In practice, Guernsey uses UK postcodes and many UK retailer’s deliver to the island on the same terms as mainland UK. Significantly, Guernsey has no VAT or GST. This means if a UK retailer ships to Guernsey they should not be charging VAT. Amazon ship to Guernsey and will drop the VAT from the cost of your goods when you enter a Guernsey delivery address. Many large retailers are aware of this but some are not, especially smaller retailers.
If a retailer is trying to charge VAT for a Guernsey delivery, just send them a polite note explaining the goods are being delivered to Guernsey and VAT does not apply.
How Much Tax Could You Save with Parcel Forwarding?
Guernsey has good connections to the UK: daily ferries and flights coming in and out. At the same time it is not part of the UK mainland and it is more expensive for retailers to deliver goods to Guernsey. Chances are a £1,200 digital camera (now £1,000) is going to be delivered for same price as to the UK mainland. But at the other end of the scale a retailer will probably not be able to ship a bed to Guernsey for the same cost as the UK mainland.
IN GENERAL, IF GOODS WEIGH LESS THAN 60KG VOLUMETRIC AND ARE WORTH MORE THAN £100 THEN IT WILL MAKE SENSE TO USE THE TAX FREE WAREHOUSE IN GUERNSEY IF THE RETAILER DELIVERS THERE
* This is the tax you will save on the cost of the goods. Compared to using DHL from our Preston UK warehouse, we anticipate an overall saving to you where full rate VAT goods are shipped by UK retailers to Guernsey at no additional cost, weigh less than 60kg volumetric and cost more than £100.00 inc VAT.
0%
VAT
ONLY with Forward2me
SAVE
£166*
by shipping via Guernsey
Check If VAT Is Applicable on Some Common Items
| ITEM | TYPICAL COST | VAT SAVED | CAN I SAVE? | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Smartphone | £ 1,000 | £ 166 |  |
 |
Sporting Goods | £ 240 | £ 40 | |
 |
Food inc Baby Milk | £ 100 | £ 0 |  |
 |
Clothes | £ 1,800 | £ 300 | |
 |
Shoes | £ 360 | £ 60 | |
 |
Furniture | £ 6000 | £ 1000 | |
 |
Baby Clothes | £ 100 | £ 0 | |
 |
Books | £ 100 | £ 0 | |
To learn more about the effect VAT has on the cost of goods see our effect of VAT example. For more information about which goods you won't save VAT on (such as books, children's shoes and clothes, groceries) see Amazon's help page on items eligible for 0% VAT in the UK.
Please note that, at present, in addition to the usual prohibited items that cannot be shipped from our Preston, UK warehouse we also cannot ship either Dangerous Goods or alcohol from Guernsey. Lastly, please be aware that we offer DHL, Ups, and FedEx for international shipping from Guernsey.
Shop at the UK’s Biggest Retailers Tax-Free
You can shop tax-free at Amazon.co.uk, Net-A-Porter, Harrods, End., Hamleys, Evans Cycles, John Lewis, and many other huge UK brands. Find the very best clothing, books, technology, baby formula and homewares, order to your tax free shipping address and forward them to you, wherever you are.
If a retailer is trying to charge VAT for a Guernsey delivery, just send them a polite note explaining the goods are being delivered to Guernsey and VAT does not apply. Here is a template of an email you might send.
Always check that the retailer you are shopping with can deliver to Guernsey, and whether shipping to Guernsey will greatly increase their shipping costs. Some larger items, like furniture, may not offer a great saving, even without the VAT.
Shops That Deliver to Guernsey and Deduct VAT During Checkout
Shops That Deliver to Guernsey and Refund VAT After Delivery
*Some retailers will refund VAT immediately following purchase,
others will require the package to be delivered before they will refund
Frequently Asked Questions
This will depend on what you are shipping and where you are shipping it to. Some example prices of shipping from our tax free warehouse are:
Remember, shopping tax-free can greatly offset the price of international shipping from our UK tax-free warehouse.
To get an estimate of how much your package will cost to send, head to our pricing tool, where you can enter your item and dimensions, as well as your destination country to get an estimate for your item.
Forward2me offers two package forwarding services allowing you to ship multiple items from our tax-free warehouse. These are our combine & repack service, and our package consolidation service. This offers you a great opportunity to save VAT on multiple individual orders and also make big savings on your shipping costs.
Combine & Repack
The combine & repack service for forwarded packages is just £3+VAT per package and, as long as your packages all arrive at the Guernsey warehouse within the 30 day period, it won’t cost you any more on top of that.
We remove the original packaging from the items you’ve ordered and combine them all into one package, specially designed to stop you from having to pay individual shipping fees for each item.
Package consolidation
We will consolidate your package into one airway bill but won’t remove the original packaging.
This means that your packages may remain completely separate from each other, but still be in the same shipment, or they may be combined into one box but remain in their original packaging.
For more information visit our package consolidation or combine & repack services page.
Tax free shopping isn’t right for every order. It works best when you are ordering expensive items and in some cases the cost of shipping to Guernsey may make it more expensive. You can shop in the UK as normal with our UK forwarding service. Just sign up to forward2me and you’ll get your own UK shipping address instantly.
Value Added Tax (VAT) is a sales tax designed to be paid by residents of a country or trade area. When a resident buys goods the government takes a slice of the sale price. Exports to outside the UK are free of VAT. The retailer must prove that goods have been exported in order to ‘zero rate’ the VAT. Otherwise the UK tax authorities hold the retailer liable for UK VAT - currently 20%.
In the case of a customer using a parcel forwarding service with a UK located warehouse, the VAT has to be collected by the retailer even if the goods are ultimately destined for export out of the UK.
Since the UK left the European Union (EU) you can now buy items in the UK and not pay VAT if you are shipping them to areas within the EU.
Please check our Prohibited web page list.
* We can ship Alcohol and Dangerous goods to this warehouse with DHL
The Guernsey tax-free warehouse offers different shipping options from DHL and FedEx.
Unfortunately, UK tax-free services are not available for shipments going to mainland UK. Customers looking to ship items back to mainland UK should consider the VAT implications, as the destination country may apply taxes and duties.
Are You Ready to Save VAT on Your Delivery
Start shopping with confidence and count on us for a smooth and delightful customer service for anything needed through the process using our TOP-RATED parcel forwarding service from Guernsey.
We are ready to help you save!