Duncan Harris

We are a sports club (unincorporated association) who wish to import some custom printed club branded sports clothing for personal use by our members. Each member is paying for their own item but we order in bulk because there are minimum order quantities to avoid extra design costs and also to reduce shipping costs. The clothing is manufactured in Bulgaria and sold by the manufacturer to us. The cost of the order will be in excess of a thousand euros. I understand the supplier / manufacturer will not charge VAT. I understand therefore we would pay VAT at point of import at 20%. Do we have to pay import duty as well as VAT for sports clothing imports from the EU? Two other clubs that made similar imports said duty was charged by the courier (DHL). The UK government online tool suggested duty rate (tariff) was zero for EU. Someone else told me that obtaining an EORI number would enable import duty to not be paid. Can anyone give a clear explanation of the situation?