We have had trouble in the past when accepting things for repair - my husband is a retired electronics design engineer and is probably the only person in the world able to do the work, so we get work from a large firm in Canada.
We have been asked to pay VAT on the 'imports' and the handling charge as well - even though the paperwork states that it is a repair, and we contact them and say it has been repaired and sent back to the owner.
I think that we have finally got it sorted out - though once we leave the EU we might have to go thorough the process again - unless of course that has not been sorted out and we have to pay VAT automatically on everything.