Customs charges..

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apache67

Trekker
Wow, I bought an ee revelation in the black Friday sale 20% off so worked out about 220 quid.
Just got my customs note saying I had to pay 80 pounds, I dont know how this is worked out as vat is only 20%. I dont mind paying a bit of tax (well I'd rather avoid it but you know what I mean lol) but surely this just pushes people to cheat by using forwarding services and friends abroad to send them 'birthday presents'?

Just a word of warning I guess for people importing that taxes are ridiculous.


Still...look forward to my new quilt
 
cathyjc

cathyjc

Thru Hiker
apache67 said:
Wow, I bought an ee revelation in the black Friday sale 20% off so worked out about 220 quid.
Just got my customs note saying I had to pay 80 pounds, I dont know how this is worked out as vat is only 20%. I dont mind paying a bit of tax (well I'd rather avoid it but you know what I mean lol) but surely this just pushes people to cheat by using forwarding services and friends abroad to send them 'birthday presents'?

Just a word of warning I guess for people importing that taxes are ridiculous.


Still...look forward to my new quilt
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They include postage when they calculate the VAT :mad: plus there is the "handling fee" if it's via Royalmail/Parcel force.
There should be a break down of the Charges pasted to the outside of your parcel.

And yes !! it feels like "a racket" when the postage is included and the "handling" is all computerised.

PS. One US ebay seller added the cost of the postage to 'the value' on the customs form and I paid VAT on the postage twice. I was furious but could do nothing about it ....
 
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apache67

Trekker
SteG said:
Blimey that seems a lot, enough to make you weep.
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If it wasnt for the 20% off I'd have never bought it due to import fees, I assumed they would pretty much cover fees...turns out I was wrong. Still, could be worse, i could have put off buying it and paid full price with bigger fees.

Never mind, I've got an alpkit bag going up for sale that should cover the costs
 
tom

tom

Thru Hiker
I've had some success requesting for postage charges to be invoiced separately before I hit the "buy" button to avoid the vat on postage scam. Doesn't hurt to ask anyway...
 
Odd Man

Odd Man

Thru Hiker
apache67 said:
If it wasnt for the 20% off I'd have never bought it due to import fees, I assumed they would pretty much cover fees...turns out I was wrong. Still, could be worse, i could have put off buying it and paid full price with bigger fees.

Never mind, I've got an alpkit bag going up for sale that should cover the costs
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You could always use a reshipper, there you can do the declaration yourself.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
apache67 said:
Wow, I bought an ee revelation in the black Friday sale 20% off so worked out about 220 quid.
Just got my customs note saying I had to pay 80 pounds, I dont know how this is worked out as vat is only 20%. I dont mind paying a bit of tax (well I'd rather avoid it but you know what I mean lol) but surely this just pushes people to cheat by using forwarding services and friends abroad to send them 'birthday presents'?

Just a word of warning I guess for people importing that taxes are ridiculous.


Still...look forward to my new quilt
Click to expand...
There's a form where you can tell HMRC that they calculated it incorrectly and claim a refund. They charge VAT on the value shown on the declaration +carriage.

I recently received something from the US with a value on the declaration shown in $dollars but they used that as the £ value. Say it was $100, they charged me £20 + £8. But in fact $100 is about £75 so it should have been £15 + £8.

I'd pay it because you won't get your EE goodies if you don't and then reclaim the over charge.

By the way I've found the customs people at HMRC to be extremely helpful when sorting out documentation for an imported motorcycle that was required to register it in the UK. The importer had cocked up but HMRC went the extra mile to sort it for me. 1978 Honda Goldwing, if you're interested :)
 
A

apache67

Trekker
PhilHo said:
There's a form where you can tell HMRC that they calculated it incorrectly and claim a refund. They charge VAT on the value shown on the declaration +carriage.

I recently received something from the US with a value on the declaration shown in $dollars but they used that as the £ value. Say it was $100, they charged me £20 + £8. But in fact $100 is about £75 so it should have been £15 + £8.

I'd pay it because you won't get your EE goodies if you don't and then reclaim the over charge.

By the way I've found the customs people at HMRC to be extremely helpful when sorting out documentation for an imported motorcycle that was required to register it in the UK. The importer had cocked up but HMRC went the extra mile to sort it for me. 1978 Honda Goldwing, if you're interested :)
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That's very good info, cheers.

I did pay for now because I knew there was no point arguing with fedex, I'll look out that form.
 
Bmblbzzz

Bmblbzzz

Thru Hiker
I think I'm slightly confused here. I knew that the charge is levied on the postage as well as the value of the thing itself, but people are talking about VAT. It's not just VAT is it, it's (item + customs duty @ unknown rate) + postage x VAT @20%. I mean, there's customs as well as VAT, the VAT being levied on top of the customs? For some items the duty might be zero, of course.
 
TinTin

TinTin

Thru Hiker
Bmblbzzz said:
I think I'm slightly confused here. I knew that the charge is levied on the postage as well as the value of the thing itself, but people are talking about VAT. It's not just VAT is it, it's (item + customs duty @ unknown rate) + postage x VAT @20%. I mean, there's customs as well as VAT, the VAT being levied on top of the customs? For some items the duty might be zero, of course.
Click to expand...
Don't think they charge tax on tax.
 
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