Even if it's a gift you still have to pay extortionate tax if it's over £40.
Parcelfarce and customs charge :(
- Thread starter ElectroBlaster
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Even if it's a gift you still have to pay extortionate tax if it's over £40.
Soldato
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I think someone a while ago mentioned that clothing is supposed to be exempt from import duty. Is that true?
I got stung on a t-shirt from the US a little while back.
I got stung on a t-shirt from the US a little while back.
You have to pay VAT on t-shirts. Why essentials like clothes are subject to tax I do not know.
That just applies to children's clothing.
Soldato
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I don't recall having to write worth of item, was a while ago tbh. Id write priceless..
.... Problem?
Soldato
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What a pain. It's confusing, though... they only targeted it because it was above the £17 threshold, and lumped on Royal Mail handling fees etc. alongside the duty. Surely that's not right if it's only VAT needing paid?
EDIT: Just saw lcg's post. All cleared up.
Still, in my case I got back to the retailer and mentioned that I'd asked it be marked as a gift, and they didn't do so. They were very apologetic, and sent me a couple more shirts for free, marked as a gift, and no duty applied.
What a pain. It's confusing, though... they only targeted it because it was above the £17 threshold, and lumped on Royal Mail handling fees etc. alongside the duty. Surely that's not right if it's only VAT needing paid?
EDIT: Just saw lcg's post. All cleared up.
Still, in my case I got back to the retailer and mentioned that I'd asked it be marked as a gift, and they didn't do so. They were very apologetic, and sent me a couple more shirts for free, marked as a gift, and no duty applied.
Import duty and VAT are two different things, clothes have no import duty up to £135 where it is 5%, but are subject to the normal 20% VAT. Handling fees are what the mail service charges, it's not a customs charge as such.
What a pain. It's confusing, though... they only targeted it because it was above the £17 threshold, and lumped on Royal Mail handling fees etc. alongside the duty. Surely that's not right if it's only VAT needing paid?
EDIT: Just saw lcg's post. All cleared up.
Still, in my case I got back to the retailer and mentioned that I'd asked it be marked as a gift, and they didn't do so. They were very apologetic, and sent me a couple more shirts for free, marked as a gift, and no duty applied.
But you do understand that marking something as "gift" has no more chance of getting through customs without being taxed than anything else right?
This and also illegal and could lead to a much higher fine.
At the end of the day you are trying to defraud Her Majesty's Customs and Excise who have more power than the police.
Why do people think it's okay to defraud duty and VAT in this country?
After reading Energize's post I've realised what I've said is wrong. Children's clothing is exempt from VAT, rather than import duty.
For more information read through this thread: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18205122
Because the charges are unjust and their tax is squandered.
Soldato
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See Energize's post above.
For low cost items, like a t-shirt or two, it is patently ridiculous to have completely unexplained and unfounded charges ratcheted on that almost double the cost.
Of course, I'm not going to order drum kit any time soon and ask them to mark it as a "gift" - that would just be idiotic. For smaller things, you bet your ass I'm not paying any more.
So all VAT and duty is unjust? So how much PAYE tax and other taxes do you think we would all have to pay if VAT and duty was abolished?
Like it or lump it, most governments and economists beleive a system of direct and indirect (luxury) tax is the best kind of system. If you don;t like it, vote for a party who would abolish it.
I agree paying import VAT is a PITA on smallish items but hence the £18 limit. Yes, paying £3.60 VAT is fair as we all have to, but I do agree that the £8 collection charge by couriers is a bit steep expecially if you just bought one £18 item. That is why I sometimes bought several things at once. On the one hand you were more likely to be charged the import VAT but at least the £8 charge was spread across all the items bought.
And so what if you can't buy an item over here. If you could it would be 20% more expensive because of the VAT.
And a lot of people do buy high value items and ask for them to be marked as a gift or RMA. In fact a lot of foreign sellers on Ebay encourage you to buy from them by saying they will do this. I have seen £600 items bought and people leaving bad feedback because they got "caught" and had to pay over £100 more and said they might as well have bought it in the uk.
Sorry about my rant.
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Soldato
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£8 TBH is very fair. Someone on your behalf has paid a fee and picked up a load of admin.
Complaining about paying lawful duties is just pathetic. These are our laws and our fees, if you don't like them go live elsewhere. It makes no diff to the courier/parcelfarce if the item is a £10 Tshirt or a £10,000 designed 1 off Tshirt they still have to deal with your issue that you have created.
Most of the time people order from abroad to "get it cheap" and occasionally you see someone who genuinely cannot find something in the UK getting it from abroad but the vast majority of times people import its to try to get a deal. So you take your risk trying to save the money.
Imagine if this didn't happen, everyone in the Uk would buy most stuff in say the US, everyone in the US would buy it elsewhere, say Europe. Retailers would stop selling within national boundaries and become export only, bonkers. Tax revenues would fall, so you WOULD without fail see more direct taxation. The only winners would be the couriers etc who would see massive amounts of international trade.
Complaining about paying lawful duties is just pathetic. These are our laws and our fees, if you don't like them go live elsewhere. It makes no diff to the courier/parcelfarce if the item is a £10 Tshirt or a £10,000 designed 1 off Tshirt they still have to deal with your issue that you have created.
Most of the time people order from abroad to "get it cheap" and occasionally you see someone who genuinely cannot find something in the UK getting it from abroad but the vast majority of times people import its to try to get a deal. So you take your risk trying to save the money.
Imagine if this didn't happen, everyone in the Uk would buy most stuff in say the US, everyone in the US would buy it elsewhere, say Europe. Retailers would stop selling within national boundaries and become export only, bonkers. Tax revenues would fall, so you WOULD without fail see more direct taxation. The only winners would be the couriers etc who would see massive amounts of international trade.
Soldato
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Not at all, mate. Your points are valid, and I agree with you to an extent.
Of course taxation must exist. In fact, in most cases where I've suffered charges on importing the worst cost has been "handling" fees that are inexcusably inflated. It's not being taxed that I resent (though I do still feel that the level of tax per individual in the UK is too high compared to what we get back - but that's another discussion), it's being charged to the extent that those little things you bought (which -- I feel I should add for the benefit of robskinner -- were imported because they are not available in this country - Ltd Ed. T-shirts) are almost doubled in cost. That's just not fair.
When I imported a guitar worth hundreds of pounds, I had no qualms paying the large amount of tax on it - but when a package barely the size of your wobbly belly arrives with that eye-popping invoice, it's just another kick in the nuts in a country that does so to you financially on a daily basis.
The same if the money was spent properly. Why on earth should I pay extortionate VAT charges to a government that spends that same money on pursuing me for victimless crimes? That would be crazy, I'd effectively be paying money to be persecuted! I will not fund such unethical, authoritarian behaviour.
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But that's a different argument. That's whether we get value for money from our taxes which I agree we don't.
You asked why people think it's ok to evade tax, that's my reason, the money would be used for unacceptable behaviour against myself and others.