Import Duty / VAT

PistolPete · 16 May 2012 at 15:24

I ordered a T-Shirt for a friend from the States.
It cost $23.48 so about £15.

UPS tried to deliver it today and they say Customs has opened it (which I was expecting) and they've said VAT needs to be paid.... £27!!

Can anyone explain this to me?? Since when did VAT become 180%?

Ahleckz · 16 May 2012 at 15:29

UPS have paid the charge, and are now charging you extra for it. From their website:

"Duty and Tax Forwarding Charge

12.00"

estebanrey · 16 May 2012 at 15:39

You should have got your friend to mark the box as a gift, you can receive gifts from abroad up to the value of £50 VAT free.

PistolPete · 16 May 2012 at 15:48

Thanks guys.

@Ahleckz - I didn't think about any additional charges, the guy at the door simply said customs have added £17 for VAT

@estenbanrey - I ordered it for a friend, not from a friend in the US so I couldn't have done this.

Anyways, the guy I ordered it for said that for items under £15 there is no import or VAT charges for. I called UPS, the guy that scanned it in added the value of the goods and the shipping together and it was over the £15 threshold. When they recalculated it, it was under £15 so they will re-deliver it with no charge.

I wonder how often this get "miscalculated"

Building Candy · 16 May 2012 at 16:32

estebanrey said:
You should have got your friend to mark the box as a gift, you can receive gifts from abroad up to the value of £50 VAT free.

LOL since when?

muon · 16 May 2012 at 16:33

As mentioned someone else is charging an administration/handling fee on top of VAT. Not HMRC.

£15*.2 = £3

£9 handling charge is about par. I think Parcelforce charge about that much, and they are one of the cheapest and used by USPS.

Others like Fedex, UPS, Deutsche Post(DHL) etc. , charge more.

The Halk · 16 May 2012 at 16:34

Building Candy said:
LOL since when?

There's stuff on it here although I'm not sure his explanation is precisely correct, it's certainly broadly right.

rpg · 16 May 2012 at 17:32

How much was shipping? You have to remember that you pay VAT on the product + the cost of shipping.

You shouldn't have to pay duty as the value of customs duty due would be under £9, so it's waived (12% of end cost). Even if you paid $25 for shipping, you should only be paying about £6-£7 VAT, so their administration fee must be extortionate.

Phone and ask for a breakdown.

memyselfandi · 16 May 2012 at 17:41

estebanrey said:
You should have got your friend to mark the box as a gift, you can receive gifts from abroad up to the value of £50 VAT free.

Actually the gift limit for VAT is lower than that.

PistolPete said:
I wonder how often this get "miscalculated"

Don't get me started about Fedex and their dodgy calculations ... I don't think I had a single package delivered by them (out of 30-40) where the calculations were correct. A common one was taking the total of item + shipping and then adding a completely random amount (up to £60) to this prior to performing the calculations for what was owed. Fortunately they included the details on their calculations each time which were easy to challenge.

arknor · 16 May 2012 at 17:43

anyon said:
As mentioned someone else is charging an administration/handling fee on top of VAT. Not HMRC.

£15*.2 = £3

£9 handling charge is about par. I think Parcelforce charge about that much, and they are one of the cheapest and used by USPS.

Others like Fedex, UPS, Deutsche Post(DHL) etc. , charge more.

parcel farce charged me £15

Pudney · 16 May 2012 at 17:49

memyselfandi said:
Don't get me started about Fedex and their dodgy calculations ... I don't think I had a single package delivered by them (out of 30-40) where the calculations were correct. A common one was taking the total of item + shipping and then adding a completely random amount (up to £60) to this prior to performing the calculations for what was owed. Fortunately they included the details on their calculations each time which were easy to challenge.

That's normally when you have paid shipping and its included on the invoice but the person entering the customs entry doesn't bother to look and adds the default shipping cost to the value (for items that don't include Cost + Shipping on the paperwork).

estebanrey · 16 May 2012 at 17:56

Ok so it's £40, the point was what he had was well within the limits.

Schizo · 16 May 2012 at 18:00

ive got a pc case been delivered friday from america,im estimating the import tax will be £50 to £60 on a 18 kilo item.

hope it's not any more as the postage was $150

memyselfandi · 16 May 2012 at 18:09

Pudney said:
That's normally when you have paid shipping and its included on the invoice but the person entering the customs entry doesn't bother to look and adds the default shipping cost to the value (for items that don't include Cost + Shipping on the paperwork).

Yep, unfortunately for them the Vendor invoice did clearly show item cost and shipping cost separately as well as the total, (in the £60 example it was a package from one of the international sites for the rainforest company). They took the total and completely ignored the fact it clearly included the shipping cost.

Pudney · 16 May 2012 at 18:11

memyselfandi said:
Yep, unfortunately for them the Vendor invoice did clearly show item cost and shipping cost separately as well as the total, (in the £60 example it was a package from one of the international sites for the rainforest company). They took the total and completely ignored the fact it clearly included the shipping cost.

Having done this many times in the past I can easily believe it.

Resident · 16 May 2012 at 22:27

I had an item "delivered" from Cali today, I say "delivered" because I had to go collect it & pay an extra £15 for the priviledge. £6.98 VAT and £8.00 "handling".

VAT on the item value ($40) is only £5.02 so I've been over-charged on that too.

Now since I paid USPS for the delivery and they sub-contracted ParcelFarce, why do I have to pay handling (again)?

The letter they sent me also stated that the VAT due had been paid on my behalf to HMRC and I owed it to PF.

Hang on, I didn't ask PF to pay the charge, my contact details are on the item manifest stuck to the outside of the item including a 24hr phone number, of which HMRC could have used to obtain payment direct.

In my mind, PF have given me a credit loan of the amount, expecting re-imbursement & interest (handling fee). I didn't ask/want any temporary credit agreement and agreed to no repayment plan so how is it legal ?

I know times are hard for ParcelFarce but do they really need to sink to loan-sharking?

Lopéz · 16 May 2012 at 22:35

The sender agreed to the terms and conditions of the courier when they shipped the item - part of those terms and conditions will almost undoubtedly have been that the receiver, unless otherwise specified, is responsible for all taxes, duties and associated administration costs.

The alternative is to deal directly with HMRC but you must explicitly state this and it needs full cooperation from the sender and the courier.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1082224979&type=RESOURCES

Worth noting this part in particular

However, as a manual procedure there could be a considerable delay in the receipt of your goods.

cm1179 · 16 May 2012 at 22:44

i often get my ex to send me stuff from the US and she always declares it as a gift, i haven't been charged yet and she always uses fedex.

i ordered a jacket from china a few months ago and got charged £17. waited until the final demand to pay. the sender had valued the item at $20! meh

cast away is about to start on BBC 1 btw

estebanrey · 16 May 2012 at 23:04

What annoys me is when I worked in a store, foreign customers could bring in their receipts had we had to fill out a form that allowed the to get the VAT back.

It was so abused though as the customers who claimed it were all the same. It was mainly Asian people buying tons of jewelery (I mean the kind of amounts that would embarrass Mr T) and you knew that these were just the relations of people who lived here buying stuff to sell on at a profit.

...waits to be accused of 'racism'.

[TW]Fox · 16 May 2012 at 23:14

estebanrey said:
What annoys me is when I worked in a store, foreign customers could bring in their receipts had we had to fill out a form that allowed the to get the VAT back.

It was so abused though as the customers who claimed it were all the same. It was mainly Asian people buying tons of jewelery (I mean the kind of amounts that would embarrass Mr T) and you knew that these were just the relations of people who lived here buying stuff to sell on at a profit.

...waits to be accused of 'racism'.

Well no, thats not how it works. The form you sign alone isn't enough to get the refund - they only get it when the goods are shown, along with the receipt and the completed refund form, to customs official at the point of departure from the UK.

If the goods are not physically taken out of the UK and verified by a customs official, no refund is received.