As far as HMRC are concerned, yes.
Import costs from UNITED STATES
- Thread starter Bald-Eagle22
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Sure, though it's something that would be extremely hard to prove, maybe even impossible in some situations because of how parcels are checked and handled.
I've bought various things that have been declared as gifts without my asking for it, it seems to happen quite often actually.
It would be more trouble than it's worth for them to go for people, especially because it's hard to prove just who was responsible and that's assuming they can prove that you've bought something that's declared as a gift.
Most of the time, customs themselves don't actually get a look in the parcels anyway, couriers and the postal services are HMRC/Border Agency approved agents anyway so that they can deal directly with the clearing of parcels, this is how couriers can pre-clear your stuff for you whilst it's still on a plane.
hard to prove what? you're assumed guilty
Anyway I've had stuff from hobbyking and you can choose what value they declare it as
had a 130$ package declared at 70$ value and it was inspected by customs with a customs sticker on the side.
They never said anything, I guess they are more bothered about stopping drugs than someone falsely declaring a parcel to an individual.
I'd imagine if you had a container of XXX and declared it as XXX to save on import duty they would nail your balls to the wall though
It's not actually hard, quite simple. Back in the day when I did import entries any packages from a company that said gift had the "gift" part ignored and full duty and vat charges. Depends how lazy the person doing the import is.
hard to prove what? you're assumed guilty
Anyway I've had stuff from hobbyking and you can choose what value they declare it as
had a 130$ package declared at 70$ value and it was inspected by customs with a customs sticker on the side.
They never said anything, I guess they are more bothered about stopping drugs than someone falsely declaring a parcel to an individual.
I'd imagine if you had a container of XXX and declared it as XXX to save on import duty they would nail your balls to the wall though
That it's hard to prove that something marked as a gift isn't a gift. Some things, obscure items, are even harder for them to value if they aren't aware of what it is or its worth.
I've had all sorts go through customs, stuff valued properly and no customs charges were levied, to stuff that were clearly worth significantly more than the box listed them at, and not be stopped.
hard to prove what? you're assumed guilty
Anyway I've had stuff from hobbyking and you can choose what value they declare it as
Aah, hypocrites.
It depends on where it's from or who rather. I've had a lot of parcels that were from companies but sent by an individual, or stuff I've bought in a private sale.
Well I can't negotiate special rates with the government for my taxes nor can I get an 8million pound bung from the government so I will build a warehouse here like amazon did. at least 3 times...
Why should I pay a greater percentage tax rate than companies with billions of pounds of revenue that are ruining the high streets.
let's say you have 100 shops all paying the market tax rate.
amazon comes along these 100 shops go out of business and amazon has their combined revenue.
why should amazon now pay less taxes than the 100 shops would have combined?
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Cmon, those are facts of life... richer you get, cheaper everything gets for you.... If you are a star you can come into some designer store like Chanel, they will let you have their stuff for free... In the USA anyway.
There's no reason those shops should go out of business unless they were offering exactly the same service as Amazon but charging more for it.
If you want to be angry at someone, be angry at the government. They like to throw around the tax dodging accusations but aren't prepared to do anything about the loopholes.
well those shops have high street business rates.
pay the correct tax amounts.
how could they compete with a company getting special rates? and receiving bungs so they will build warehouses
Yeah, hate the tax dodging scum! Oh wait...
Edit: Just to clarify, I think you're the last person who's in the position to claim moral outrage at a company doing legal means to avoid tax.
Edit2: Oh yeah, and even more hilarious, your tax evasion is doing those small shops out of business!
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I sort of covered that in the bit you quoted. High street shops are never going to be able to compete on price with the online retailer, attempting it is the start of a race to the bottom.
Where they can compete is service - our local butcher and wine/spirit merchant are constantly busy and do a good trade because they offer something that the larger faceless supermarkets can't. People are happy to pay the higher prices for the better quality service.
Likewise you see places like John Lewis who manage to still shift a lot of TVs despite not always being the cheapest around (they won't price-match online only stores), because people can go there and get advice and generally good service.
The places that are really being hit by online shopping are the stores that offered terrible service, made doing business with them hassle and wanted more cash than online - Comet for example.
And for the last time, Amazon are paying the correct amount of tax. The only argument that MPs can make is a moral one since the law is on Amazon's side, and MPs trying to lecture people on morals is laughable.
should be the item price + shipping + 30% in most cases.