Anyone got a parcel stuck at a border recently?

413x said:
I'm going to be trying to split orders to get under the 135 limit for sure. The biggest issue is no knowing.
You just don't know what you are going to be paying.
Is it the ticket price of 200? Is vat going to be added? Is customs going to be added? Is a handling fee going to be added?

Is this item 200 or 300?
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You still have to pay VAT, it's just either point of purchase or point of entry. The tariff is the only hard part, but you can still find out if there will be one. There are online calculators to help with this.

If you didn't pay VAT at point of purchase you should expect to pay it at point of entry + the admin fee of the delivery company.
 
Sasahara said:
I've seen the same BBC article and they were charged VAT which the buyers weren't expecting. The origin of goods tariff was only applicable on one of the examples and even on that the bulk of the charge was VAT.
They were getting caught out by VAT or VAT was being added before they purchased the item and they didn't like the additional cost.

You didn't mention VAT at all, that was the point I was making. :)
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I didn’t mention VAT because that is the easy bit to work out, it’s always due but you shouldn’t be charged it twice which is what’s happened to a few people (both in the original country and then on import to the U.K.). Additional tariffs is much harder and can push up the cost, sometimes significantly if the origins of the item isn’t clear.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I didn’t mention VAT because that is the easy bit to work out, it’s always due but you shouldn’t be charged it twice which is what’s happened to a few people (both in the original country and then on import to the U.K.). Additional tariffs is much harder and can push up the cost, sometimes significantly if the origins of the item isn’t clear.
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It might be easy to you and me, but not to the average Joe Bloggs and the people in the story. And they get a shock when 20% plus fees gets charged.
Unfortunately most people seem to be completely clueless about even basic financial matters.
 
Yes. The vat is clear.

What's not always clear is if you've paid vat, or if it's been properly collected hmrc.
Contesting any points.

But the whole 'origin' thing is crazy. Near impossible to get clarity on that at the moment
 
Sasahara said:
It might be easy to you and me, but not to the average Joe Bloggs and the people in the story. And they get a shock when 20% plus fees gets charged.
Unfortunately most people seem to be completely clueless about even basic financial matters.
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It's about time they taught finance in school rather than any number of subjects.

What is there that's more important than money management?
 
The tracking on my parcel now says the import C.O.D. charges have been paid, and now it’s changed back to “The package is delayed due to a BREXIT related disruption.”
 
Kids have parents too ;)

That said if many parents are teaching it would be ‘offer to pay cash for everything, some people might give you a discount’ which really isn’t the idea. We are obsessed with avoiding any and all taxes here while complaining the services that tax is meant to pay for are poor and underfunded. People want all the benefits and none of the costs.

It’s why the £350 million message was so powerful even though it’s pocket change to the overall U.K. budget.

I just checked mine and still nothing on the RM tracking other than it left HK a month ago and was originally sent on the 17th December.
 
A seller on aliexpress tried to charge me extra saying he had to charge the new tax now.

I emailed him a link to the gov website, and he back off.
I won't be buying from him again.
 
deuse said:
No. He tried to add it on when I put in the order.
It was only £60.
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Anything I’ve bought using Ali Express this year has an extra tax bit when you check out. It automatically adds the VAT on to the prices listed at checkout now.
Banggood doesn’t seem to do this yet though, and still charges the price you see, unless they have added it into the list price.
 
413x said:
Yes. The vat is clear.

What's not always clear is if you've paid vat, or if it's been properly collected hmrc.
Contesting any points.

But the whole 'origin' thing is crazy. Near impossible to get clarity on that at the moment
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It should just be no customs, no fees, for anything from a EU retailer, the only people happy with the new system is probably the gov (extra taxes) and UK retailers.

AMD hidden stock on a drop a week or so ago to all uk ip ranges, speculated reasons were to avoid EU brexit fee's, and I see loads of retailers at the moment either significantly raised prices for UK customers or refusing to ship here when they used to. Free market has gone back 4 decades.
 
I pre-ordered a jacket back in October of last year and was charged VAT. It's itemised on the invoice. However, it looks like there is a chance I will get charged VAT again, when it enters the UK, as that's what's been happening, as reported in the media. I don't understand how that could be the customer's fault because they may not understand basic financial matters?

The fact is, the retailers don't understand it, what chance does an 'Average Joe' customer? This is the response I got when I emailed to cancel my order due to unknown future charges:

"There shouldn't be any additional fees for you to pay - however we have indeed heard recently that some carriers that do express deliveries, such as UPS for example, have asked customers to pay some fees.

The good news is we don't use those carriers, and we have delivered orders to other UK customers these past few weeks and they haven't had to pay any fees."

"Unfortunately that might happen because it seems like the sales conditions between the UK and EU haven't been 100% confirmed yet"

"We're currently working with our carrier and the British customs to try and find clear information on this topic"
 
chrcoluk said:
It should just be no customs, no fees, for anything from a EU retailer, the only people happy with the new system is probably the gov (extra taxes) and UK retailers.

AMD hidden stock on a drop a week or so ago to all uk ip ranges, speculated reasons were to avoid EU brexit fee's, and I see loads of retailers at the moment either significantly raised prices for UK customers or refusing to ship here when they used to. Free market has gone back 4 decades.
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That’s not really ever how it’s worked, it’s always been about where the goods originated, just before we were within the customs union, so once it was inside the single market it could move freely, someone paid any import tariff due to get it into the single market at some point and built it into the cost.

We’re no longer in the customs union or the single market so there is extra friction. It’s all the things which were labeled project fear and were absent from the vote leave brochure. Others now call it project reality.

I imagine the whole AMD thing was because they can’t be bothered with the hassle of selling directly to consumers in the U.K. right now. There isn’t any brexit fees as such that didn’t already exist before but there is additional red tape which costs time and money to get though (brexit was meant to get rid of red tape too - oops)

I’m not looking to make this a brexit thread as these new import arrangements were happening anyway, they also just apply to countries they never previously did which is to do with the B word.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
I’m not looking to make this a brexit thread as these new import arrangements were happening anyway, they also just apply to countries they never previously did which is to do with the B word.
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I think it's partly the B-word, but at the time I posted my OP, there was a also a hold up due to the new covid strain. Around Christmas time, the UK-France border closed, which meant that lorry drivers were confined to their cabs for several days including Christmas Day itself. Then here we are, thinking that our own lockdown was difficult enough!!

The later and more drawn-out these deliveries on this thread have become though, especially now that we're in late January, the more relevant the B-word has become.

For future reference, is there a threshold where items don't incur customs? I think from China, Hong Kong and the USA, you can order up to £30 in goods before you get stung for customs. What makes it unfair though is that the £30 limit also includes the shipping. So if shipping is £10, you can only send up to £20 in goods. Just thinking back to my OP with the German friend that I exchange gifts with a few times a year.
 
you should be paying U.K. VAT on anything you order now regardless on anything you order which will be at the point of sale for below £135. Customs duty (if it applies) kicks in at £135.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
you should be paying U.K. VAT on anything you order now regardless on anything you order which will be at the point of sale for below £135. Customs duty (if it applies) kicks in at £135.
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What about gifts though? A lot of what she sends me is hand-crafted. E.g. a hand-knitted scarf, cushion, drawings (on paper), custom cards/postcards, little character plushies etc. Why would the tax man be interested in the materials that were used to make these? The monetary value is in the time that she put to make or draw these items, and they're gifts from her that I get every year since 2006. No transactions made. Sure the stuff I send to her will be more tricky as I tend to buy items that she likes rather than making them myself and the tax man will probably be interested if their combined value is over a certain amount. So my question remains - what is the threshold before tax is levied? Is it £30 like with Hong Kong, USA etc?
 
Pawnless Endgame said:
What about gifts though? A lot of what she sends me is hand-crafted. E.g. a hand-knitted scarf, cushion, drawings (on paper), custom cards/postcards, little character plushies etc. Why would the tax man be interested in the materials that were used to make these? The monetary value is in the time that she put to make or draw these items, and they're gifts from her that I get every year since 2006. No transactions made. Sure the stuff I send to her will be more tricky as I tend to buy items that she likes rather than making them myself and the tax man will probably be interested if their combined value is over a certain amount. So my question remains - what is the threshold before tax is levied? Is it £30 like with Hong Kong, USA etc?
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Notice 143: a guide for international post users

If you’re sent a gift with a value of £39 or less, which complies with the rules shown in section 2.4, it will be free from Customs Duty and Import VAT (gifts of alcohol and tobacco are subject to the limits shown in section 2.5 and gifts of perfumes and toilet waters are subject to the limits in section 2.6)
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2.4 Gifts
Goods sent as a gift that are over £39 in value are liable to Import VAT. Customs Duty also becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135.

To qualify as a gift:
  • the customs declaration must be completed correctly
  • the gift must be sent from a private person outside the UK to a private person(s) in the UK
  • there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly by anyone in the UK
  • the gift is of an occasional nature only, for example, for a birthday or anniversary
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Just ordered a couple of tops from the Netherlands and the price paid was minus their VAT. Total cost is just under £60, am I right in thinking it's VAT at point of purchase (0% as NL to foreign seller as far as I can see) and no import cost? Due to be shipped on a 1 day DHL today..
 
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