Package from U.S.

[Jean-F]

Not sure where to put this for advice, but here goes.
My kid wants an item of clothing that he’s seen on a U.S. website, he maintains that although it may be possible to buy the item from the same supplier in U.K., the one in the U.S is made in the U.S. and is of better quality than one sold here but manufactured in Bangladesh.
To purchase it from the U.S. site you must have a U.S. credit card and the item must be shipped to a U.S. address linked to that card.
No problem there, I have many friends in the U.S. that would do that, providing I transferred the funds to them before they submitted the order.
The fly in the ointment is customs fees, I presume that they are payable on or after arrival in U.K., or are they payable when the shipping company collects the item in U.S., or the item is taken to a U.S. Post Office?
Again, I would establish the shipping and customs fees and forward the money to whoever sends the item to U.K. before they send it.
This is a one off, valued at app $160, anyone suggest a painless way of doing it?
I’m not especially looking for cheapest, just the easiest and most efficient.

 

[Jean-F]

This.... Gift from a friend/relative

Good thinking Haze

Send your kid over there. Put the item on, fly back!

Did you miss the bit where I no longer drive a Black Cab?
I did it for him once, years ago his Venezuelan girlfriend’s mother was ill and the girlfriend went back to see her.
I bought him a round trip ticket from London to Caracas to join her.
Another time I got a friend in NYC to buy him a leather jacket and take it with her when she went to Madrid on vacation, I flew to Madrid for a weekend and brought it back to him, Jeez I love that kid, and he’s only number two son, mind you I’d do anything for his big brother too.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...tice-143-a-guide-for-international-post-users

Seems to say that if the item is under £135 no customs duty.

Sounds good, it’s $160, around £118.

Given its a friend that's sending it over rather than a company, it may go through customs without even flagging up for VAT especially if marked as a gift.

It would be as if you left it there by mistake while visiting said friend and they were simply posting it back to you.... You wouldn't pay VAT on something you already owned.

Now you’re talking Richie, the only thing is, my kid’s a more upstanding citizen than me, he’s like George Washington, he never tells a lie, he’d worry that HMRC would come knocking on the door.
He says, “I know that you got away with murder when you were driving a cab, but they’re probably a lot more sophisticated now, and with my luck they’d come after me.”

 

[Jean-F]

I can't even believe this is a thread.

Ship to friend.

Get them to ship to you and second hand t shirts are worth what, 15 quid?

Simple.

It’s a thread because it seemed to me that I’d have to visit HMRC, USPO, UK Post Office, and possibly FedEx sites to find out what I needed to know, or I could enlist the aid of the intelligent denizens of Overclockers GD, I chose the latter, plus he'd rather do this without lying about second hand T shirts etc.
Just as simple.

 

[Jean-F]

Lying? It won't be purchased by you or shipped to you.

Therefore it might be as new but really, it is second owner.

I appreciate that you’re trying to help and I thank you for that, but maybe one of us, probably me, is missing something in the translation.
It WILL be purchased by me, via proxy as I’ll send the money for the item to my friend in the U.S. to make the purchase, but you’re right, it will ostensibly be bought by my friend with her credit card.
It will initially be shipped internally, U.S. to U.S., but ultimately it will be shipped to me, (or my son), from U.S. to U.K.
I can see what you mean about second owner, as it could be construed that my friend in U.S. bought the item, but then decided to sell or give it to me.

 

[Jean-F]

It's not construed that's literally what will happen.

It's not a fake web here with fictitious actors. Someone else is buying and receiving the goods and then shipping it to you...

You are not the first owner. There is no contract between you amd the vendor and presumably the US person who buys the goods will pay tax on it.

And naturally I’ll reimburse her for whatever she paid, including tax, forgive me if this is only slowly permeating to my brain, I’m blaming it on having had too many birthdays!

 

[Jean-F]

I recently bought a Winkeyer from a US site that would only sell to US addresses. It was $139

It was sent to my friend in MD who opened it up, removed the invoice, sealed the package, put my address and a customs label on it with a valuation of $20 and posted it to me. Incidentally, this friend used to be a customs officer at both Dulles and Andrews.

It arrived less than a week later.

The seller was happy, they'd sold it to someone in the USA. My friend was happy to do me a favour and I was happy that I received my Winkeyer.

This sort of thing isn't rocket science.

Cool story Feek, now all I have to do is Google Winkmeyer!
So I’m a Luddite, sue me.

This sort of thing being tax evasion it seems.

Holds tongue.

 

[Jean-F]

are they really what is the item in question? a gucci belt?

He’s already got at least two Gucci belts, he’s not afraid to go out earn a few quid.
On a serious note, he slipped the reference to Bangladesh in, in actual fact he phoned Timberland in Allentown PA and inquired about a certain model of boots on their website.
They told him that they were only available in the U.S., he could get a similar model in U.K., but that the U.S. boots were marginally better, I guess that they would say that wouldn’t they.

 

[Jean-F]

It gets opened by customs/parcel carrier and you get a bill - the carrier can prove the vendor sent it, you have no recourse on your credit card - buyer beware.

I’m not sure that that would work in this case, the vendor will have sent the item from Pennsylvania to New York, end of story.
A private citizen will then have mailed them from New York to London as a gift to me.
I appreciate that the IRS, U.S. and U.K. Customs, and/or HMRC can do what they wish, but are they really going to go to all that aggravation for a once in a lifetime mailing of a gift?

 

[Jean-F]

We need a picture of the kids face when he opens the parcel only for it to say made in Bangladesh on the tag..

From the Sourcing Journal,
Timberland introduces a new Made in USA boot.

The buying and shipping saga rolls on, boots have been purchased by my friend in NYC, $150 + tax = $162.94, I’ve paid her via PayPal, plus the 2.9% + 0.30c PayPal surcharge.
Next step will be shipping via USPS, approx $89.00 + any Customs fees, I’m making a guesstimate of $300 all in, boots and shipping, give or take, or £220.00.
Colour me profligate, but I’ll do anything for my kids, if I’ve got spare dough I’ll spend it on them.
My old man used to say,
“If you’ve got it, spend it, you can’t take it with you, and you’re only here for seventy odd years.”

 

[Jean-F]

The US recipient is an actor who may be charging a 100$ charge to procure, check, test and then rebox and ship a product to any potential purchaser as the purchaser cannot procure these goods any other way.

As the goods have been opened and inspected and potentially even worn/tested and will be without any warranty the value of them will be significantly less than if they were brand new.

Test me.

You are waaaay overthinking this.
You’re wasted on here, you could be earning minimum wage writing scripts for dismal U.K. TV crime shows.

 

[Jean-F]

To quote The Stones, “It’s all over now”.
$163 for the boots, $85 shipping, I’ve a photo of the shipping invoice with a tracking number, and I’ve sent $265 to my friend which includes her PayPal fees, so she has a couple of bucks left over for a slice of pizza pie.
My kid’s given me £200, seems dear to me but he doesn’t GAF, he’ll just go out and earn it, his attitude has always been to only worry about money if he hasn’t got any.

 

[Jean-F]

you mean it's too late to place any more bets on the customs/vat outlook ? have the package contents been declared in any manner


(Nearly made my first post-brexit(ish) aliexpress purchase today see they have an obligatory VAT payment on everything for a uk destination address - 20% hurts)

Lap of the Gods there jp, my friend in NYC sent me a photo of the USPS receipt for shipping, it said $84.95, ETA 8-10 business days, and she added, “FYI I had to complete a Customs Form.”
As she’s a respected child psychologist, I don’t imagine that she lied about contents and value.
As the weight says 5 lb 12.7 oz I’m guessing that the $84.95 is just for shipping, so maybe the mailman will ring my buzzer and say, “Fetch £X amount to the door for your Customs fee.”
I thought that if the USPS calculated that any Customs Duties were due, they’d have taken it in the U.S. and sent it to HMRC UK, but what do I know?
I’ll soon find out I guess.

 

[Jean-F]

Lap of the Gods there jp, my friend in NYC sent me a photo of the USPS receipt for shipping, it said $84.95, ETA 8-10 business days, and she added, “FYI I had to complete a Customs Form.”
As she’s a respected child psychologist, I don’t imagine that she lied about contents and value.
As the weight says 5 lb 12.7 oz I’m guessing that the $84.95 is just for shipping, so maybe the mailman will ring my buzzer and say, “Fetch £X amount to the door for your Customs fee.”
I thought that if the USPS calculated that any Customs Duties were due, they’d have taken it in the U.S. and sent it to HMRC UK, but what do I know?
I’ll soon find out I guess.

On the off chance that anyone is interested, I tracked the package on the USPS website.
It was mailed at Sea Cliff, Long Island, NY at 12.52 on Friday 14/01/22, it departed N.Y., (presumably JFK), at 23.16 on 15/01/22, then on 16/01/22 at 08.36 it was delivered into the U.K. mail system at London Heathrow.
I doubt that the U.K. Post Office is as streamlined as the USPS, but with any luck I may have it by next Friday, 21/01/22, but I won’t hold my breath.