Import Tax Q

tylerboyo · 3 December 2006 at 11:02PM

Hey all,
With the great exchange rate at the moment, i have found a good money maker. Will be spending $750 dollars on these 2 items, without postage. And when sold will be selling at £300 per item over here. He's promised to mark these items down to under half of what their worth to save me a little via import. But, before i import them i want to know how much the import will be, at the moment its a good money maker, but, of course, with import, it could be not worth my while. Anwyay, if anyone knows how much import id get for like a $350 marked package, and a $750 package id appreciate it.
Cheers in advance. Tyler

rdwarr · 3 December 2006 at 11:23PM

Import duty itself depends on what the item is, but it's normally around 5%. The big thing you'll have to pay is VAT which is 17.5% plus a small fee to the import agent who will clear these for you then invoice later. So safe to budget for about 25% on top of FOB US cost.
If the package is marked at $360 value but contains items worth $750 both you and the seller are likely to be in serious trouble with Customs if found out (and they're not stupid). It's technically smuggling and , for what you're likely to save, it's not worth the risk.
Just out of interest, why do you think it's OK to mark the goods at 50% of their value? Why not 5% and then you'd pay no tax at all? You can't be a little bit crooked, you're either honest or not

tylerboyo · 3 December 2006 at 11:31PM

Thanks rdwarr, i did ask him to mark the items as a gift, but he said that wasnt possible, but he could mark it up to 50% of the price. We have come to another arrangement to do the deal outside of ebay, through paypal, so he gives me an even better price (saves on listing, fvf, and pp fees). May seem dodgy, but hes a powerseller with excellent feedback. I will question him about marking the price down more. Cheers again

pennylane99 · 4 December 2006 at 12:26AM

even if something is marked as a "gift" you are only allowed value of £36 worth of goods before paying duty/tax

soolin · 4 December 2006 at 7:32AM

Can I please remind all users to read the sticky post on this forum about ethics.

Defrauding HM customs and excise is a criminal offence, this is a money saving site not a site to promote activities that can end in a criminal record.

Soo

JohalaReewi · 13 December 2006 at 1:27PM

Have just posted this on another "customs gift" thread so I repeat it here...

Goods sent as a gift are not free of import duties and import VAT. However, customs duty will not be collected if the amount is less than £7, and under EC Directives and Regulations excise duty and import VAT is not chargeable if:

* the value of the gift does not exceed £36
* the customs declaration is completed correctly
* the gift has been sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country
* the gift is for the use of either yourself or your family
* there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly
* alcohol, tobacco products etc are within the allowances detailed in paragraphs 2.5 and 2.6
* the gift is of an occasional nature only eg for a birthday or anniversary.

So any purchases (including Ebay) are not gifts.

phatbear · 13 December 2006 at 2:11PM

It always amazes me that people think that marking things as a "gift" will slip our attention, by the by im a big bad customs officer, at the moment I am personally dealing with more ps3's/wii etc than I can shake a stick at because of people trying it on, and given im off for the next week it looks like a lot of people wont be getting their christmas pressies on time.

The other consideration is what if that package goes missing and/or gets damaged in transit, again I recently had an complaint about an item which an importer claimed we had damaged and our response was claim on your insurance with the freight agent, but of course they had grossly undervalued the item so they ended up well and truly out of pocket.

Another issue which hopefully may deter you from your course of action is we, quite often, seize goods outright for under and/or mis-declaration, and then how will you go about getting your money back.

Just some thoughts to be going on with.

All the best

the bear

soolin · 13 December 2006 at 4:23PM

Thank you Bear, it is interesting to hear the view from an insider.

I am always amazed at the complete disregard for law with things like this, it is often seen as such a 'soft' crime and I sometimes think people do not fully understand the consequences of their actions. If people realise just what can happen by making a false statement maybe they will think twice about it.

Soo

Import Tax Q

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