Customs charges on Amazon

martindow

VAT on 185 is over 21 pounds, there may be a duty charge too and a clearance fee of around 15 pounds would make up about 40 pounds.

Ask them for a breakdown, but you may find that their invoice already itemises the charges. Worth looking at though as sometimes charges get calculated based on the wrong currency. Post the details here and someone will be able to check it for you.

As has been said, you will have to pay the invoice.

kevinyork

Just marking something as a gift does not avoid customs charges. If it did dont you think everyone would do it?

good_fella7777

its irrelevant that u bought it as a gift. the sender has to mark it as a gift for it to be exempt from duties. that again is subject to a maximum value of £36. if then again, u try ur luck buying something as expensive and marking it as a gift under £36 and it gets lost in transit, you would be covered only for a value of £36.

if a package does get charged for customs, then the couriers usually charge a £12 handling fees + VAT on it, plus the duties which would depend on the HMRC rate for those goods. u can look these up.

In any case, ur best chance is to dispute the charge with HMRC. maybe that it was a sample with no commercial value, etc

phatbear

good_fella7777 wrote: »

In any case, ur best chance is to dispute the charge with HMRC. maybe that it was a sample with no commercial value, etc

Nothing like a bit of fraud on a sunday night is there?

Given that the item was sent by amazon, ie they will be using their fed-ex account, why would they make a mistake and send the item incorrectly declared.

My stance when inspecting a package is, they have obviously lied about the value so what else are they lieing about, its then i get busy with my multiple tools and of course at this point if during the examination process an item gets damaged, which does very occasionaly happen, then all you will be able to claim is the amount thats its been declared at.

And another issue if its a sample with no commercial vaule this would also invalidate any warranty if it needed to be returned to another country for repair or replacement.

all the best

the bear