ParcelForce & VAT and Clearence fee on my sons birthday gift!

Miss_Yell_2

Hi, Not sure if I am really in the right section her, but i am too upset to hunt any further!

My son has been sent a Nintendo DS by his Godfather for his Birthday. His Godfatehre discussed it with me first and posted it about 10 days ago, from USA where he lives. My son, knew it was coming and has been so excited! Every day he comes in from school (he is 11) and asks has it arrived yet.
Today, I get a letter (well, my son does) saying that Parcelforce has the package and we must pay £46.76 to get it delivered! £33.26 is VAT and £13.50 is a Parcelforce clearance charge!
I have called Parcelforce and say I have to speak to Customs and Excise, they will hold the package 2 weeks and will then return it to sender. The only way I can get the package is by paying!
I then spoke to customs and Excise who state that even though it is labelled as a gift, I have to pay the charge. End of!

I am appalled and disgusted! I don't have this much money in my bank account (serious victim of the recession, family of 4 living on peanuts) and gathering massive debt) I could not even afford to pay £46.76 for my sons birthday present, never mind this charge!

I really don't know what to do. Do I disappoint my son and just let it get sent back as I cannot afford to pay the charge? Is there really no mistake here from the Vat? I cannot believe that we are having to pay so much money!

Any advice or magic? PLeeeease?

Thank you.

Tozer

Why do you have to pay VAT if it is a gift?

Suggest you speak to C&E again and ask them for the basis of their claim.

Queenriderbrekke

Have a look here on their web page. Clause 2.2

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P36_3279

Queenriderbrekke

Apparently it doesn't matter wheher it's a gift or not to C&E, they still want their cut!

rev_henry

Pfft. That's seems a bit much. I suppose in hindsight the thing to do would have been to undervalue the DS on the customs declaration. And anyway how on earth can almost £50 duty be due on something worth, what, £120?

cleo1299

Miss_Yell wrote: »

My son has been sent a Nintendo DS by his Godfather for his Birthday. His Godfatehre discussed it with me first and posted it about 10 days ago, from USA where he lives.

The Godfather could buy another DS from a supplier in this country, if he's willing. It means he has to pay out for two of them while he's waiting for the first one to be returned by Customs -- you probably know whether that's something you could ask of him. Also it will cost more because -- of course -- you have to pay VAT on it if you buy it from a supplier in this country. But it would be the Godfather paying instead of you, which is the way it should be for a gift.

If that's an option, and he orders it right away, your son probably wouldn't have long to wait.

rev_henry

cleo1299 wrote: »

The Godfather could buy another DS from a supplier in this country, if he's willing. It means he has to pay out for two of them while he's waiting for the first one to be returned by Customs -- you probably know whether that's something you could ask of him. Also it will cost more because -- of course -- you have to pay VAT on it if you buy it from a supplier in this country. But it would be the Godfather paying instead of you, which is the way it should be for a gift.

If that's an option, and he orders it right away, your son probably wouldn't have long to wait.

Might have some difficulty finding a shop which will take payment from the US on a US card (presumably) then send it out to the UK, but if you explain the situation to them they may be able to. I'd suggest trying a smaller UK based eBay seller, as they tend to be the most helpful and willing.

cleo1299

rev_henry wrote: »

Might have some difficulty finding a shop which will take payment from the US on a US card (presumably) then send it out to the UK, but if you explain the situation to them they may be able to. I'd suggest trying a smaller UK based eBay seller, as they tend to be the most helpful and willing.

amazon.com (US) takes UK credit cards so I would guess that amazon.co.uk would take US credit cards (but I don't know that for certain).

Personally I would rather buy from somewhere like Amazon if possible rather than an eBay seller. Less hassle if anything goes wrong (in my admittedly limited experience).

cleo1299

rev_henry wrote: »

Pfft. That's seems a bit much. I suppose in hindsight the thing to do would have been to undervalue the DS on the customs declaration. And anyway how on earth can almost £50 duty be due on something worth, what, £120?

Such things are often considerably cheaper in the US because the US price doesn't include VAT. In the early days of the internet it was possible to get things more cheaply by ordering from the US but nowadays they have got it down to a fine art.

I seriously doubt if Customs would accept a customer-supplied under-value as the basis for charging VAT on a Nintendo DS.

JasonLVC

What was the declared value of the gift (or wasn;t thre one) on the packaging - I know you will not know that, but can you ask the sender to confirm?

£33.26 equates to a VAT inclusive price of £254.99 (basically £33.26 x 23/3 to arrive at total) which is quite a lot of money for a DS Lite.

The basic rules are anything coming into the UK from outside the EU is subject to import duty plus VAT. Import duty is waived on goods if the value is less than £120 - so you should not be being charged import duty....unless the value of the goods is more than £120

VAT is then added on top at 15% and your numbers just aren't adding up - are you sure the only thing in the package is a DS Lite?. If there are some games in there as well, clothing etc this will bump uop the overall package value. If there is just a DS Lite, then you have acquired the most expesnive one in history.

bap98189

rev_henry wrote: »

I suppose in hindsight the thing to do would have been to undervalue the DS on the customs declaration.

Aside from the fact that is tax evasion, C&E do not charge VAT/Import Duty on the value you write on the package. They have a list of prices of products they use to work out the amount owing.