Unfair customs charge by royal mail Advice needed

usignuolo

In November I bought a herbal remedy on line from the USA. The company concerned ships it all over the world. It cost 51.90 + 16.45 to ship, making a total of 68.35. I have been waiting for it to arrive and today I got a card from the Royal Mail saying there was a customs charge of £12.29 before I could collect it.

I have looked up customs charges on the web and from the USA they are not supposed to cut in until the item costs £120 and then the first £7 of customs charge is written off.

I have been round to the sorting office and the guy at the desk, basically just a postie, says that he has no information on how the charge was calculated or how to challenge it I just have to pay it.

Does anyone have any advice please?

TomsMom

I've once bought from the USA and was aware that the limit was £18, after that there was duty and VAT to pay.

From HMRC website

If you buy goods online from a country outside the European Union, for instance the USA, Canada, China, Australia
You will be charged:

■Customs Duty if the amount of duty is £9 or over
■Import VAT if the value of the goods is £18 and over
■Excise Duty for some goods like alcohol and tobacco

and

2.3 What are the limits for customs duty and import VAT?
■Commercial consignments of £18 or less are free from customs duty and import VAT. For example, goods purchased over the internet with an intrinsic value not exceeding £18, will not be charged any duty or VAT but this does not include alcohol, tobacco products, perfume or toilet waters, see paragraph 2.5, 2.6 and section 3.
■If you are sent a gift with a value of £36 or less, and which complies ,with the rules shown in paragraph 2.4. it will be free from customs duty and import VAT, but this does not include alcohol, tobacco, perfumes and toilet waters.
■Customs duty becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £120 but duty is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £7.
There are a number of other circumstances where relief from some or all customs charges may be available. If you think your goods may be eligible for a relief you should contact the Helpline for further information.

It does seem to be a bit confusing (to me anyway :rolleyes:) and I don't know how they've arrived at the figure you've been asked to pay.

Not sure if the £7 is actually written off if the duty comes to more, I'm assuming it gets written off if it is less than £7 but you pay the whole lot if it is more.

I probably haven't helped you much .

Mojisola

Are you sure it is a customs duty? Other people on MSE have been caught like this before but the money asked for has been made up from VAT and a "collection charge" with goes to the PO or the parcel company.

ormus

theres the customs duty to pay. then the vat, if applicable.

and the standard PO charge of 9 quid.
(admin fee).

puddy

the information above seems clear enough, the import tax is payable because the item is worth more than £18, but customs duty is not, because the item is not worth more than £120,,, but what the website does not say, is how the import vat is worked out, giving you the charge you have been charged

custardy

usignuolo wrote: »

In November I bought a herbal remedy on line from the USA. The company concerned ships it all over the world. It cost 51.90 + 16.45 to ship, making a total of 68.35. I have been waiting for it to arrive and today I got a card from the Royal Mail saying there was a customs charge of £12.29 before I could collect it.

I have looked up customs charges on the web and from the USA they are not supposed to cut in until the item costs £120 and then the first £7 of customs charge is written off.

I have been round to the sorting office and the guy at the desk, basically just a postie, says that he has no information on how the charge was calculated or how to challenge it I just have to pay it.

Does anyone have any advice please?

were you hoping for the Gandhi?
anyway ask the 'just a postie' to show you the HMRC label on the item and it gives you a break down of the charges
sounds like VAT to me

andrew-b

What they've charged you is pretty much correct...

On the same webpage as TomsMom linked to (see 3.1)
Add on 2.5% customs duty (treat it as a gift for want of a better thing..is there a code somewhere describing what item it's been treated as?) and then 15% VAT on top of that..by my calculation thats £12.26.
£12.29 would mean a customs duty of 2.75% ...

I'd pay up and put it down to experience!

[Edit: oh wait i see what you mean...it implies customs duty isn't applicable because the value is less than £120..either way it's only £1.88 of customs duty you appear to have been charged...though remember VAT goes up to 17.5% tomorrow ..which would basically cancel it out anyway]

ormus

duty rates are a complete nightmare. only an expert knows them all.
the "blue book" gives all the duty codes for items. nothing makes any sense. some items are rated at 1% others rated at 50%.
sometimes very similar items are very different in duty payable. ie electronic components and PCBs are different!

beware, the blue book is the same size as the guttenberg bible.

puddy

but surely according to above only vat is payable not the customs duty because the item isnt worth over 120 quid

andrew-b

jenner wrote: »

but surely according to above only vat is payable not the customs duty because the item isnt worth over 120 quid

yep just realised that and edited above. Unless the seller has actually said it's worth more than £120 on the label but supplying it cheapily IYSWIM?

I started searching but it's really complex. See http://www.gigabiz.co.uk/uk_and_eu_duty_info.html... i got into the "TARIC" database but not knowing what the item has been considered as i can't get any further. For the sake of less than £2 i'd pay up!

keystone

It'll all be down to VAT and whether its been calculated as a multipler or a percentage addon or a percentage off the top. The result is pence either way (but thats the way of VAT) and not worth worrying about IMO.

£ 68.35 + £ 12.29 = £ 80.64 x 0.85 = £ 68.54 which is as near as dammit in VAT terms.

I'd say don't argue - it would be another couple of quid on top if they had written the slip out next Saturday!

Cheers