Help wrongly charged for Import VAT by customs

headcrash27

My husband ordered some radio controlled car parts from the states. This cost was $31.30 and this amount was shown on the outside of the packet for the customs declaration. However the packet only contained $27.00 worth of goods as one of the items was out of stock and is being sent at a later date. The invoice inside the packet detailed this. The packet was also marked as a gift.

He has been charged £3.46 VAT and a Royal Mail handling fee of £8.00. Can he claim this back, as firstly $27.00 dollars amounts to less then the VAT threshold of £18 (had they opened the package they would have seen that the invoice inside differs from the one on the front of the package) and secondly it was marked as a gift so surely the threshold should therefore be £40 for VAT purposes?

The only reason i can think that they have ignored this is that the sender has put a business name on the senders details. Are they allowed to ignore the ticked gift box if they suspect otherwise? If anyone could advise me whether it is worth putting in a claim and how i go about it i would be grateful.

Mikeyorks

Marking imports as a gift seems to be like a red rag to a bull. Yes, they can ignore it and frequently (with justification) do as it's roundly abused. In this case it's not 'individual' to 'individual' ...... so it immediately and obviously fails.

You can appeal ..... but as it's fraudulently been marked as a gift and erroneously priced .... I'd personally live with it. I've been there, when a clown of an Ebay seller took it upon himself to mark a several $100 chandelier as a 'gift' .... but also overstated the price + added in the freight charges .... and I had to pay on the entity. As the 'gift' left me with no manoeuvre.

Bit of detail here on your requirement to ensure the parcel label is accurate :-

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm#4

..... and how to query / appeal :-

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/paying-tax.htm#2

headcrash27

Do you think i could appeal on the grounds that the package was worth less than stated on the customs declaration? He wasn't asked to mark the goods as a gift so i'm unsure as to why he did that. Do you think the fact that he did would go against us?

Mikeyorks

headcrash27 wrote: »

Do you think i could appeal on the grounds that the package was worth less than stated on the customs declaration?

You can try .... but how will you field the question as to why the declaration was invalid on 2 counts? That's why I gave you the link regarding the accuracy of the label.

I think I would walk away from it? I've stopped buying anything from the States having fielded a couple of £60 VAT / duty bills on this side. In one case (textiles) the VAT + import duty + handling charge exceeded the value of the items + freight.

olly300

headcrash27 wrote: »

Do you think i could appeal on the grounds that the package was worth less than stated on the customs declaration? He wasn't asked to mark the goods as a gift so i'm unsure as to why he did that. Do you think the fact that he did would go against us?

People mark things as a gift because they think that you won't be charged import duty.

However he the seller may not have done it himself. It could be done by a member of staff or someone at the postal service. Either way you still can't contest it as it's marked inaccurately.

I use to get annoyed sending things that I carefully ensured where under the specific thresholds regardless of whether they were gifts because post office staff in the UK and aboard would take it on themselves to mark things as gifts or non-gifts without asking me first.

Luckily I was sending stuff to EEA countries so the import charges weren't applicable.