Import from China, UK charges

brossnan

Hello,

I want to import 50kg of clothes with no brand from China to UK. The first time the same clothes has been shipped using cargo ship. But when the items arrived i was surprised with the UK charges of £700, such as VAT and duty paid to customs, UK import handling, import service fee, UK customs clearance, use of deferment charge, ROE differential, origin service factor. That was more than the worth of clothes! And it took over 1 month for the items to arrive.

This time i'm thinking to use air freight. I was offered to use DHL express, which will cost around 500 US Dollars. Did anyone have experience with this company? Could you please explain me what UK charges can i expect this time?

Thanks

timbo58

I think all of the charges you mentioned there are still applicable whomever you use?

brossnan

Will DHL do all custom clearance, or it will be some other company?

JasonLVC

Anything you import into the UK from outside the EU will be subject to duty and VAT, no matter which route the goods come (air, sea, land).

The courier/freight handler will usually deal with the payment of duty and VAT on your behalf and then invoice you before releasing the goods or will release the goods straight away if you have an account with that courier/handler.

You can work the duty cost out by looking here :-

http://online.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/tariffSearch?expression=clothing&simulationDate=12%2F5%2F11&export=false&x=19&y=11

The duty will be based upon the type of clothing (material, process of manufacture), thus a hand knitted jumper will have a different duty to a leather jacket or a woolen stiched suit.

If we go with an example of a £100 worth of woolen knitted shawl (code 6117 10 00 00), the duty for this is 12%.

That is 12% of the cost of the goods (including postage charges) so 12% of £100 is £12

On top of the duty, VAT is then added so we take the value of goods including duty (£112) plus VAT @ 20% = £22.40 so the cost of importing £100 of goods will be £12 + £22.40 = £34.40 and the courier may also add a handling charge for dealing with the payments to HMRC - usually about £15 - so a grand total of £49.40 duty and taxes to bring that £100 woolie shawl into the UK.

martindow

Sending by sea can involve a lot of extra charges and is only worth it for large orders. Using someone like DHL is fine if you ask them to quote for delivery to the door rather than to the port of entry. You will then have just duty, VAT and the carrier's clearance charge which you should be able to calculate in advance.