Parcelforce 'Clearance fee'

caulodren

I contacted hmrc revenue and customs on how to avoid clearence fee, it looks like the sender has to clearly mark the parcel: "goods to be customs cleared by the importer". this is the following email they send me:

Dear Mr Stevenson,


As the importer you can carry out your own customs procedures. If you want to do this you will need to ensure the sender clearly marks the parcel with the following statement; "goods to be customs cleared by importer" Where the above procedure is invoked a notice of arrival letter will be sent by the UK Border Agency to you along with a form C88. This needs to be completed in full and sent to the UKBA at the office of exchange (this should be detailed in the letter). The office of exchange will then forward the C88 to the Customs team in Salford who will manually enter the C88 to Customs' computerised import entry system (CHIEF). CHIEF will then allocate an import entry number to the parcel and calculate the customs charges due which will then be communicated to you. You must then make a payment to the UKBA and once these have been been paid and the funds cleared the goods will be released to either Royal Mail or Parcelforce to be delivered. This manual procedure is fairly long winded and will be further delayed if any part of the submitted C88 is incorrect. It is not recommended where fast clearance is required.

Yours sincerely,
Robert White



so there you have it, you can avoid the excessive clearence fee by performing your own customs declaration. I don't mind waiting just I hate having to pay excessive fee's. I like this procedure. I don't know how to fill in a c88 form, anyone know how?

custardy

http://www.ukimports.org/c88.html

rustyboy21

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Until people start taking responsibility for their actions or inactions and stop trying to blame RM/Parcelforce/DHL etc for charging for the service of collecting taxes imposed by the UK government.

All the info on import charges is easily found on the internet and can be checked by anyone before making purchases from outside the EU, yet it is still the fault of the importing agent if the buyers fail to read up on their liabilities prior to going ahead with a transaction.

But Shaun, you are talking about the great british public here and they are the people who specialise in moaning, normally after an event and they wont go face to face with authority, but slag it off behind their backs.

Thats why websites like this exist !

rustyboy21

custardy wrote: »

http://www.ukimports.org/c88.html

Custardy.

looking at that form, I would rathe pay PF to fill it in for me ,£13.50 doesnt look excessive

custardy

rustyboy21 wrote: »

Custardy.

looking at that form, I would rathe pay PF to fill it in for me ,£13.50 doesnt look excessive

well I ordered a new bike light from Honk Kong just last week
I have done nothing and will pay RM the £8 plus VAT if i get 'caught'
however as has been posted. the option is there for folks with the time and want to do the work themselves.
As I have said many times.
If folks aren't happy then its HMRC they need to speak to about changing the system

alanamaretto

custardy wrote: »

well that point is moot now
however you still have the option to do it for free
so whats the issue?

I think the main problems people have with this policy is:

a) When they are not given the option to receive their parcel after paying the customs duty and then be invoiced for the clearance afterwards which I believe delivery companies are required to do.

b) That it seems to be unusual and capricious legal ground that it is a service that by default you will receive unless you opt out. It's kind of like ordering a hire car, being charged for car cleaning because you didn't write "DON'T CLEAN THE CAR" over the contract.

People generally like as much transparency as possible and this is quite a large fee for something that is relatively hard to find out about (unless it's happened to you already or you work in the postal service).

Appreciate the information though.

Alan

custardy

alanamaretto wrote: »

I think the main problems people have with this policy is:

a) When they are not given the option to receive their parcel after paying the customs duty and then be invoiced for the clearance afterwards which I believe delivery companies are required to do.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/5/schedule/12/paragraph/36/prospective?timeline=true&view=extent

b) That it seems to be unusual and capricious legal ground that it is a service that by default you will receive unless you opt out. It's kind of like ordering a hire car, being charged for car cleaning because you didn't write "DON'T CLEAN THE CAR" over the contract.

well unfortunately most international sites state any taxes are down to the buyer, so surely the buyer would want to confirm those before buying?

People generally like as much transparency as possible and this is quite a large fee for something that is relatively hard to find out about (unless it's happened to you already or you work in the postal service).

Appreciate the information though.

Alan

well who would you have inform you?

IZZY_HAMMO

Hello can I just ask if this information is correct,I recieved a parcel from a relative in the usa and incurred a vat and handling charge from parcelforce,I phoned parcelforce to ask why the charge was levied as the package contained no more than some small diecast cars for my 2 sons and was marked as a gift on the customs form and on all 4 sides of the parcel,the value was well under the allowed ammount
I was told that if you send express via usps the cost of the postage would be included in the ammount that you are allowed to import under the gift rule ,as my parcel cost $48 to post and the value inside was $30 that took me over the limit,is this information correct and if so why only on express parcels
thanks

Chahu

Generally the handling charge goes to pay the poor saps who work in the offices inputting the data.

Everything has to be customs cleared, and you need to be trained to use CHIEF correctly. Even if it is a gift, there still has to be clearance work done the item has to be tracked, it has to be x-rayed to make sure that your 'gift' is not a nuclear warhead. These things all take time and money.

I used to work for a different importer/exporter - the one with the arrow in their name. Export workers were there til past midnight making sure that your parcels were cleared to go on the planes. Import workers worked til about 4am to make sure that your parcels were cleared to be delivered to you bright and early in the morning.

After 7pm, even on minimum wage, this company (i don't know about others) paid 'antisocial bonuses' - an extra amount of money that for most people just meant that they could pay for their bus home at the end of the night/morning.

So this is what you clearance fee pays for - someone to check that your purchase is safe and legal to go to you, to stop anything illegal coming into the country and to stop anything dangerous being sent within it (unless you've got the correct documents), and to make sure that the description matched the item (i have seen a rubber rocket grenade used for training described as a fabric bag - that closed down the warehouse for an hour or so while someone sorted out what it actually was before calling the bomb squad to make sure). It pays for the software to make CHIEF accessible (believe me, if you just log in to CHIEF, without customs training, you'd find it difficult to navigate), and for the person to sit behind a desk and navigate it for you until all hours in the morning so that you can get your parcel the next morning.

shaun_from_Africa

IZZY_HAMMO wrote: »

Hello can I just ask if this information is correct,I recieved a parcel from a relative in the usa and incurred a vat and handling charge from parcelforce,I phoned parcelforce to ask why the charge was levied as the package contained no more than some small diecast cars for my 2 sons and was marked as a gift on the customs form and on all 4 sides of the parcel,the value was well under the allowed ammount
I was told that if you send express via usps the cost of the postage would be included in the ammount that you are allowed to import under the gift rule ,as my parcel cost $48 to post and the value inside was $30 that took me over the limit,is this information correct and if so why only on express parcels
thanks

The info you have been given is almost correct, but the bit that is wrong wouldn't have any effect on your bill.

According to HMRC, VAT may be charged on all imports from outside the EU that are above £15 in value and above £40 for gifts.
These figures are made up of the value of the goods + P&P costs + insurance costs + any import duty if applicable.

Postal charges are not included for the calculation of import duties for gifts unless an express postal service was used.
As the items you received were well below the figure for attracting import duty, the postal charges don't matter.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P28_2966