Import Tax ?!

Shiloe

Hey everyone !

I bought a halloween costume from China total including shipping was £55.99. I only bought one [so not wholesale] however I am starting to wonder if I will have to pay import tax on it.

There was no mention of this when I bought the outfit and its being carried by TNT. Thanx

marie-20

It depends whether the buyer puts the correct figures on the customs dec - if so then you will be liable for 20% VAT and then a handling charge which I believe is £8 through the Royal Mail but each courier may charge a different amount.

The 20% VAT is charged on purchases over £18 (soon to be £15) for 'business use' and £40 for a gift.

Customs will always be payable for the buyer - it isn't for the seller to pay (some sellers do but they are few and far between) and it is something that you should always think about when buying from overseas.

You may be looking at getting a bill of around £19-20 sometime soon - I've always received my bills before the courier releasing the item to me for delivery.

forgotmyname

They usually put gift and a low item value. But depends what the item cost them. They dont want to put £1 if it costs them
£30. If it goes missing they can only claim £1

trukdiver

forgotmyname wrote: »

They usually put gift and a low item value. But depends what the item cost them. They dont want to put £1 if it costs them
£30. If it goes missing they can only claim £1

The insured value and the declared value are different things. The value for customs doesn't make any difference to what they can claim if it's lost.

soolin

I buy loads from the Far East and whilst many sellers do still mark everything at a dollar or two some of them now have started putting the correct values on- I wonder if there has been some sort of clamp down on these false import values?

trukdiver

soolin wrote: »

I buy loads from the Far East and whilst many sellers do still mark everything at a dollar or two some of them now have started putting the correct values on- I wonder if there has been some sort of clamp down on these false import values?

HMRC will be well aware of what's going on but what can they do about it? Duty and VAT is collected on their behalf by the carrier. The most they can do is open random parcels and charge the handling fee and correct VAT/duty. They can report it to the authorities in the Far East but there's not much else they can do unless they have evidence that the buyer requested the shipper to declare a false value. Maybe the Far Eastern authorites have started co-operating?

soolin

trukdiver wrote: »

HMRC will be well aware of what's going on but what can they do about it? Duty and VAT is collected on their behalf by the carrier. The most they can do is open random parcels and charge the handling fee and correct VAT/duty. They can report it to the authorities in the Far East but there's not much else they can do unless they have evidence that the buyer requested the shipper to declare a false value. Maybe the Far Eastern authorites have started co-operating?

I have a standard email that I send to my sellers at about day 25-30 explaining that my goods haven't arrived. I am now getting emails back from a number of sellers saying that items are slow at customs, some even say due to 'investigations' before export - obviously they could be excuses but I do wonder if there has been a crack down.

Co incidentally I received three items today, all alledgedly sent over 4 weeks ago. Two were declared at $1 but one was declared at $10, all cost about the same at £3 sterling delivered.