HMRC wants to tax me 20% VAT on my gold bullion purchase from USA

The_Zealot

Today I was given an absolutely horrible news. A guy from Fedex rang me to say that I have to pay many hundreds of pounds in VAT on my parcel from the USA.

This parcel contains all my savings I had in a Euro account abroad, which I decided to convert into bullion and send it over to Britain since I'm now living here. The fact that HMRC thinks it can take such a huge slice of my life savings, and to add an amount that I honestly can't afford to pay, is making me physically nauseous.

The fact that I bought Britannias, which is considered legal tender, just adds insult to injury.

Does anyone know how I can legally argue that HMRC has no right to stick its fingers in my pie?

scheming_gypsy

it's what happens when you buy / import goods from abroad.

jjlandlord

It's not obvious to me why would someone convert his cash into bullion then try to import it... Unless it's to attempt to avoid HMRC's attention in the fist place.

HMRC has rules about Gold:
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000104&propertyType=document

It could be exempt from VAT, but best to enquire with HMRC.

glasgowdan

Did you use the savings, in the european bank account (assuming in the place you lived before moving) to buy gold in the USA, to send it back to the UK where you now live? Seems a very high risk strategy when you're talking about life savings.

How much value are we talking about? If the 20% is in the hundreds, not thousands, then you're talking £5000 max, right?

I would have thought you could have done a simple bank transfer to your UK account for a (relatively) small amount such as £5000 without any bother.

The_Zealot

jjlandlord wrote: »

It's not obvious to me why would someone convert his cash into bullion then try to import it... Unless it's to attempt to avoid HMRC's attention in the fist place.

HMRC has rules about Gold:
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000104&propertyType=document

It could be exempt form VAT, but best it to enquire with HMRC.

Thank you so so much. Because of reading that website I contested the charge and I just received an email from Fed Ex saying that Customs accepted to waive the Tax and amended it to VAT free.

I still need to check what difference it makes between being under £5000 and above £5000, but at least under £5000 it's definitely VAT free.

For those interested, the website I used was APMEX. If you know of a seller with better prices, do let me know.

jjlandlord

The_Zealot wrote: »

Thank you so so much. Because of reading that website I contested the charge and I just received an email from Fed Ex saying that Customs accepted to waive the Tax and amended it to VAT free.

Great to hear that!

John_Pierpoint

Once upon a time there was a massive VAT tax fiddle based on melting down coins into ingots. The ingots were cast using the "frog" indentation on the top of a standard make of house brick.
The customers (jewellers) paid the VAT on these cheap "ingots" but HMRC never received the VAT - not surprisingly procedures were introduced to discourage copy cat attempts. I would think that the £5K allowance is something to do with these anti tax evasion procedures.

Cook_County

Obviously you still have to pay income tax on remitting income or gains to the UK. How much income or gains did you remit?