Parcelforce/Customs Outragous Charges

Qukatt

Hi there, I got a letter from Parcelforce saying they'd paid for a parcel for me to clear customs on the 23rd December.

This was not something I had ordered but a gift from family in New Zealand. Here's my invoice breakdown;

Customs Duty - 14.69 (not in dispute, if it's needing paid that's fine)
Excise Duty - 0.00
Import VAT - 40.78 (WHAT?)
Other - 0.00
Clearance fee - 8.00 (excuse me?)
Total 63.47


So i emailed the sender and she is telling me that the parcel is barely worth $100 NZD which is around 49 pounds.

Why is my VAT so high? I just can't wrap my head around this charge and I want to contest it because there's no way i'm paying more than the package is worth for a couple of xmas pressies for my kids, sure it's a shame they dont get a present but i seriously cannot afford this.

As an extra kick in the teeth they were offering to deliver on a saturday for an extra 12.00 :mad:


Cheers for any help in advance

mazza111

http://www.parcelforce.com/receiving-parcel/importing-uk/customs-charging

It's not parcelforce who make up what VAT or import duties you have to pay. Although they do specify what their own handling charges are. So they are charging you £8 to intervene and pay the customs charges for you. Which in effect almost turns this item into a special delivery in the fact that it's tracked all the way from customs to delivery point.

It sounds like whoever sent it has not declared what was inside or put an incorrect value on it. If as you say it's been over charged, then that will be between you and customs. You may be able to dispute this, but it will need to be paid first so you can check yourself. You can either pay for the item to be delivered to you or ignore it and it will be returned to sender after 3 weeks.

You will get some people who will say to refuse to pay the handling fee but it's not really advisable.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Im not too sure on this but for stuff coming from outside of the EU into Britain isnt the VAT charged on what the items value would be in this country?

Oliver14

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Im not too sure on this but for stuff coming from outside of the EU into Britain isnt the VAT charged on what the items value would be in this country?

No its the declared value plus postage.

It would be totally impracticable for hmrc to work out the uk price off every item. Also how would they agree on a figure? Depending where you source a product the value could be argued to be lower.

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Oops it appears i missunderstood what I read a while back then

VAT on imports of goods that you buy from non-EU countries is normally charged at the same rate as if the goods had been supplied in the UK.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/imports/importing.htm

Qukatt

Jeff_Bridges_hair wrote: »

Oops it appears i missunderstood what I read a while back then

I was reading on the hmrc site that they don't charge vat on gifts under 40.00 value and that includes individually wrapped gifts inside the parcel (2 kids so that should be the case) so because parcelforce have paid this and I cant dispute the vat with them, how do I dispute with hmrc before I get the parcel?

I am utterly and seriously broke right now we just had to cancel tv and phone to get through winter so I'm thankfully it's not been too cold. And this a pretty big deal.
I
I'm told that the declaration was correct but how would hmrc know without opening therefore seeing individual addressing of gifts. Even with $100nz and $25nz postage I'm not sure how that's 80% (ish) vat .

I'm happy to let them return to sender but I think that would break senders heart right now.

So tl:dr how would I get the charge reduced/contested before I choose to pay the package? I CANNOT afford this package within the timeframe given.

mazza111

You can't. Customs have said that's what you have to pay. Parcelforce have paid that on your behalf. The only thing you can do is dispute it after paying it afaik.

raineshoe

Your lucky we import a lot of stuff for our business and we get charged £13.00 clearance fee so £8.00 is good.

Import VAT as the others have said you are stuck with and is 20% I believe.

I doubt you will have any joy if you contest it to be honest.

Unfortuantely, lots of people are unaware of these extra costs. We get quite a few saying to us "oh we can buy the same product cheaper from abroad". Well yes you can, but once you import your stuff you'll pay the same charges we do and then they find out why we price our imported stock at what we do.

wdw2003

I've just been involved with Parcelforce regarding an item I'm refusing due to the wrong item having been sent. I was charged £34, including the £13 fee, for something worth $430 US, but the charge depends on what the specific item was and how it's classed by HMRC. Anyway, I was told that if I didn't want the item, all I had to do was not pay anything and it would be returned to sender after 21 days, as Mazza says above. Even if you want the item but dispute the charges, if you don't pay within 21 days of the date on the letter, the package will be sent back.

I suspect that if you want the package, you'll need to pay Parcelforce within the timeframe and then take up the fight with HMRC. Good luck on that one.

Light_Speed_Cruiser

Ask the sender to value the item at £17.99 or less. Theres no VAT liability.

mazza111

Hasn't that tariff been reduced now and it's under £15?

But false claims will also lead to more charges