Drop Shipping - Tax & Import Duty?

jon_E_begood

Hi,

I am looking into the viability of drop shipping electronic equipment via ebayand believe I may have found a reliable supplier in China. Does anyone have any experience of doing this and know what I would need to do in terms of tax and import duty?

Thanks

ukbill69

Well if the item has a customs sticker thats less than $10 then 99% will pass through as a gift and the customer will not pay vat, if it does getg caught then they will have to pay royal mail a fee think its like £5 and vat.

Toon

If you're getting items sent to the UK then your buyers will have to pay customs charges. This is typically around 20% of the declared value. See https://www.dropshipforum.co.uk for more info.

ukbill69

you have to pay 17.5% VAT and customs fees, paid to royal mail. Not 20%

Toon

It's about 20% in total - 17.5% vat and the rest courier charges depending on the value of the item. I import regularly and go by approx 20-23% on average

jon_E_begood

you only had to pay VAT if you were earning over £60k per year?

Toon

No that's being registered for VAT - Buy a mars bar out of the local shop and you pay VAT on it.

paradoxia

I think the Royal Mail clearance fee is about £5.60 plus the duty imposed by Customs

jon_E_begood

Is this payable ALWAYS even for small value items?

martindow

Whatever carrier brings the parcel here will charge their own clearance fees (typically 8 - 15 pounds) if duty or VAT are payable. This page has useful info on importing things.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_001454&propertyType=document