Customs and charges on goods from US?

soolin

song_of_calliope wrote: »

My partner recently got charged duty for a book he had bought from the US, and the man at the post office said next time tell the sender to tick "gift" instead of "merchandise" on the customs form. He said that way we wouldn't get charged.

Obviously if you have a grudge against the sender then having them done for postal fraud in the US is a great way of taking them out of circulation.

RFW

song_of_calliope wrote: »

My partner recently got charged duty for a book he had bought from the US, and the man at the post office said next time tell the sender to tick "gift" instead of "merchandise" on the customs form. He said that way we wouldn't get charged.

Most books don't carry VAT, so check that the duty charged was correct, for most books there wouldn't be any duty, but as above that's pretty dodgy advice from someone at the post office.

Edwardia

Sears International uses a handling agent, which has an agreement with HMRC, to pre-pay duty for some goods and charge customer along with purchase price.

Please do check when buying from USA that the sales tax if applicable is being removed. Being taxed in US and UK can make items expensive.

shaun_from_Africa

Edwardia wrote: »

Please do check when buying from USA that the sales tax if applicable is being removed. Being taxed in US and UK can make items expensive.

US sales tax shouldn't be applied in the first place, so there is no reason for it to be removed.
When goods are ordered to be delivered at a distance, sales tax is only charged if the goods are being delivered to the same state in which the seller is located.
I visit the USA on a regular basis, and whilst there usually make a fair few mail order purchases of electronic items with a total value of a fair few hundreds of pounds.
As the sales tax could add up to a fair bit on top, I always try to ensure that the orders are made with out of state dealers.