Customs Duty and VAT

squeakersmurf3

I have just received a nasty surprise in the form of a bill for £80.94 from DHL to reimburse them for payments to customs for a clothing order from China. I ordered two dresses and with the agreement of the manufacturer, returned one of them as it was faulty. I have already had to pay for the return, do I also have to pay the VAT/ tax on the faulty goods from when they were shipped to me?

InsideInsurance

Have a look on http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/paying-tax.htm#6

I am not an expert but I suspect you need to pay DHL because HMRC will have already been paid. You can then reclaim the import duty and VAT for the item that you returned from HMRC as per the link above - though not any additional fees that DHL charged on top of the actual taxes

visidigi

Did you return it via DHL?

If you did you might be able to get out of part of the duties. If you sent it back with a different courier or means then this would prove logistically very difficult indeed.

Hintza

You will need to pay DHL and then claim back any overpayment from Customs. (DHL acted as your agent and cleared the items through customs so they must be paid).

One question, why are you surprised?

Hintza

You will need to pay DHL and then claim back any overpayment from Customs. (DHL acted as your agent and cleared the items through customs so they must be paid).

One question, why are you surprised?

visidigi

Hintza wrote: »

You will need to pay DHL and then claim back any overpayment from Customs. (DHL acted as your agent and cleared the items through customs so they must be paid).

One question, why are you surprised?

Not entirely true - the method of return is critical. If they have used DHL to return it then DHL could resubmit the entry as returned goods, reducing the cost down.

If they weren't sent back DHL then like I said before, more complex.

The biggest problem is you need to notify HMRC BEFORE you 'dispose' of the goods (dispose including return)

Full info on the process is here:

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageImport_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000063&propertyType=document

Should you wish to pursue this further.

Oopsadaisy

Don't pay DHL [after all you didn't ask them to pay HMRC, you might have been happy to merely have the goods refused entry]...they will write you lots of letters ...and then go away.

vuvuzela

Oopsadaisy wrote: »

Don't pay DHL [after all you didn't ask them to pay HMRC, you might have been happy to merely have the goods refused entry]...they will write you lots of letters ...and then go away.

Is this really good advice ?
They will write letters to you then they will pass the debt onto a collections agency, at that point more fess will be added and the debt still won't have just magically disappeared.

visidigi

Oopsadaisy wrote: »

Don't pay DHL [after all you didn't ask them to pay HMRC, you might have been happy to merely have the goods refused entry]...they will write you lots of letters ...and then go away.

vuvuzela wrote: »

Is this really good advice ?
They will write letters to you then they will pass the debt onto a collections agency, at that point more fess will be added and the debt still won't have just magically disappeared.

No its awful advice.

Aside from all the debt collection with added cost, and aside from the legal aspect they will also do the following:

Blacklist the address internally, and when you next have freight they will pull up the old debt and add the new, thus reactivating the debt process again (they cannot hold your package for payment of these debts indefinitely)

Over time, the more people who do this, this higher the clearance fee becomes for everyone else. A bit like insurance, the more people who use/abuse, the higher the basic cost of doing the transaction becomes.

paddyrg

Well, either the sender or receiver certainly did ask DHL to clear the goods, andunless the goods were refused at point of delivery, I can't see how anyone would think DHL wouldn't take it further - and win. Now it may be that they charge the sellers account, so the receiver would have stitched up the seller twice over, but I really cannot imagine DHL wanting to set a precedent for paying peoples taxes for them

visidigi

to be brutally honest, there is a threshold amount, where it costs DHL more to chase than it does to write off - they will do their best to revert and any all charges to the seller, who is ultimately responsible, but eventually they might give up if its under threshold.

eventually affects the basic cost of DHL's business though and that will lead to higher clearance fees over time.