Customs duties

ak47kalam

Hi, I have a package coming in from overseas and it was marked as gift and worth less than 100usd. However, customs still want an invoice. How can I show an invoice for a gift?

dauphin

If it's not really a gift, you need to tell HMRC this, otherwise you will be party to an attempt to defraud them. You can explain that the sender marked it as a gift without your knowledge or authority. In this case, it will be easy for you to supply an invoice.
If it is a bona fide gift, there is still VAT to pay if it is worth more than £40 and is coming from outside the EU. So you can see why HMRC needs to know the value when it's been declared as worth "less than 100usd". You'll need to ask the sender to provide a copy of the invoice or details of where they bought it (eg a website link, so you can show HMRC some evidence of its value.
If the value is over £40 but not more than £135 it doesn't really make any difference if it's a gift or not; VAT will be payable.
Full details here:
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&propertyType=document&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014#P199_20616

ak47kalam

Won't the seller get in trouble?

RFW

ak47kalam wrote: »

Won't the seller get in trouble?

That's not really your problem, but I doubt anything can/will happen, it's fairly easy to tick the wrong box by mistake, even though that probably hasn't happened here. I'm sure it would cost substantially more pursuing them than HMRC would ever get back.

nikki1520

ak47kalam wrote: »

Won't the seller get in trouble?

Actually EU law is quite clear, responsibility for the accuracy of the declaration rests with the importer - that's you! Not the person who sent it,or the agent who clears it.

So the only person potentially in bother for making a false declaration is you. Not that you'd be sent to prison or anything though- it's not on a big enough scale.