royal mail slip asking for £9.50 customs charge

Crowqueen

I believe they are offered the chance to pay the tax at their end, though, which reduces some of the potential not to realise what is going on.

soolin

martindow wrote: »

If someone in the UK is selling on Ebay, I believe international buyers receive a warning that they will be responsible for any customs charges. A similar message really ought to appear when CI sellers are selling to the rest of the UK.

Glad I'm not a CI seller. I imagine they are likely to receive poor feedback and stars fromdisgruntled buyers (even though the customs charges are not their fault).

I feel sorry for CI sellers as well, a bit harsh if they were only selling bits and bobs to raise a few pennies. Or even if they are trying to run a small business.

GregtheHammer

I sell from Guernsey & prepay the VAT so my buyers are not liable for paying the import tax & more importantly the Royal Mail's rip-off "admin" charge of £8.00.

porto_bello

GregtheHammer wrote: »

the Royal Mail's rip-off "admin" charge of £8.00.

Custardy may wish to correct me here, but I was once advised that Royal Mail does not receive the £8 charge, which is levied by a private company. Royal Mail merely has the duty of collecting it and passing it to the private company (can't remember the name).

In other words, Royal Mail neither levies the charge, nor feels the benefit from it - a private contractor does, which is just a middleman ... sounds like covert privatisation to me!

marking_bad

Yeah that sounds dodgy.

I had no idea about the CI, I thought the (recently reduced) £15 limit applied to every where in the world.

custardy

porto_bello wrote: »

Custardy may wish to correct me here, but I was once advised that Royal Mail does not receive the £8 charge, which is levied by a private company. Royal Mail merely has the duty of collecting it and passing it to the private company (can't remember the name).

In other words, Royal Mail neither levies the charge, nor feels the benefit from it - a private contractor does, which is just a middleman ... sounds like covert privatisation to me!

nope its all RM,for now....

GregtheHammer

marking_bad wrote: »

Yeah that sounds dodgy.

I had no idea about the CI, I thought the (recently reduced) £15 limit applied to every where in the world.

It does not apply to the Channel Islands, that was withdrawn on 1st April. A lot of the major DVD, game etc chains were shipping their stuff from the Islands to avoid VAT, it was a thriving industry over here. Most of the major companies have now relocated from the Islands. The ones that remain are either pre-paying VAT or sending stuff to UK via another country.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

GregtheHammer wrote: »

it was a thriving industry over here. Most of the major companies have now relocated from the Islands.

After spending years saying it was nothing to do with the VAT and then bolting out the door as soon as it was over....

Despicable companies including the people's favourites, Amazon and Tesco.