Minimising import VAT on free goods?

Lulu10

First, sorry for posting here. I couldn't think which other forum this might belong in and I figured eBayers might have some insight into postage & customs/import VAT.

I recently received some free goods (brand new) from an overseas company. The retail value was £30 and that's what was declared on the customs form. I was hit with a £14 customs charge (£6 VAT, £8 handling).

Fair enough; I still got the goods at half price. Obviously though, I'd like to avoid this in the future though!

They're not a gift per se, as they're from a (small) company rather than a person. The company gives them to me so I can showcase them on my blog. I do get to keep them and use them afterwards though.

Any ideas?

At the moment, she's declaring the full retail price. Can she instead declare the value at cost price, as that's presumably what goes through her accounts? That'd reduce the declared value below the magic £15 half the times.

The originating country is Canada. I don't think there's any way to prepay the VAT (it's the £8 handling charge that I object to). I'd like to be wrong though .

RFW

I would have thought that it is technically a sample so the retail price is not the right price. You could let them know the situation. It may be that they don't want you to know the cost price but it doesn't need to be accurate.
Some couriers are pickier than others and use the charge to add to their profits, so a change of courier may give different results.

Lulu10

Unfortunately the courier is Canada Post and the declaration is made by the person shipping and HMRC are taking it at face value, so there's no problem on that front.

I was hoping it'd be possible to class as a sample (that's an option on the Canada Post declaration), but in reality the items haven't been rendered inactive/unusable, I use them for myself after using them for the marketing purposes and I could even resell them.