Customs - fees on gifts not from private individuals

cinereus

How on earth do HMRC justifying charging duty on a gift from a friend the US who uses a website to ship to the UK rather than shipping to themselves and then paying for shipping again as a "private individual" to qualify as a gift. This is patently absurd and grossly unfair.

le_loup

How could HMR&C tell that this was a private gift?
Unfair, maybe but a brilliant way of getting commercial imports into the UK.

noh

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm#4

Is it unfair?

If the item in question was sent as a gift and correctly declared would the duty and VAT charged have been much less?
As far as I can see there is not alot in it. If the item value was more than £36 then there is no difference.

cinereus

noh wrote: »

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/buying.htm#4

Is it unfair?

If the item in question was sent as a gift and correctly declared would the duty and VAT charged have been much less?
As far as I can see there is not alot in it. If the item value was more than £36 then there is no difference.

The point is for items between £15-£36 if it's properly counted as a gift you save a few quid PLUS the £8 RM/Parcelforce fee which makes up a significant percentage.

cinereus

le_loup wrote: »

How could HMR&C tell that this was a private gift?
Unfair, maybe but a brilliant way of getting commercial imports into the UK.

In the normal way: because of the CN22 declaration?

le_loup

Well, clearly, they are doubting the veracity of the declaration.

dzug1

le_loup wrote: »

Well, clearly, they are doubting the veracity of the declaration.

Well if I were a customs officer I would certainly doubt the veracity of a declaration for an obviously commercially shipped package claiming to be a gift

Buzby

As would any courier employee - I've not seen a 'customs officer' at any depot since 1990. It is the courier company that undertakes the work.

cinereus

le_loup wrote: »

Well, clearly, they are doubting the veracity of the declaration.

Read my original post. It's nothing to do with the veracity - they claim it's impossible for a gift to be sent from a company. I'm asking how this is justified.

sheramber

Goods sent as a gift that are over £36 in value are liable to import VAT Customs duty also becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135 but is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £9.

To qualify as a gift:

the customs declaration must be completed correctly
the gift must be sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country


http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P18_1593

dzug1

cinereus wrote: »

Read my original post. It's nothing to do with the veracity - they claim it's impossible for a gift to be sent from a company. I'm asking how this is justified.

By definition, I would assume


If you are asking how the definition is justified I'm not sure it has to be.