Fedex - Genuinely didnt know I had to pay Import Duty.

visidigi

Voyager2002 wrote: »

No, take it up with your MP!

The OP bought from a business in the USA. Why on earth should the vendor know about taxes applicable in a foreign country?

Anyone who is unwilling to find out about import duty and such issues should do their shopping in their home country.

Every vendor who ships with FedEx internationally is informed of the process and as part of shipping they have to define who will pay for duties and taxes (its an actual field requiring completion).

So the vendor DOES know.

The vendor is also likely to have put a disclaimer on their site, but to know that we would need to know the URL they bought from - in any case, the reason for going to the vendor is its the vendors selection of recipient for duties and taxes which caused it to be billed to the recipient.

What's and MP got to do with it, or was that you mocking my advice when you don't know what you're talking about?

custardy

Meds1980 wrote: »

Well that was valuable advice! I posted on here to get some assistance not be ridiculed from some keyboard warrior.
Yes in hindsight I should have researched it further, however as i wasn't told otherwise I beleived the shipping costs accounted for all costs incurred.

What site did you buy from?

paddyrg

The charge is probably only a small amount for VAT/duty and largely the fee for FedEx to do the clearance on your behalf. The VAT/duty bit is probably why the goods appeared to be cheaper to buy from the US (where sales tax is usually added at the checkout, so not in headline prices).

visidigi

paddyrg wrote: »

The charge is probably only a small amount for VAT/duty and largely the fee for FedEx to do the clearance on your behalf. The VAT/duty bit is probably why the goods appeared to be cheaper to buy from the US (where sales tax is usually added at the checkout, so not in headline prices).

Important Notice: FedEx currently charge an administration fee of 2.5% of the combined
Duty & VAT charge or £10.75 (whichever is greater). Effective date January 6th 2014. (source)

So at least 50% of it isn't FedEx's fee.

dacouch

Ironically Fedex play hard and fast with their own corporate tax and are registered in Luxembourg so they can pay literally a few million a year

George_Michael

dacouch wrote: »

Ironically Fedex play hard and fast with their own corporate tax and are registered in Luxembourg so they can pay literally a few million a year

That's something that I've never seen a problem with.
I think that most people would agree that if they found a legal way to pay less income tax then they would go ahead and do so and this is all that companies such as Fedex, Amazon etc are doing.

If the government don't like it then they should attempt to get the laws changed.

powerful_Rogue

George_Michael wrote: »

That's something that I've never seen a problem with.
I think that most people would agree that if they found a legal way to pay less income tax then they would go ahead and do so and this is all that companies such as Fedex, Amazon etc are doing.

If the government do like it then they should attempt to get the laws changed.

Couldn't agree with you more. As long as what their doing is legal I cant see the problem.

[Deleted User]

As often happens., you get stung once., you make sure it doesn't happen again. I got stung once with admin fees and duty charges on an imported item. I investigated how it works, and made sure I only order an item I really want, that can't be ordered else where that is more than £15. Those items are rare as I resent paying more than an item is worth on admin and duty charges

I am afraid it is a case of buyer beware. You can't expect a vender to be aware of possible duty charges - they are very difficult to find infomation on (HMRC website I find difficult to understand). And there's far more than this country to deal with.

shaun_from_Africa

One thing to bear in mind if anyone is considering ordering goods from the Channel islands.
There is no £15 limit and any goods from the CI, irrespective of value are liable for VAT.

gik

deannatrois wrote: »

As often happens., you get stung once., you make sure it doesn't happen again. I got stung once with admin fees and duty charges on an imported item. I investigated how it works, and made sure I only order an item I really want, that can't be ordered else where that is more than £15. Those items are rare as I resent paying more than an item is worth on admin and duty charges

I am afraid it is a case of buyer beware. You can't expect a vender to be aware of possible duty charges - they are very difficult to find infomation on (HMRC website I find difficult to understand). And there's far more than this country to deal with.

...except no one has been stung!