book bought from amazon us by mistake.. import tax

faerielight

I ordered a book from Amazon and didn't realise I had bought it from a us seller, instead of the uk one as there was both a uk and us seller. I got the leaflet asking me to pay "12 plus £8 to royal mail, the book was only £10, I rang royal mail who said that the book would go back to the seller in 3 weeks of i didn't pay the tax, but they delivered it today.. any ideas as to what to do..

Lumstorm

If you have your package delivered there is nothing to do. If they were going to collect a fee they would do it before they delivered.

unholyangel

faerielight wrote: »

I ordered a book from Amazon and didn't realise I had bought it from a us seller, instead of the uk one as there was both a uk and us seller. I got the leaflet asking me to pay "12 plus £8 to royal mail, the book was only £10, I rang royal mail who said that the book would go back to the seller in 3 weeks of i didn't pay the tax, but they delivered it today.. any ideas as to what to do..

Was it £10 inc P&P or was there a charge for the P&P which would take the value over the £15 limit?

maninthestreet

£12 tax/duty on a £10 book??

unholyangel

maninthestreet wrote: »

£12 tax/duty on a £10 book??

I've had tax applied before as the sender had put a value in $ much much higher than I actually paid and UK customs had also applied tax as if the $ amount was in £.

Ended up getting the tax refunded by sending them an invoice proving what I had actually paid but you never get the handling fee back - only way to avoid that part is challenge it before paying rather than applying for a refund after paying.

arcon5

Lumstorm wrote: »

If you have your package delivered there is nothing to do. If they were going to collect a fee they would do it before they delivered.

Actually some couriers dealing with imports will deliver still then send an invoice. As Royal Mail appear to have done here.

Op remains liable unless she can prove it is incorrect.

soolin

faerielight wrote: »

I ordered a book from Amazon and didn't realise I had bought it from a us seller, instead of the uk one as there was both a uk and us seller. I got the leaflet asking me to pay "12 plus £8 to royal mail, the book was only £10, I rang royal mail who said that the book would go back to the seller in 3 weeks of i didn't pay the tax, but they delivered it today.. any ideas as to what to do..

Are you absolutely sure the charge applies to the book, it is very rare for RM to deliver an item waiting for import taxes to be paid. Is there a possibility that you have another parcel awaiting payment?

shaun_from_Africa

Even if the seller declared the value higher than the actual price paid there still shouldn't be anything to pay as books are rated at 0% for VAT.

[Deleted User]

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Even if the seller declared the value higher than the actual price paid there still shouldn't be anything to pay as books are rated at 0% for VAT.

Value Added Tax is not in question. The tax being charged is Import Tax, which is completely different.

Lumstorm

arcon5 wrote: »

Actually some couriers dealing with imports will deliver still then send an invoice. As Royal Mail appear to have done here.

Op remains liable unless she can prove it is incorrect.

Some will charge later DHL have done that before I got a bill two months later. Fedex have phoned me to pay upfront. The Post Office put a postcard detailing the charges to pay and won't deliver until it's paid. Though I have had the postman hand over a parcel that was marked as having charges to pay but they never claimed them. The postman used to take the money at your door but they haven't done that for years.

LadyDee

I think £8 of the £12 total is probably the charge made by RM for processing the customs clearance side of things, so it's really only £4 Import Duty or Tax whatever it's called.

There are ways of dealing with importing things from abroad yourself in order to avoid having to pay the £8 charge but not sure how you do it, but I think it has to be arranged beforehand.