Why have I recieved a customs fee?

Iggy82

I bought a Nintendo Wii on Ebay from a seller in Guernsey, its second hand. I had it delivered through Royal Mail Special Delivery only to finally receive a card today saying I owe customs £43.00 if I want it delivered.

Is this right? I was under the impression Guernsey was part of the UK and that if there is such a customs fee its for new items, not second hand!? I'm really confused and obviously really annoyed with the fee!

Hintza

Yes that is correct. Guernsey is not part of the EU from a tax perspective.

You should be liable for VAT and the clearance fee of about £8-£12.

For a second hand one the charge sounds a bit steep!

freddysmith

Might be worth reading the following from this link but I have included a part of the text here.

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_001454&propertyType=document

Customs has in place with the Jersey and Guernsey Customs and Postal authorities a special scheme that allows many of their traders to collect and pay to UK Customs import VAT on sales they make to UK customers. These traders, who are approved by the Jersey and Guernsey authorities, are allocated a unique authorisation number and this should be stated on the outside of your package. Under these arrangements you will be asked to pay import VAT, if applicable, at the time you make your purchase, and will not have to pay any additional costs such as import VAT, or the Royal Mail handling fee, when you receive your goods.

custardy

yes but that would be down to the seller to pay i assume

lisyloo

There may well be a "handling" fee to pay to the Royal Mail for them collecting the money.

I don't think it's down to the seller to pay.
If you are importing it then it's up to the buyer to pay the fees.
It's the buyer that's importing it not the seller.

custardy

i mean going by freddysmiths post

BritBrat

Did it cost less tham £18?

As I think goods under £18 do not attract the tax.

GregtheHammer

I sold a brand new Ipod a few years ago & ended up having to pay the VAT when posting it. ( I live in Guernsey )

Anything electrical, cds, dvds etc over the value of £17 is liable for VAT, so really anyone selling from the Channel Islands should know that there will be a customs liabilty. The fufilment companies based over here have a set up where they prepay any VAT charges.

In this case I can only think that the seller put the value of a brand new Wii on the customs sheet. Personally I think if the seller did not state on his/her listing that VAT may be liable(not sure if thats possible) then they should pay the extra.

I know a few people over here who have sold items & then ended up having to send money to irate buyers to get the items released from customs. I know people now just put "no value" on the customs which is technically illegal but also not much help if the item does get lost in the post.

I stick to selling comics & books, not liable for VAT

custardy

BritBrat wrote: »

Did it cost less tham £18?

As I think goods under £18 do not attract the tax.

doubt you get a WII for under £18

Brooke_Daver

Iggy82 wrote: »

I bought a Nintendo Wii on Ebay from a seller in Guernsey, its second hand. I had it delivered through Royal Mail Special Delivery only to finally receive a card today saying I owe customs £43.00 if I want it delivered.

Is this right? I was under the impression Guernsey was part of the UK and that if there is such a customs fee its for new items, not second hand!? I'm really confused and obviously really annoyed with the fee!

Guernsey is not in the EU, hense you have to pay VAT and duty on imports from there.

Iggy82

Yeah the seller had declared the Wii as £200 in value, even though thats way above its RRP and surely a second-hand wii would be worth even less than the RRP!?

So Customs took £35.00 in tax and Royal Mail took £8.00 for "handling" for the whole thing. £43.00 is absolutely ridiculous, I've contacted my seller to tell them the whole problem, I don't know if I should ask them to at least contribute towards paying that £43.00 as they never commented on any of the VAT sides of things in the auction.