Buying In The US Discussion Area

arty4

i buy supplements from the USA regularly. as far as i can tell the £18 limit to avoid VAT does not include the cost of shipping. and i have never been charged duty for anything over £7.

waistmover

Hi there

I was wondering if my auntie was to send me some face cream from the states to UK (price $69) would I have to pay any custom or VAT charges?

I am really confused about this.

Thanks

Trina

jgilligan

Is there anyway to avoid paying the Post Office delivery charge? seems unfair as they ask you to come and collect the package.

arty4

waistmover wrote: »

Hi there

I was wondering if my auntie was to send me some face cream from the states to UK (price $69) would I have to pay any custom or VAT charges?

I am really confused about this.

Thanks

Trina

in my experience, $69=£35, deduct the allowable £18, and you wd pay vat on £17, plus some sort of revenue collection fee.maybe best to check out with an enquiry to the royal mail?

tiggrrr

I have a friend who travels over from the USA to England. If he brings me a guitar will he have to pay VAT & duty on the beast when he passes through customs. From what I can tell, I could save 50% on the cost of a new guitar.

Gregm

I have a couple of questions that are probably obvious :

1. Is the £18 threshold per item or total amount you bring back (if you fly and buy) say 10 items each costing £15 each, would you be liable for VAT on the £150 as it exceeds £18 or would you be liable for no vat as each item is valued at less than £18?

2. OK so if I flew to NY to do my xmas shopping, I am buying gifts for friends and family. When I return, can I claim they are all gifts and therefor the threshold for vat increases from £18 to £36 or does the 'gift' have to be for the person carrying it through customs?

Greg

happycatuk

Gregm wrote: »

I have a couple of questions that are probably obvious :

1. Is the £18 threshold per item or total amount you bring back (if you fly and buy) say 10 items each costing £15 each, would you be liable for VAT on the £150 as it exceeds £18 or would you be liable for no vat as each item is valued at less than £18?

2. OK so if I flew to NY to do my xmas shopping, I am buying gifts for friends and family. When I return, can I claim they are all gifts and therefor the threshold for vat increases from £18 to £36 or does the 'gift' have to be for the person carrying it through customs?

Greg

Good questions, and has anyone else found the HM C&E website difficult to interpret?

I have purchased some mineral cosmetics from Austin, Texas, who have no retail outlets (only mail order), and nothing exceeds £18 on its own. However, all added up, it more than exceeds it, lol (if my OH sees this, I haven't bought any make-up here for several months, in preparation for this blow-out!!)

Now, they despatched my order at the end of last month using DHL International delivery, but I haven't received it (and it costs too much for them to put a Tracker number on my parcel).

They're lovely people who are willing to reship my order, but now I'm wondering if my original parcel is stuck in Customs or with the Post Office somewhere? I've realised that I have a friend who now lives in the States, and am wondering if I should ask the company to reship it to her, for her to bring back or mail to me as a 'gift'?

Any and all help most gratefully received, as I feel SO dumb for not thinking about Tax and VAT before (I've never bought anything from outside the UK before!)

Hang on, have just found this; sadly, it is as I thought... It seems to be £18 for the whole lot ...

3.4 How do I arrive at the customs value?

You base it on the price actually paid or payable by the buyer to the seller for the goods. This means the total payment made or to be made by the buyer to or for the benefit of the seller for the imported goods. It includes all payments made or to be made as a condition of sale of the imported goods by the buyer to the seller or by the buyer to a third party to satisfy an obligation of the seller. Thus periodic payments (such as monthly, quarterly, annually) or “one off” payments by the buyer to the seller for the imported goods must be taken into account (for example tooling charges, engineering fees, development costs).

The buyer of the imported goods need not necessarily be established in the country of importation.

chezrez

I wanna buy a I-pod classic 8-MG - $249 dollars on apple website.... is this a good deal.... wot exactly will it cost me in £'s.... can anyone help x

Chumly1078

Hi there, I am new to this, but I am very interested in exploiting the fact that theUS dollar is doing crap.. I want to buy a PSP slim and light (newest version) and a nintendo DS light. firstly are there compatability issues with buying from the US, when your intention will be to use it in the UK ?? Are the games bound by regions. So basically I am asking if I was to purchase the aforementioned two items what do I have consider first, and if there issues with compatability are there additional things that I can purchase to resolve.
Hope there is someone out there that can help with advice. Yours kindly Chumly.:beer: :eek:

akane_2

There is no way around paying the post office that fee ,its called a charge and the fee/charge is for the post office collecting any custom's duties payable .
before the postman would show you the package and you would have to pay then he would hand it over but now in most area's they send you a card
( it looks like the card they post when you are out and take the parcel back) it says on it how much you owe and you have to put stamps or a frank mark on it then send it back and they post your item to you..