Stuck in customs

Mr_Singleton

Have an item that’s come from Japan. it’s currently showing as “Item presented to import customs” and has been for days. It’s really starting to get on my tips.

Don’t suppose there’s anything I can do to hurry things up? It’s frustrating as from my experience the Japanese are super scrupulous at doing all the forms etc. properly it’s not as if it’s coming from Colombia.

RFW

Is it going through Royal Mail by any chance?


I've had a few parcels go through Customs lately but the RM ones have had serious hold ups.

Mr_Singleton

Yes, sort of.... it’s Parcelforce. What do you mean by ‘serious hold ups’?

Also, was talking to a colleague on Friday and he was saying that every single item he gets from the USA gets slapped with some sort of customs charge whereas he’s never ever had a single charge on anything from China irrespective of actual value. The Chinese declared value has never been more than $10usd even on items worth in the £100’s. Am wondering if something dodgy is going on

soolin

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Yes, sort of.... it’s Parcelforce. What do you mean by ‘serious hold ups’?

Also, was talking to a colleague on Friday and he was saying that every single item he gets from the USA gets slapped with some sort of customs charge whereas he’s never ever had a single charge on anything from China irrespective of actual value. The Chinese declared value has never been more than $10usd even on items worth in the £100’s. Am wondering if something dodgy is going on

Yes it's dodgy, Far East sellers tend to under declare a lot of packages or else pretend they are gifts which is against HMRC rules. the US and as far as I'm aware Japanese sellers declare accurately and tend to get the proper import and have the correct duties levied.

However, saying that in the past month I have paid import taxes on something from China that was very borderline and also from the US . The US package took a while to arrive as I think that was also stuck in customs, but that came RM not parcelforce.

Mr_Singleton

Excellent, just noticed that it’s gone through customs but there’s going to be a charge.... Parceforce tell me they that they’ll pay any charges due for a mandatory fee of £13.50.

Now, I know that this has been done to death but now that the customs fee has been calculated why does HMRC or whoever not offer a way to pay direct? Imagine if any other govt. dept. acted this way ie you can only pay your council tax through company x that levied a £13.50/year charge.

I don’t know how the international postal system works re. charges but I wonder how much of the £29.38 delivery charge ParcelForce will be pocketing in addition to its £13.50 mandatory charge.

Again I’m not against the charge pe se just the fact that there appears no way to bypass it once the actual charge/bill is known/raised.

jeffuk

https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/receiving/why-do-parcelforce-worldwide-charge-customs-clearance-fees

Mr_Singleton

Thanks...l have no issue what so ever with a charge my point is why am I not given an opportunity to pay the relevant authorities once a charge is placed on the item?

antrobus

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Thanks...l have no issue what so ever with a charge my point is why am I not given an opportunity to pay the relevant authorities once a charge is placed on the item?

It's not a question of paying the duty, VAT whatever, it's a question of getting customs clearance.

From the link quoted above, "The company receiving the goods must hold an Inward Processing authorisation from HMRC".

soolin

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Thanks...l have no issue what so ever with a charge my point is why am I not given an opportunity to pay the relevant authorities once a charge is placed on the item?

As per the excellent previous reply, you can start up an import company through which you handle your own payments, but realistically that is never going to be workable for those of us who receive only a few parcels a month from overseas.

Mr_Singleton

Don’t want to get into a debate as the the rights and wrongs of this as at the end of the day it’s perfectly reasonable to charge a fee for providing a service.

The point I’m wondering is why after the bill is calculated I can’t just pay the amount outstanding to the entity that’s owed the money.

Wonder if there are any other branchs of govt. that are outsourcing Tax collection to a private company which charges a mandatory and what appears to be completely arbitrary fee.

George_Michael

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

Thanks...l have no issue what so ever with a charge my point is why am I not given an opportunity to pay the relevant authorities once a charge is placed on the item?

I believe that you can do so but the process needs to be started before the package leaves the sender.
They need to write something along the lines of "package will be cleared through customs by addressee"clearly on the customs declaration form.

What happens is that the importing courier will deliver the package to HMRC (or place it in a customs bonded lockup) when it will be assessed for the amount of VAT and duty payable.
HMRC will then write to you asking for payment to be made.
Once this letter has been received by you and you have paid, HMRC will then release the package and the courier will arrange for it to be delivered to you.

https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/how-declare-goods-when-importing-post

I wouldn't be surprised if the whole process takes a couple of weeks which IMO, makes the £13.50 cost worthwhile to me.