Customs fee and Royal Mail handling fee

jonnyd281

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

Import duty is not the same as VAT.

Customs duty is charged on gifts worth over £35. if the items were worht less than £35 and marked as such, then no you would not have a charge.

A charge of £12 suggests the items were marked at being worth around £60.

I think that the cost of postage needs to be included for import duty and VAT.

sheramber

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

Import duty is not the same as VAT.

Customs duty is charged on gifts worth over £35. if the items were worht less than £35 and marked as such, then no you would not have a charge.

A charge of £12 suggests the items were marked at being worth around £60.

Import VAT is charged on gifts over £39

Customs Duty is not charged on anting under £135

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

KatrinaWaves

Thanks for the clarification on terminology. I could never get my head round the differing charges!

j7brw

Thanks for the comments. I suppose my real question is
When HMRC refunded the £12.36 vat charge surely it means that the charge should not have been applied in the first place.
If they hadn't charged the fee then Royal Mail wouldn't have charged the £8 handling fee.
That to me, is how it should work, but does it?

j7brw

Sorry, I should mention that the Xmas parcel contained gifts for 2 people, and the customs declaration showed that the value of the gifts per person was less than £39. That's why the HMRC fee was refunded.

davidmcn

j7brw wrote: »

Thanks for the comments. I suppose my real question is
When HMRC refunded the £12.36 vat charge surely it means that the charge should not have been applied in the first place.
If they hadn't charged the fee then Royal Mail wouldn't have charged the £8 handling fee.

Yes, but Royal Mail did end up having to handle it, so are entitled to charge for doing so. Maybe you can try recovering the £8 from HMRC, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

sheramber

As the declaration was correct then there was no need for Royal Mail to handle it more than to deliver it.

I would contact Royal Mail and ask for a refund.