Fed Ex charges

mario999

Apologies if this question has already come up.
I have recently had some cheap items arrive from China.Fed -Ex delivered the item and a bill followed a short time later.
I accept there will be some tax to pay, which is not a problem. However, because the sender did not state shipping charges at the point of posting, Fed Ex have based their invoice on estimated shipping charges. They estimated £140, when the actual shipping charge was £61.
I have tried to contact Fed Ex via email a month ago, with no response. I have now received a second 'warning' letter in the post demanding I pay the fees.

Having spoken to online chat today, they state I need to pay the full amount, then try and claim their overpayment back from HMRC. Does this sound correct? Surely I should pay the correct amount and Fed Ex need to recoup any overpayment. The online operator tried to suggest that it was my fault as the sender should have stated shipping charges.  Advice appreciated.

[Deleted User]

HMRC set the taxes and duties so you will need to pay the bill and reclaim off them with your evidence. As an importer, it's your responsibility to get the exporter to put the right information on the shipping documents. If you can show the shipping calculation is wrong, HMRC will refund you the overpaid tax. 

Kattekwaad

Produce the invoice.

As a side note if fedex delivered they will know exactly how much the shipping charges were.

mario999

Kattekwaad said:

Produce the invoice.

As a side note if fedex delivered they will know exactly how much the shipping charges were.

I offered to send them the invoice, but they were not interested. They just repeated that the bill needed to be settled, then it was for me to chase a refund from HMRC. 
I'm not even sure if HMRC would issue me a refund for the Tax paid by Fed Ex. 

mario999

camelot1971 said:

HMRC set the taxes and duties so you will need to pay the bill and reclaim off them with your evidence. As an importer, it's your responsibility to get the exporter to put the right information on the shipping documents. If you can show the shipping calculation is wrong, HMRC will refund you the overpaid tax. 

That's probably what I will have to do in the end, but it annoys me that Fed Ex wildly over estimates the shipping cost then leaves me with the trouble of sorting out a mess created by them. 
The parcel was a gift of sorts by a relative which I did not expect, so could not ask them to be specific about what they wrote on the shipping form. 

Manxman_in_exile

Are you saying FedEx don't know the delivery charges and estimated them, or are you saying the shipper didn't declare the (correct?) value?

Kattekwaad

OP you need to calculate the cost properly 

Item Cost + Shipping will give you total cost you then need to find out if import duty is chargeable (normally fairly minimal) + VAT + Fedex clearance charge.

What was the item and total cost (inc shipping)?

Keep_pedalling

Kattekwaad said:

Produce the invoice.

As a side note if fedex delivered they will know exactly how much the shipping charges were.

Not if they are acting as an agent for the UK end only, but even if they controlled it end to end, it is not up to them to check that HMRC have applied the fees correctly, that is down to the shipper correctly declaring the fees on the shipping document, and if they fail to do that then it becomes a matter for the importer to sort out with HMRC.

mattyprice4004

Just to clarify, it's HMRC that clear parcels in - not an operation directly controlled by FedEx. It's not up to them to work out what was paid in shipping, as there's all sorts of courier agreements in place around the world. 

It's squarely down to the exporter to note this correctly, and if incorrect HMRC will always err on the side of caution when estimating (or no one would bother to declare the correct rate).