Import vat.. is it charged per parcel?

jon81uk

It doesn’t sound unreasonable to me that HMRC want to try to avoid people breaking shipments down into smaller units to get under the £15 limit. If you had bought the same product within the UK you would have paid 20% VAT anyway.

dez55000

Jon81 i dont have an issue with paying VAT if it is due.. It would help if the guidance was clearer though mate thats all.
Im still in the dark as to what the regulations are and trying to speak to a HMRC advisor online is purgatory personified.

martindow

dez55000 said:

martindow said:

Do you think the American company put all of the orders together?  They could have realised that you had made several orders and they linked them.  They could well have put several customs declarations - one for each individual order - on a single packet.  This would then be treated as linked transactions.  It seems vanishingly unlikely that anyone at the UK sorting office would notice parcels going to the same address and certainly not four of them.

Hi martin.. Each of the 4 orders was in a separate bag with a separate tracking number, the company (customs clearance limited) is telling me because they arrived on the same plane they are 'linked shipments'

Fishy?

Thanks

I was thinking in terms of the parcels arriving with Royal Mail.  Carriers like DHL will be different and probably pick up multiple parcels from the plane's manifest.  I am not sure if DHL would make a clearance charge for all outside EU items in any case whether they are below £15 or not. 

dez55000

Hi martin thanks for your reply mate, its not DHL asking for the custom fee its a company called 'customs clearance limited'..
I have actually asked for an invoice with a complete breakdown of the costs but they are being evasive so who knows! i have asked 3 times and have been fobbed off!
Cheers

martindow

Maybe customs clearance limited are acting as agents for DHL? 

dez55000

martindow said:

Maybe customs clearance limited are acting as agents for DHL? 

I think they just collect vat and duty for hmrc though im not sure..
cheers mate

MEM62

DHL handle their own clearances and HMRC collect import duties and taxes themselves.  If you do not have an account with Customs for the payment of duties and taxes (something called a deferment account) sometimes the broker handling the clearance will settle it on your behalf and collect the money from you on or before delivery.  Import VAT is charged at 20% on the landed value of the goods.  (Landed value means, item value + freight costs + duty)      

emmbrook

Customs Clearance Limited act as agents for DHL e-commerce packages and won’t release items until payment is made. As a company they are a legitimate customs clearance firm. The rules they are applying are HMRC’s so afraid it really is them who will need to advise, but essentially I think that you are caught here in having to pay since they arrived in one bulk shipment together. 

bris

I did something similar when I bought 5 fake buxus balls from Ebay Chinese sellers. They cost 60 quid a pop over here but just 15 from China but I did 1 every couple of days to avoid this scenario and got away with it. They all turned up a few days apart with no problems.

Unfortunately you did it all at the same time so your  parcels were easy to string together. next time split the deliveries.