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Customs duty on personal item being returned to owner in France....

woolythoughts
woolythoughts Posts: 292 Forumite
Ninth Anniversary 100 Posts
edited 14 March 2021 at 4:49PM in Cutting tax
Forgive me if this is in the wrong board.....

a friend of mine returned to France before Christmas and left his laptop behind.  As open borders are looking a way off, we decided to return it to him CIA courier.  It was correctly labelled as return of a pre-owned personal item and as a computer to the value of £500 for insurance reasons.

customs are wanting £125 import duty before they will release it to him.  Surely that can’t be correct as it’s his own item which he took out of France and forgot to take back with Him.

any ideas?

Comments

  • Thrugelmir
    Thrugelmir Posts: 89,546 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 14 March 2021 at 5:36PM
    Pay the duty then argue afterwards directly with the French Tax Authorities. The shipping agent is merely the tax collector not the arbitrator. They are duty bound to collect taxes before releasing the goods. 

    Providing proof of the original purchase should suffice. 
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