Help with potential charges buying from US seller on ebay

martindow

MR1988 said:

I as well ordered something from Japan recently which cost about £52 in total after VAT and Shipping was added. Really curious if there will be any other fees to pay when it reaches, but hopefully there won't be.

As Spoonie_Turtle explained earleir it depends on whether you have bought through on online market place like Ebay.  If that is the case the price that you have paid includes VAT etc and there will be no more to pay.

If you have bought from a website they may have registered for UK VAT in which case VAT and import costs are already accounted for.  It should be clear from the order confirmation whether this is the case.

If they have not registered which is likely to be the case unless they sell a lot to the UK you will have extra to pay on arrival here either before or after delivery according to the carrier. 

If JapaneseVAT has been added, UK VAT will be payable as well.

MR1988

These are the payment details:

Item (Japan, No Region Protection) £37.48

Shipping £5.92

VAT/GST £8.68

Total £52.08

It's an online shop that ships worldwide so I think it's registered with UK.

martindow

That's still ambiguous isn't it as is doesn't say whether it is Japanese or UK VAT. 

I suspect it is UK VAT as the total cost (item + shipping) is £43.80.  UK VAT on that at 20% would be £8.68 exactly as they have charged.

Fingers crossed!

Thrugelmir

eBay are now responsible for ensuring that the correct import taxes are collected. In days gone by used to be pot luck whether shipments got caught or not when being processed through customs for international shipments. 

martindow

Thrugelmir said:

eBay are now responsible for ensuring that the correct import taxes are collected. In days gone by used to be pot luck whether shipments got caught or not when being processed through customs for international shipments. 

I am not sure if MR1988 is buying via eBay or not.  I get the impression that this is directly from a web site, but the figures do suggest that they may be set up to deal with UK VAT in Japan in which case the parcel should come through in the way you describe.

MR1988

It's not from eBay, it's from Play-Asia online shop.

Thrugelmir

martindow said:

Thrugelmir said:

eBay are now responsible for ensuring that the correct import taxes are collected. In days gone by used to be pot luck whether shipments got caught or not when being processed through customs for international shipments. 

I am not sure if MR1988 is buying via eBay or not.  I get the impression that this is directly from a web site, but the figures do suggest that they may be set up to deal with UK VAT in Japan in which case the parcel should come through in the way you describe.

If the item is an import, VAT will be charged at point of entry into the UK. Many operators use UK internet domains but ship from international distribution hubs. 

MR1988

I confirm I did not have to pay any import fees, just received the item today through regular post.

Spoonie_Turtle

MR1988 said:

I confirm I did not have to pay any import fees, just received the item today through regular post.

Can I ask whether they'd declared the value correctly and that it was a commercial item on the customs form?  On their website, the section entitled 'Customs' seemed to imply that they took no responsibility, but if they have registered with HMRC to collect and pay VAT they'd be doing themselves a favour by saying so!

MR1988

Spoonie_Turtle said:

MR1988 said:

I confirm I did not have to pay any import fees, just received the item today through regular post.

Can I ask whether they'd declared the value correctly and that it was a commercial item on the customs form?  On their website, the section entitled 'Customs' seemed to imply that they took no responsibility, but if they have registered with HMRC to collect and pay VAT they'd be doing themselves a favour by saying so!

 Was marked as 'Sale of Goods' and correct value was declared.

 Although I ordered an English product and I received a Japanese product, but that's another story xD