Customs charges

BBright83

I ordered some clothing from a company called Horze based in Germany. I have ordered from them before back in May of this year with no issues at all. With my most recent order I have received a letter from Parcel Force stating that my items are being held and that I need to pay custom charges. 

The goods that I ordered totalled £114.47 and in the letter from parcel force I am to pay £21.54 customs duty, £40.21 import vat and £12 clearance fee totaling £73.75!

In looking into the rules and regs of customs charges (of which are completely new to me surely we should be made aware of possible charges on purchase?) I understand it that if the products are under £135, not tobacco or alcohol and not a gift I should not be charged. Can anyone clarify if I am correct in this? 

On speaking to both HMRC and Parcel Force they both say that if I have a dispute over the charges I should pay them and then claim back the money using a Bor 836 form. I am reluctant to pay charges that I don't think I should have been charged and also not guaranteed to get back. 

Has anyone had any experiences like this? Or maybe offer some advice? 

Thanks  

Sandtree

Is £114.47 inc of the P&P?

VAT is 20%

£114.47 goods + £21.54 duty = £136.01 x 20% = £27.20

So the VAT of £40.21 being charged shows that the Parcel Force believe the value of the parcel to be more than £114.47, until you have sight of the customs declaration its a little hard to work out whats gone wrong but often culprets are if multiples of an item have been sent and the sender has put the total in the per item cost field (ie 2@£30 is entered as 2@£60) or a mistake has been made on the FX as presumably you were charged in euros rather than GBP.

JJ_Egan

German company don't follow UK laws in regards to informing worldwide users they may have to pay VAT / Customs etc , if such a law exists .

BBright83

£114.47 was the total

Thrugelmir

BBright83 said:

In looking into the rules and regs of customs charges (of which are completely new to me surely we should be made aware of possible charges on purchase?) 

Not the responsibility of the shipper to advise a buyer of their personal liability to import taxes. In a global world constantly changing. 

Import charges have been in existance for many years. Nothing new. 

Sandtree

JJ_Egan said:

German company don't follow UK laws in regards to informing worldwide users they may have to pay VAT / Customs etc , if such a law exists .

Better tell HMRC, and the growing number of other tax authorities that are requiring overseas companies to register to collect taxes for them on international orders.

Since 1 Jan this year the sender of a parcel under £135 that doesnt include excise goods is responsible for charging UK taxes and paying htem to HMRC. No idea what powers HMRC have to enforce against companies only domiciled overseas but on the basis other tax authorities are doing likewise it seems most think they can enforce it or companies will voluntarily apply in sufficient volumes to mitigate the cost of low value transaction processing HMRC used to have collecting VAT on parcels over £20

Changes to VAT treatment of overseas goods sold to customers from 1 January 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Thrugelmir

BBright83 said:

 I understand it that if the products are under £135, not tobacco or alcohol and not a gift I should not be charged. Can anyone clarify if I am correct in this? 

  

The value of the goods plus import duty takes the consignment value over the £135 threshold. 

Caz3121

BBright83 said:

£114.47 was the total

did that include actual postage costs or a reduced/free postage? actual costs would be used in the calculations even if you did not pay for postage