Import Tax

Sandtree

Woopsie777 said:

Thanks guys I just paid it seems a bit excessive to me, Shame cause I would probably end up ordering most of my stuff from there but due to this it's not really feasible now.

You need to get a breakdown between VAT, Duty and Fee and check its right, it would not be the first time errors have been made.

Most couriers deliver first and chase for the monies after and so if you dont want to pay you need to refuse delivery.

bris said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

Woopsie777 said:

Hi guys,

I'm a bit confused about this. Last week I ordered a pair of Golf trousers as it was a off brand I wanted to try them out before getting more, Not knowing much about the brand I later find out they are from Sweden. They turn up and they are decent quality and I am happy with them. So yesterday I order 2 more pairs totally £165 for my total order. I then look at my emails today and see DHL want to charge me £66.13 for import tax. 

I get there maybe some import charges but this seems a bit steep no? 

Few questions

What happens if I don't pay these charges? Will they just get sent back to the sender? and hopefully I get a refund?

I just don't get how I wasn't charged anything for my 1st order but my 2nd order gets hit with this massive bill compared to the overall order amount.

The brand I ordered from was Macade if that's any help.

Isn't there a threshold of £135?  If so, that would explain why the first pair escaped the customs charge.

No, just a different way of collecting it. 

Up to (excluding gifts up to £39) £135 the Courier pays it for you, delivers it then sends the bill. Over £135 then you need to pay before delivery or on collection.

Under £135 the vendor is liable for paying it not the Courier.

Irrespective of the value the vendor can choose to offer a landed price to the customer and pay the courier to deal with taxes. The fee they charge vendors tends to be less than the ~£12-15 charged on small parcels to the recipient so can be advantageous but exposes the vendor to FX risk and so some bump the price by more than the anticipated cost to cover this and so it doesnt always work out.

The landed price is more commonly seen with US than EU companies, probably as they;ve had longer dealing with customers not happy about import costs they were ignorantly not expecting