Disputing import tax on product bought online

pinkshoes

dllive said:

Hi all
I bought some shoes online a month ago. The website is a spanish website. I havnt received the item yet, but have just received an invoice from UPS for £70!! Thats almost the amount I spent on the shoes! I didnt know I had to pay additional shipping costs (as well as the shipping costs the website charged me)!! How can I quickly get this cleared up? If I had know about this extra shipping charge, and/or the amount then I obviously wouldnt have bought it!! This UPS invoice says it payable IMMEDIATELY! I havnt even received my product yet!
Thanks

What you SHOULD be paying is 20% on item price plus postage. So assuming postage was about £15 and the shoes were £90, then (£15+£90) x 0.2 = £21.  

You would then expect to pay a handling fee BUT... as this is UPS, then they were known for charging excessive fees of about £41 or more (see many news reports over the summer!).

That would put the amount you have to pay £62 which is not far off the amount!

All you can do is pay it and learn a lesson from it.

prowla

Note that you should only pay UK VAT, so if sales tax was also charged at the seller's end, it should be recoverable.

dllive

Hmm, it doesnt say anything about where my product is!

So basically, I have to pay this, or I get no item? Or I pay this and might get my item? It says I have to pay immediately or I pay up to £40 late payment fee!!

The UPS invoice is itemised as:
Disbursement fee: £11.50
Duty Amount: £23.30
VAT: £35.53
total: £70.32

Nowhere on the website did it mention this! Perhaps I shoudl contact my bank and they can get my money back?

Thanks. 

theoretica

dllive said:

Hmm, it doesnt say anything about where my product is!

So basically, I have to pay this, or I get no item? Or I pay this and might get my item? It says I have to pay immediately or I pay up to £40 late payment fee!!

The UPS invoice is itemised as:
Disbursement fee: £11.50
Duty Amount: £23.30
VAT: £35.53
total: £70.32

Nowhere on the website did it mention this! Perhaps I shoudl contact my bank and they can get my money back?

Thanks. 

Looks to me as though the declared value has acquired a mistake somewhere - either doubling or acquiring an extra £100 somehow. I think you need to query with the sender if they can confirm what they put and with the shippers if they read it correctly.

This is an import issue of British tax - not something at the seller's end.

dllive

Ive just checked the original sellers invoice again. The total cost was £157. 

Is that what you mean by the 'declared value'? (sorry, this is all new to me)

bris

dllive said:

Hmm, it doesnt say anything about where my product is!

So basically, I have to pay this, or I get no item? Or I pay this and might get my item? It says I have to pay immediately or I pay up to £40 late payment fee!!

The UPS invoice is itemised as:
Disbursement fee: £11.50
Duty Amount: £23.30
VAT: £35.53
total: £70.32

Nowhere on the website did it mention this! Perhaps I shoudl contact my bank and they can get my money back?

Thanks. 

And why should it? You are the importer it's your job to understand the fees and charges that come with importing.

visidigi

Thrugelmir said:

visidigi said:

Thrugelmir said:

visidigi said:

Thrugelmir said:

visidigi said:

dllive said:

Hi all
I bought some shoes online a month ago. The website is a spanish website. I havnt received the item yet, but have just received an invoice from UPS for £70!! Thats almost the amount I spent on the shoes! I didnt know I had to pay additional shipping costs (as well as the shipping costs the website charged me)!! How can I quickly get this cleared up? If I had know about this extra shipping charge, and/or the amount then I obviously wouldnt have bought it!! This UPS invoice says it payable IMMEDIATELY! I havnt even received my product yet!
Thanks

Check the sender website to see who they say is responsible for the possible duties and taxes that may be leveraged.

Will be the importer of the goods. 

No, it will will depend on what the shipper declared as the bill duties and taxes to. The importer does not have to be the payor of the taxes.

So check the order terms and conditions, if it says its delivered duty paid then asked the shipper. If it says the recipient is responsible then the recipient has to pay them.

The goods have already cleared customs refusing them won't necessarily avoid the charges being owed.

The goods haven't cleared customs. They are being held in a bonded location until the applicable import costs are paid. UPS are merely the agents acting on behalf of the HMRC. 

UPS pay the duties and taxes on your behalf before you pay UPS. UPS (and no other carrier) has the ability to store your delivery in bond until you pay - there is simply not the space for this (especially as there is three to five 767/737/777 aircraft a day coming through the clearance points of UPS/DHL/FedEx a day...each.

I've been importing for over 30 years. Never had the goods released prior to payment. 

Handling charges are there in part to cover cost of storage facilities. 

Not that it's relevant to the OP. I always ensured my trading terms were explicit. I'd have no ability to keep track of changes to import charges on a global scale. 

You are a business - the clearance process for international couriers is different for residential versus business. So are the thresholds etc that are triggered based on the amount owed.

If the amount it low, and its residential the UPS courier can collect at the door - they do this because they have already paid for the duties and taxes owned.

Global variences only need to be know if you ship out, if you import all you need to know are the UK process and regulations.

UPS are not agents of HMRC, UPS have to present the digital data for HMRC to levy the amounts owned if the product doesn't have a tariff calculation already available for the harmonized code of the product. They have to staff the process incase UPS are asked by HMRC to present a package for inspection. These processes are why the courier levies the handling charge. Because they do the work, not HMRC.

custardy

dllive said:

Hmm, it doesnt say anything about where my product is!

So basically, I have to pay this, or I get no item? Or I pay this and might get my item? It says I have to pay immediately or I pay up to £40 late payment fee!!

The UPS invoice is itemised as:
Disbursement fee: £11.50
Duty Amount: £23.30
VAT: £35.53
total: £70.32

Nowhere on the website did it mention this! Perhaps I shoudl contact my bank and they can get my money back?

Thanks. 

So we started at £70 being nearly what you spent to not even being 50%
Im pretty confident the website will very much mention local taxes
UPS are only charging you £11.50 for their part. Duty and VAT at going to the UK Government

theoretica

dllive said:

Ive just checked the original sellers invoice again. The total cost was £157. 

Is that what you mean by the 'declared value'? (sorry, this is all new to me)

Oh right - with the cost of shipping the bill looks about right then.  Sorry.  I assumed you were being more precise when you said the bill was almost what you paid for the shoes, and it would have been outrageous for £70 shoes.  

You need to pay VAT on everything coming from abroad, and duty on things over £135.

Phantom151

Unfortunately you are responsible for knowing what charges are applicable. You'll find very few companies tthat will use DDP (delivery duty paid) as commodity codes are a minefield. You would always be liable for VAT though on purchases over £135. If it was under £135 the seller would've charged you a 20% markup as they would be responsible for the VAT payment.

Welcome to the glorious world of Brexit!