DHL - delivering goods then invoicing for Customs duty, VAT etc with no prior warning

powerful_Rogue

TheSweetCheeks said:

powerful_Rogue said:

TheSweetCheeks said:

powerful_Rogue said:

So what were the items and what is their value? What was the declared value state and how much are you being invoiced?

Stistical Value
£332.27             Duty 2.5% = £ 8.30
£340.57             VAT 20%   = £68.11
Duty Tax importer                = £11.00
                       Total Invoice    £87.41

Yeah, that hasn't really helped much. Would have been easier to say:

A pair of shoes costing £60 and declared as £60. DHL state the tax etc to be paid is £10.

Looking at those numbers, this is well beyond the gift threshold of £39 anyway.

Yes, even though these gifts was for more than than one person, they all pretty much exceeded the £39 threashold except my husbands and the cats presents hahahahahha

For your info here tis in NZ dollars what was declared

2 x Necklance $521.00
1 x Soap         $10.00 
3 x Chocolate $ 6.00
4 x Cat Toys   $21.00 
1 x Card         $ 4.00
1 x Tshirt        $49.00
1x Coffee Mug $18.00
1x Christmas Decoration $10.00
                 Total $639.00

Then there would be postage on top of this as well of course

Well and truly over any threasholds.

VAT at 20% as over £39

2.5% customs duty as above £135, but below £630.

Options, Get your friend to send just cards like you suggestion, Get them to order from a UK company so no charges or send her this link > https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad

Despite what you are going to email DHL, they have done nothing wrong and nothing will change as it works.

emmajones1976

Every day is a schoolday eh, take it as a life lesson and move on.  Disappointed she didnt send you any Pineapple Lumps though.

TheSweetCheeks

emmajones1976 said:

Every day is a schoolday eh, take it as a life lesson and move on.  Disappointed she didnt send you any Pineapple Lumps though.

Hah! guess what the chocolates were!? :-D 

emmajones1976

Well its not all bad then.

Aylesbury_Duck

Given these were gifts, is it really a problem?  You've made a net gain here, looking at it entirely rationally.  It's a different situation to those who buy from overseas without realising the true overall price.

theoretica

Any system which gave the addressee the chance to cancel receiving the parcel once in transit at any stage would increase the business costs - tracking, sorting out particular parcels, storage (especially airside of customs) return shipping.  And I can't see many people being keen on paying a parcel rejection handling fee. 

sheramber

Anybody sending goods to another country should be checking the customs charges for that country.

 UK is not the only country to charge on imports. 

here is a link to the New Zealand charges , in case you want to send anything to there.

https://www.customs.govt.nz/personal/duty-and-gst/duty-and-allowances/#:~:text=GST of 15% applies to,at NZ$1000 or less.

PragmaticMoneySaver

molerat said:

<snip>

Even if you had rejected the shipment you would still have been liable for customs charges.  </snip>

See this is the bit I disagree with generally (apologies for jumping on your post OP).

So if let's say I really royally pi**ed someone off abroad they could happily send me multiple parcels declared with high values and I become legally obliged to pay customs charges EVEN if I reject them. 

This is the bit that doesn't sit right with me, how can I potentially run up thousands in debt solely by a third party doing something that is not illegal (sending me stuff).

theoretica

PragmaticMoneySaver said:

So if let's say I really royally pi**ed someone off abroad they could happily send me multiple parcels declared with high values and I become legally obliged to pay customs charges EVEN if I reject them. 

This is the bit that doesn't sit right with me, how can I potentially run up thousands in debt solely by a third party doing something that is not illegal (sending me stuff).

I think this is the form to try in such circumstances https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-customs-dutyimport-vat-relating-to-imports-by-post-bor286

TELLIT01

I got caught out by the import charges etc some years ago.  I didn't actually realise I had ordered of Amazon.com rather than Amazon.co.uk (This was in the early days of internet shopping for me) and the addons virtually doubled the cost of the item.