DHL unpaid invoice for duty and VAT

yumi180

OK so, apologies for the long winded post below!

I am currently on maternity leave and before I went off alongside my career as a nurse I set up a small eco and handmade business. I made very little from it but it was going well so was good to experience what it was like. I didn't apply for VAT exemption as I wasn't earning much at all so it didn't seem worthwhile. I signed up to a few companies for a trade account during that time.

Fast forward a year and I bought some items from Legler, a wooden toy company in Germany. I spent €82 on toys for my son as I intended to see what they were like for future investment should I get the business going again after mat leave ends. These items on the site were 50% off and free delivery due to them being new line samples.

I paid the invoice to Legler and DHL delivered my package. A few weeks later and I recieve a letter in the post with an itemised bill from DHL for £80.60!! The letter it titled unpaid invoice for duty and tax. The letter accounces that the amount is unpaid and if they do not hear back from me within 7 days they will pass it on to a debt collection agency.

So, I email DHL like wth!? £80 when my items didn't even cost that much!? Plus they are samples! 
They said "As per the HMRC, a shipment cannot be claimed as Sample. A VAT registered customer can make the payment to us and reclaim the same from HMRC directly."
Obviously I have no VAT exemption so know that paying vat on an item is fair, but honestly how can VAT be more expensive than the goods themselves? I have replied to them asking what I do now and subsequently emailed them twice more asking why the cost is so much and I am still yet to recieve an answer

What is worse is that the company in Germany split my order due to stock availability and I have a smaller 

yumi180

So sorry, I'm new here and can't see how to edit this post!

I meant to say, I have a smaller shipment arriving imminently from Legler with a smaller value of €23. But I am terrified now because I don't want another huge bill from DHL. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to pay them all being on maternity leave still

Does it sound right that customs and import duties would be that expensive? As the item was a sample even though I'm not VAT exempt, is there any way of reducing the charge?

BUFF

what does your itemised invoice breakdown say for your first order? Anything that you can argue?
Unfortunately you are probably going to be hit for VAT for your next consignment too & DHL will have a minimum admin/handling charge to collect it.

yumi180

BUFF said:

what does your itemised invoice breakdown say for your first order? Anything that you can argue?
Unfortunately you are probably going to be hit for VAT for your next consignment too & DHL will have a minimum admin/handling charge to collect it.

Aparently admin fees etc are zero. Transaction amount is £80? I don't know how they've arrived at that figure 

prowla

€82 including shipping does not translate to adding £80 fees.

Were the items manufactured in the EU or overseas? If EU then there is no import duty, but otherwise there is..

20% VAT would be due on goods + shipping, which is £16.

The courier would charge a £11 handling fee for paying that on your behalf.

So that simply doesn't add up to £80.

Do you have a breakdown of the costs?

The only gotcha would be if the seller stated a higher value on the goods on the customs declaration - that's the point of reference for customs and the courier.

yumi180

prowla said:

€82 including shipping does not translate to adding £80 fees.

Were the items manufactured in the EU or overseas? If EU then there is no import duty, but otherwise there is..

20% VAT would be due on goods + shipping, which is £16.

The courier would charge a £11 handling fee for paying that on your behalf.

So that simply doesn't add up to £80.

Do you have a breakdown of the costs?

The only gotcha would be if the seller stated a higher value on the goods on the customs declaration - that's the point of reference for customs and the courier.

So this is the breakdown of costs of the goods from Legler. As you can see the 50% discount was applied and the goods were referred to as 'samples'

After receiving the bill from DHL I emailed them asking why the costs were so high and that I wasn't happy about it, and this was their reply -

After checking out the FAQ link they sent on their website the only quote of freight and charges I could find was this, what do you think? Do you think they weren't transparent enough about costs that would be added? I still can't see how the £80 has arrived 

The shipping costs are calculated as follows: 
Great Britain: Each parcel Freight charges £ 20,22 + Handling charges £ 7,50 

yumi180

https:// www.legler-online.com/en/info-und-service/faq/#/

BUFF

yumi180 said:

BUFF said:

what does your itemised invoice breakdown say for your first order? Anything that you can argue?
Unfortunately you are probably going to be hit for VAT for your next consignment too & DHL will have a minimum admin/handling charge to collect it.

Aparently admin fees etc are zero. Transaction amount is £80? I don't know how they've arrived at that figure 

it references a "recent, unpaid invoice" - did you previously receive same (possibly even with the delivery)?
As prowla says I would ask them to explain how they arrived at the £80.60 figure.

As a business to business/trade supplier I would say that imo Legler (whilst they could have been explicit, is it on their order form terms perhaps?) could reasonably expect businesses to be aware of customs/import procedures.