Wedding dress from the USA import charges?

angelfire

Hi I’m just wanting to check that the import charges that UPS have just invoices me for are correct.
I’ve bought my wedding dress from a shop in the US. They charged me tax and delivery, which I’ve paid and they’ve sent the dress. 

I’ve just received an email and invoice from UPS, the courier and it amounts to £173.89 in total which is broken down as £11.50 for their admin charges and the rest is ‘government taxes’.
I just need to know if this is correct? I expected to be charged but wasn’t expecting this amount. The dress was £500..
 Many thanks in advance! 

Jonboy_1984

About right, duty on clothing is normally around 12%, (so £60), then VAT at 20% (£112) plus the admin charge plus/minus a little bit for the exchange rate differences…

angelfire

Jonboy_1984 said:

About right, duty on clothing is normally around 12%, (so £60), then VAT at 20% (£112) plus the admin charge plus/minus a little bit for the exchange rate differences…

Thankyou for clarifying, I just wanted to make sure it was correct 

Manxman_in_exile

Should your American supplier have charged you "tax" if they were exporting it to the UK?

Flat_Earther

Manxman_in_exile said:

Should your American supplier have charged you "tax" if they were exporting it to the UK?

 No, and it would be surprising if they charged sales tax given it is only charged if the customer is in the same state as the business who is charging it, so charging internationally is strange.

angelfire

This is my invoice from the seller/store. Should I not have paid sales tax then? 

Manxman_in_exile

Not if it was being exported outside USA.

Your supplier may not have done this before so may not know the correct procedure.  Speak to them and ask for an explanation.

(Wait to see if anybody else comments before you do so).

FeaturelessVoid

!!!!!! said:

This is my invoice from the seller/store. Should I not have paid sales tax then? 

No.  It's an export item so probably not subject to sales tax.  You need to see the state laws of the seller to see how they deal with exports.  Sales tax is not a federal system so states can decide who they charge tax to and can charge tax to exports if they wish., but I don't think most do.

It IS possible for non-UK sellers to sign up with HMRC and charge VAT/Import Duty and pay it to HMRC, but that would be 20% (and I'm guessing 12% duty on women's dresses) so they'd be charging you $174.72 in sales tax, not $30.

The amounts seem roughly correct.  Slightly on the high side but you really need to show us the breakdown to prove they're incorrect, and we're probably talking £20 here at most.

angelfire

FeaturelessVoid said:

!!!!!! said:

This is my invoice from the seller/store. Should I not have paid sales tax then? 

No.  It's an export item so probably not subject to sales tax.  You need to see the state laws of the seller to see how they deal with exports.  Sales tax is not a federal system so states can decide who they charge tax to and can charge tax to exports if they wish., but I don't think most do.

It IS possible for non-UK sellers to sign up with HMRC and charge VAT/Import Duty and pay it to HMRC, but that would be 20% (and I'm guessing 12% duty on women's dresses) so they'd be charging you $174.72 in sales tax, not $30.

The amounts seem roughly correct.  Slightly on the high side but you really need to show us the breakdown to prove they're incorrect, and we're probably talking £20 here at most.

See this is my only breakdown unfortunately . I fully accept the customs charges etc, although higher than I’d anticipated , I fully understand I need to pay this. I’m just unsure now what to do re the sales tax charged by the supplier…

mattyprice4004

!!!!!! said:

FeaturelessVoid said:

!!!!!! said:

This is my invoice from the seller/store. Should I not have paid sales tax then? 

No.  It's an export item so probably not subject to sales tax.  You need to see the state laws of the seller to see how they deal with exports.  Sales tax is not a federal system so states can decide who they charge tax to and can charge tax to exports if they wish., but I don't think most do.

It IS possible for non-UK sellers to sign up with HMRC and charge VAT/Import Duty and pay it to HMRC, but that would be 20% (and I'm guessing 12% duty on women's dresses) so they'd be charging you $174.72 in sales tax, not $30.

The amounts seem roughly correct.  Slightly on the high side but you really need to show us the breakdown to prove they're incorrect, and we're probably talking £20 here at most.

See this is my only breakdown unfortunately . I fully accept the customs charges etc, although higher than I’d anticipated , I fully understand I need to pay this. I’m just unsure now what to do re the sales tax charged by the supplier…

Ask them to refund it back to you. 

FeaturelessVoid

!!!!!! said:

FeaturelessVoid said:

!!!!!! said:

This is my invoice from the seller/store. Should I not have paid sales tax then? 

No.  It's an export item so probably not subject to sales tax.  You need to see the state laws of the seller to see how they deal with exports.  Sales tax is not a federal system so states can decide who they charge tax to and can charge tax to exports if they wish., but I don't think most do.

It IS possible for non-UK sellers to sign up with HMRC and charge VAT/Import Duty and pay it to HMRC, but that would be 20% (and I'm guessing 12% duty on women's dresses) so they'd be charging you $174.72 in sales tax, not $30.

The amounts seem roughly correct.  Slightly on the high side but you really need to show us the breakdown to prove they're incorrect, and we're probably talking £20 here at most.

See this is my only breakdown unfortunately . I fully accept the customs charges etc, although higher than I’d anticipated , I fully understand I need to pay this. I’m just unsure now what to do re the sales tax charged by the supplier…

The breakdown would be the bill from UPS.  They will tell you how they got to their final billing amount, although as I said, it's roughly correct so I wouldn't bother them to be honest.

As said above, if you want the sales tax back ask the seller. It would be unusual for a state to collect sales tax on an export order but without knowing which state they operate out of nobody can say definitively that they've made a mistake.