shipping from India

Jimbobby_2

kossohead wrote: »

With your advice, I have decided not to purchase the items.

The seller sold 86 items and had a 99% feedback rating though!

thanks

That's a shame, the people at the other end would have been keen to get the goods to you in the hope that you'd order again and with a little bit of brains you could probably have got round the customs duty (which wouldn't have been a lot anyhow!) and VAT.

Let us know the item number so we can take a look!

soolin

JimBobby, there is no legal way to get round customs duty , brains or no brains.

Jimbobby_2

soolin wrote: »

JimBobby, there is no legal way to get round customs duty , brains or no brains.

Really? Ok then, glad you know best! There are legal loopholes in everything, including importing stuff from Asia or anywhere else, brains or no brains.

When you have been to India and sent numerous parcels to UK without incurring duty once and have been on the receiving end in the UK without incurring duty and all above board and legal, then I'm happy to be educated by you, until then......

I didn't say it was definitely possible in this case, I said probably and also indicated that even with duty it wouldn't amount to a massive amount!

soolin

Other threads on here have covered the fact that many of us,myself included, have received items from overseas without incurring duty and tax. However it is nothing to do with brains, it is just (for want of a better word) luck.

Items bought in from non European countries are subject to varying sorts of taxes and duty depending on what those items are. These charges are payable and it is just luck of the draw whether you get charged or not.

Edit to add: As well as all the Govrnment fees and taxes there is also handling charges depending on which carrier is used. These handling charges can often be quite high and if you read the warnings /vent boards you will see that these often take people by surprise.

Jimbobby_2

Thanks Soolin, you just contradicted yourself nicely there. It is perfectly legal to receive goods into the UK without duty if they come to you and the customs don't charge you, many items do not have duty applied to them whatever the value and however they are sent.

Having travelled India and posted over 1000 parcels of significant back to UK without a single one incurring duty I guess I was very lucky!

soolin

I don't believe I contradicted myself at all

Your post stated

and with a little bit of brains you could probably have got round the customs duty (which wouldn't have been a lot anyhow!) and VAT.

Which implies there is a way of avoiding tax which has nothing to do with luck. If you were implying just luck saved these import taxes the why would you have mentioned using your brain or getting round the charges?

No one can set out to deliberately avoid paying the tax. Therefore for the purposes of this thread it is right and proper to warn the OP that these charges are there. Obviously if the items turned up without being charged then that would have been a nice bonus, however the OP could do nothing using brains or otherwise to definately avoid the due charges.

Jimbobby_2

You said there was no legal way of avoiding duty and then went on to mention a legal way of avoiding duty regardless of brains, luck or whatever. A bit of brains and knowledge of the system can certainly increase your luck!

Anyway, as I said when you've been off and learnt these things in the real world outside these forums then come back here and we'll swap tips.

I was just trying to give good advice to the OP rather than make her feel it was such a minefield which it definitely isn't, it's not a large amount of stuff either so it could in fact be very simple with or without duty.

soolin

Jimbobby wrote: »

Anyway, as I said when you've been off and learnt these things in the real world outside these forums then come back here and we'll swap tips.

.

You make a lot of assumptions :rotfl: , maybe it is because I do actually work 'out there' that I am able to understand how these things work both in a written legislative way and in actuality.

Jimbobby_2

soolin wrote: »

You make a lot of assumptions :rotfl: , maybe it is because I do actually work 'out there' that I am able to understand how these things work both in a written legislative way and in actuality.

Then I'm even more amazed by your lack of understanding and knowledge of these issues then :rolleyes: . Perhaps you should have had a better teacher and you might have saved yourself and others a lot of hassle and expense!

martindow

Jimbobby wrote: »

Thanks Soolin, you just contradicted yourself nicely there. It is perfectly legal to receive goods into the UK without duty if they come to you and the customs don't charge you, many items do not have duty applied to them whatever the value and however they are sent.

I'm not sure that this is true as I think that the importer is responsible for the accuracy of the customs declaration. Strictly speaking, you should inform HMRC if you have not been charged VAT and duty where it is due. I've just been looking on their site for confirmation of this but can't find a reference.

This thread
http://www.teneric.co.uk/forums/starting-small-business/importing-695.html
certainly suggests the responsibility is on the importer although it is for a larger scale import.