Buying from Ebay USA - Tax Charges?

richt71

bigup wrote: »

Hi, i am interested in buying a laptop from ebay US which will cost around £700. The seller says the items are shipped as low value. What does this mean and will i have to pay tax charges on the items he sends me, such as duty etc.

Any ideas how much this will be on an item of this value, or does it depend on size and weight etc. And how will this be paid, will i have to go any pay it somewhere to be able to take the laptop?

The item is shipped by UPS or Fed ex. Any help appreciated. Thanks.

He's shipping at low value to help you advoid import duty but I'm afraid the big couriers are very careful about getting duties from you so I can't see this will help you. The only thing that may happen is if it's lost 'on-route' then the courier will re-imburse the low cost the seller claimed the item was worth.

soolin

Also i'm not sure if I would want to trust a seller who has admitted being happy to commit fraud against HMRC, i fhe#'s happy to break the law what else is he happy to do to a buyer?

Cute_'n'_Quirky

If an item is coming from the USA the Seller is breaking US Federal Law and is subject to prosecution there for altering the cost of an item.

mickey_mouse

sorry to hijack the thread but could i ask would i have to pay any customs etc on buying a book from the US . The value of the book is £10 . thanks for any advice

so2006

mickey_mouse wrote: »

sorry to hijack the thread but could i ask would i have to pay any customs etc on buying a book from the US . The value of the book is £10 . thanks for any advice

I think you get charged if the items are worth £18, if i am wrong please correct me someone!

martindow

Is 10 pounds the value of the book only? Customs duty and VAT are charged on the value of the object and the shipping cost so if this total is under 18 pounds there is no charge. If the book is 10 pounds and the shipping 9 pounds you might be charged.

Books are zero rated so even if they were over the 18 pounds you would not be charged any VAT. There might be duty of a few per cent and you would still be charged the 8 pounds or so handling fee for customs clearance. The carriage charge is at the same VAT rate as the goods so that is zero rated too in this case.

Often things that should be charged come through with no fees but be prepared for the worst and see it as a bonus if the carrier doesn't charge you.

Brooker_Dave

martindow wrote: »

Isn't this the seller's problem as they are responsible for delivering it to you? I

If they're from another country, what are you going to do?

martindow

Brooker_Dave wrote: »

If they're from another country, what are you going to do?

If you've paid using Paypal funded by a credit card the CC company will raise a chargeback and return the money to you if it goes pear shaped and Paypal fail to pay up.

phatbear

Ahhhh you cant beat a "i want to break the law" thread.

Speaking as one of her majestys finest I can assure you if I got my hands on a laptop which was valued at $10 I would consider what the importer was trying to hide, sure it could be something as simple as an attempt to avoid the appropriate charges but maybe its something worse, thats when my big bag of tools comes in handy.

Anyway the end result would be either:

a bill for the item and a record with customs/border agency
a damaged item because the nice customs offcier assumed there was more than met the eye, oooh by the way if this is the case you would only be able to claim the value of the item back ie $10, and you would still have a record with customs
the goods would be seized outright, and you would still have a record with customs
or you get away scot free and you're happy because you've managed to break the law without any punishment, yay you.

Just to clear something up, it is your responsibility to ensure when the item is shipped from the states that it is declared correctly, as the shipper is acting on your behalf. To give you a for example, and i know this is an extreme case, but I have stood in court before and had a defendant claiming he didnt know about the quantity of cocaine in a package he accepted delivery for, however because he accepted the delivery and because the defendant was responsible for items being sent to them they had no real defence

all the best

the bear