excessive import charges

Neoshoegal

I ordered some t-shirts from the US. They just arrived with UPS and I had to pay some import charges, totalling £18.77 (£7.77 import vat and £11 brokerage surcharge).
The declared value of the package is only $53.51
In other words I'm paying about 70% charges
That's a bit unreasonable right?

superscaper

Import sounds exactly right. The brokerage fee is the only thing you've got a problem with and that's going to be down to UPS. Not sure if they have a flat fee.

Edit: seems to be a fixed brokerage fee. £11.45

"Duty and Tax Forwarding Charge

This charge is for shipments outside the EU, when the payor of duties and taxes is not located in the destination country. It is billed to the party who pays the transportation charges."

But this doesn't seem to apply so maybe worth querying UPS about it.

Neoshoegal

I'm ok with the import VAT, no issues with paying that. I just think that brokerage fee is a bit unexpected. I don't even know what it's for???

katiekittykat

That sounds about right, it is usually in the small print when you order.

superscaper

Neoshoegal wrote: »

I'm ok with the import VAT, no issues with paying that. I just think that brokerage fee is a bit unexpected. I don't even know what it's for???

See my edit (from http://www.ups.com/content/gb/en/shipping/cost/additional.html#Duty+and+Tax+Forwarding+Charge)

Neoshoegal

somebody just directed me to this site:
http://www.volkszone.com/VZi/showthread.php?t=351900

I'll be emailing UPS and see if I can get a similar result... fingers crossed.

custardy

if you stood in front of me with your mobile threatening to call the police,i would take mine out to take a picture

temin

I was thinking of importing some herbal supplements for personal use from the US.
The cost would come to $150 and it would be shipped using Global Priority Mail.
Does anyone have any idea how much the duty, VAT etc would cost for that, or,
how I could find out the total of additional charges this would incur?
Just trying to work out if it's worth it.
Cheers!

custardy

you can look on the hmrc site to see what dutys apply,then check the carriers fee's

superscaper

I also find this calculator quite useful (downloaded program but small): http://www.thewholesaleforums.co.uk/forum/import-export-vat-tax-and-legal-discussion/14231-uk-vat-and-duty-calculator-simple-freeware-tool.html

temin

Thanks....:)