The cost of importing, yeesh........

[twocvbloke]

Well, I finally got the ransom note for the parcel which contains my Cortelco 2554, and for a box that's been valued as $149 (£94), the VAT added ontop seems to be twice what the actual value should be (20% of the value), so, I think that's put me off importing goods from the US completely now, not cos of anyone over in the states, but because of people in this country, the HMRC, not only do they take taxes, they take the pee...

I will be disputing this of course, but I have a feeling I'll probably lose out, which means that's less money going to the US for the things I want sadly...

Anyone else in the UK had issues with the HMRC adding on a rather excessive amount of tax on imported goods? Doesn't seem fair to me...

[sebbel]

You dont have an import exemption clause about used items/spare parts?

[Doug Rose]

Just curious on how this was shipped to you. Medium Priority Flat Box is $47.95 including insurance. Canadian buyers plead for us not to Shp Fedex or UPS, is this the same issue?...Doug

[twocvbloke]

You dont have an import exemption clause about used items/spare parts?

That's the thing, there are some new items in the box aswell as used, so I'm not entirely sure that such an exemption would apply...

But that said, the last time I got bitten in the wallet by the HMRC, their excuse was "Well, the tax when it was bought wasn't paid in this country, so therefore it is classed as taxable", and that was on two used items (a Kirby Heritage shakeout bag and a Dirt Devil hand vac fan), so, it's a case of if it's over £18 for commercially sold goods or £40 for items between private individuals marked as "Gift", it's taxable...

Just curious on how this was shipped to you. Medium Priority Flat Box is $47.95 including insurance. Canadian buyers plead for us not to Shp Fedex or UPS, is this the same issue?...Doug

It was sent by the USPS (meaning it's a miracle it got here in the first place!!! ), I forget what the shipping cost was, but it's a 24x12x10" box packed to the brim with vac parts and sundries aswell as the 2554 (the guy's great at packing stuff in, you should have seen the video I made of a box of US sweet goodies he sent in, it's deleted now but it was impressive as to how much he squeezed into a relatively small box!!!), so it's a weighty box, just compact to reduce the cost...

I'll have the full details tomorrow as it's set to be delivered then, so I'll know more as to where they've come up with this figure...

[Tom B]

It has to be said that HMRC could tax blood out of the proverbial stone and smile while they do it. Not many people in the UK have a good word for them, but I do... only I can't say what it is on a nice forum like this one

[twocvbloke]

Oh I've plenty of "good" words for them, but like yours, they're not suitable for a family forum!!!

[Owain]

Well, I finally got the ransom note for the parcel which contains my Cortelco 2554, and for a box that's been valued as $149 (£94), the VAT added ontop seems to be twice what the actual value should be (20% of the value),

As well as VAT there may also be import duty. The import duty is subject to VAT.

Then the carrier / Royal Mail will charge their own handling fees for collecting the duty and VAT. Those fees are also subject to VAT.

I usually work on $ = £ once the VAT etc is taken into account and if you've been charged £40 on £94 then that still seems to apply.

[twocvbloke]

Well, on the invoice I got from ParcelFarce, it's listed as this:

Customs Duty - £0.00
Excise Duty - £0.00
Import VAT - £33.09
Other - £0.00
Clearance fee (Zero rated for VAT purposes) - £8.00
Total - £41.09

They don't list "Declared value" though, I only know that through my friend in the states, to me the sums just don't add up...

[AE_Collector]

Canadian buyers plead for us not to Shp Fedex or UPS, is this the same issue?...Doug

Technically the Canadian Federal Government likes to charge taxes on items shipped into Canada (In British Columbia the taxes are 12%). Depending where the item is made they may want Duty as well. Then someone always gets a fee for doing the paperwork and collecting the money from whomever receives the package.

For shipments into Canada the best bet is to have the item shipped by the Post Office in the *foreign country" as they hand off to Canada Post. Canda Post seems to be the most leniant of the various delivery services as they will let smaller items through with no fees, duty or taxes at all but if they do charge fees, their handling fee is only $5. Other carriers seem to charge something like $30 or more dollars as a fee plus the duty and or taxes.

DavePEI can probably comment more as I rarely would have anything shipped to me in Canada choosing my US address instead.

Oddly though, when driving back into Canada from the USA the customs people have been getting more and more leniant in recent years as far as purchases coming home with Canadians. We have come through declaring hundreds of dollars each after only being in the USA for a number of hours and they let us go without any duty, taxes or fees. If that is the new norm here it is about time they let up on packages being shipped in a little more.

Terry

[Willytx]

Well, on the invoice I got from ParcelFarce, it's listed as this:

Customs Duty - £0.00
Excise Duty - £0.00
Import VAT - £33.09
Other - £0.00
Clearance fee (Zero rated for VAT purposes) - £8.00
Total - £41.09

They don't list "Declared value" though, I only know that through my friend in the states, to me the sums just don't add up...

£33.09 ($52.55) seems awfully steep for some random stuff and a Cortelco phone. Did the person shipping list the value as $149 on the customs form? If the phone was used, I would make sure to mark the customs slip as such.

When I ship parcels overseas to friends, it is possible that I may lowball the values just a bit. Not that I send anything of real value, mostly T-shirts, Halloween candy and DVDs.

I guess we are lucky here in the States, there is no charge (yet) for customs clearance or the USPS delivering a foreign parcel. At least parcels of nominal value.

Is this how they are paying for all the transport improvements in London?

[twocvbloke]

Here we go, full details...

Declared value - $158
Shipping value (and believe me, it was well-packed and weighty!!) - $96.95

Converted to £ using Thursday's $-£ value - £161.36

Add VAT, and hey presto, it's that mystery figure (well, almost, they used a different conversion rate), what a load of bad words I can't say...

Still, I'm playing with the Cortelco 2554 now, so I can see how to adapt it, and it looks simple...

[dpaynter1066]

Now you know exactly why we colonials rebelled over British taxes.  

Oddly enough, Im having a nice cup of East India Tea Company's tea right now with some Jaffa cakes.

When the Crown tried to levy the VAT on biscuit , McVities went to court and argued they were cakes which are VAT
exempt.   McVities won the case and pays no VAT on Jaffa Cake.

Perhaps your telephones and goods need to arrive baked inside of a cake  eh?

[david@london]

it's worth checking the new duty rates/v.a.t. rates before importing goods to the uk.........there seem to be some new rules.

VAT at 20% is now payable on anything valued at £15 or over .....then there's also a standard royal mail handling charge of £8 (if vat or duty is applied)..... an item valued at £15 is therefore now subject to £11 in fees ! (74% of its value)

seems high.

[gpo706]

Yes, when I temporarily rich with a fresh credit card I bough a 1C2 from SF, USA.

When I went to collect it form the Post office parcels depot, they said I was due £49 for import duties thanks to HMRC.

So its money for thin air innit?

[twocvbloke]

It's funny reading through all this again, I have been thinking about asking for my friend to acquire a couple of phones again, but this thread reminded me why I haven't done anything since earlier this year, that and the lack of money to do so...

What really gets me is the financial "experts" are always blithering on about the poor economy and how the international recession is making things unbearable, but they don't factor in the idea that maybe private international trade might actually be a good thing, so long as they stopped levying so much tax off imported goods, cos that's how economies work, it's like a river and a waterwheel, so long as the river flows, the waterwheel turns to make the machinery run, but when the river stops, so does the machinery, money flowing makes everything happen, and if it's not flowing, it's dead...