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Author Topic: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!  (Read 13838 times)

Offline Paleskin

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customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« on: February 23, 2020, 11:34:51 PM »
 everybody else in UK getting hammered with customs duty on purchases from the states?
recent stuff was held until i paid the twenty quid 'ransom' money........eight quid of which was 'admin' charges!

just me.......?? :'( :'( :'(

Offline Elbows

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2020, 11:36:48 PM »
Isn't that solely up to the UK "company" who is bringing in your stuff?  My understanding is that that stuff is damn near arbitrary and random...
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Offline pixelgeek

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2020, 11:40:14 PM »
Can't you self clear the parcel in the UK?

Offline Andrew Rae

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2020, 11:55:14 PM »
It’s VAT not customs duty if it’s only £12, plus the £8 handling charge. Some packages get through without the charge, but it should be paid on all non-EU imports over £15. Customs duty kicks in at a much higher level.

It’s always been a thing though.

Once we leave the transition period at the end of the year it will be liable on imports from the EU too.

Offline Atheling

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2020, 12:51:20 PM »
I've got a large-ish order on it's way from the USA so I'll let you know I if I get hit and for how much.

Offline Andrew Rae

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #5 on: February 24, 2020, 01:05:36 PM »
All the info is here:

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

The £8 Royal Mail handling charge is actually cheap compared to couriers.

Offline Captain Blood

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2020, 02:45:20 PM »
It’s always been a thing. Anything marked over about $25 in value is liable to get clobbered. First for 20% import VAT on the stated value, plus the Royal Mail ‘handling charge’ (basically a card telling you that you need to pay VAT on your parcel ::))

The good news is they only have capacity to check a random sample of incoming packages, so you have a pretty reasonable chance of getting away with it.
I guess I’ve had 20 or more wargames orders shipped to me from the USA over the last several years, and I’ve only been caught for tax and ‘handling’ on maybe three occasions?

Many experienced US traders shipping to the UK will also helpfully minimize the stated value on the customs slip if you ask them nicely (and carefully). Obviously only with smallish orders though. If you order £200 worth of product, don’t expect a retailer to mark the value of the goods at $20. But for smallish orders, many sellers are (in my experience anyway) willing to be helpful and flexible in this regard...

Offline Atheling

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2020, 02:46:53 PM »
I've got a large-ish order on it's way from the USA so I'll let you know I if I get hit and for how much.

Everything arrived without having to pay customs (but the order had been botched and over half the mini's were not what I had ordered!).

Offline Shahbahraz

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2020, 08:30:51 PM »
BTD by any chance ??  :D
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Offline mellis1644

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #9 on: February 24, 2020, 08:36:47 PM »
In Canada I have had to get used to this type of thing... People in the UK never realize quite how good and cheap shipping is for you (I did not while there). That's untill you start looking to other places in the world.

For Canada normal post tends to be 'ok' BUT if you use a courier then oh golly it's going to get expensive. International even more so. I expect with recent changes the Uk may see this more from the USA and EU.
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Offline Atheling

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #10 on: February 24, 2020, 09:06:42 PM »
BTD by any chance ??  :D

No. A company with a good reputation!  >:(


Offline fastolfrus

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #11 on: February 24, 2020, 10:41:46 PM »
Nothing new, been there for decades.
Apart from the handling/admin charge you can also get hit with an extra customs/admin charge if they open your parcel to see what's inside.

Some people get their parcels shipped in with a low value on the docket, but forget that if anything goes wrong and the parcel gets squashed/lost/stolen, they are not going to get back the true value.
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Offline Daeothar

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2020, 10:13:51 AM »
Some people get their parcels shipped in with a low value on the docket, but forget that if anything goes wrong and the parcel gets squashed/lost/stolen, they are not going to get back the true value.

True, but that's a risk a lot of people would be willing to take.

On the other end of the spectrum, I've had the opposite happen once, where I ordered some miniatures in the US, and the seller had marked the package as worth over $300,-, while I had been very careful to keep the value beneath the €22,- threshold we have to work with over here.

Obviously I got hit, and had to pay more on VAT and administrative costs than the package was worth. Now, I could have chosen to simply not accept the shipment, and I would have been out about €30,- (P&P included), but I needed wanted the contents, so I paid up.

I then complained with the seller, who acknowledged that they had over-estimated the value of the package because of 'insurance reasons'. In other words; should the package get lost, they would be able to screw the insurance company. At least; that's what I read in that statement... ::)

In the end, they offered me a coupon for their store worth the amount I had to pay for the VAT and admin fees, and I had no other choice but to eventually use that up (even though I had no real use for any of their other products).


Also; be careful when aiming the value of the items you buy to close to the threshold, as customs tend to work with a daily exchange rate, and unforeseen changes in rates could push you over the limit, forcing you to pay up for a transgression of only a few cents.

Which I've had happen on several occasions too; the last one was just €0,02 over €22,-, so I got hit with 21% = €4,62 plus €11,- admin fee = €15,62! So an item worth €22,02 at that time (I believe Paypal charged me €21,45 two weeks earlier) cost me €37,64 (plus shipping!) in total...
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Offline Andrew Rae

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2020, 11:44:12 AM »
That limit (the low-value consignment relief) ends across the EU at the beginning of 2021, so packages of any value will have VAT levied on them on import. Theoretically at least.

It looks like the UK might do something similar (or at least there were plans for such in the event of no-deal) and in addition overseas sellers would be liable for paying VAT on packages under £135 in value, through an online system. No idea if that's still planned or even if it would work, but it was passed by parliament.

As a seller, that kind of system actually appeals to me as it would allow me to display the total price to a buyer, rather than have them be surprised by a VAT demand from their postal operator. No idea if the EU has a similar system planned for imports into the EU. And there's always the chance postal operators would continue to charge a handling fee as they seek to mitigate the costs of implementing any new system.

Offline Duncan McDane

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Re: customs tax on USA purchases!!!!!
« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2020, 01:11:42 PM »
I'm not a gambler so I want to know the total costs of a model/shipment/VAT/Import duties & other handling/administrative costs before I say Jay or Nay to a purchase. That's why I haven't bought from the US for over a decade - after being burnt too many times - and if the UK will head the same direction it will be better to go there once a year with some friends to do some shopping  :D.
We'll see what happens, but the usual habit of governments grabbing money wherever and whenever they can doesn't gove me too much hope for the coming years (ok,  politics, so I'll stop here )...
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