Topic: Buying from the states

[ACE]

I have successfully bid and won an autoharp on the U.S. Ebay site. With the good exchange rate on the dollar I have saved  about £120 on what I would have to pay here even if I could get one.

Now! I expect to pay a few taxes when it gets here. But has anybody else purchased any goods from over the pond and know what I  would I be expected to pay.

[Chilipepper]

depends if they state the price you paid on the customs form, can only take as a gift for upto £18 PLUS they add the cost of postage into it
Royalmail is crap!!!

[Fork]

My wife successfully bid for a Royal Daulton figure and never gave a thought about taxes or anything.

Turned out that she didnt have anything to pay in the end.I think she paid around £65 pounds inclusive of p&p.

[Chilipepper]

yes depends if the full price you paid is declared on the customs label if they put a value of 0.00 your gonna have to pay nothing or the bare minimal  ;D

[ACE]

 Fork that is about the same as I paid including shipping. UPS are the carriers

[Chilipepper]

yes but when it hits the uk parcelforce or royalmail take over delivery, which as it seems its a large item, soooo parcel force will deliver it also they charge £11 on top of any customs charges that you have to pay too
they suck
PSSSST dont say anything but i work for RM  :-X

[Baccy Man]

I order things from all over the place taxes seem to be a hit & miss thing some get through some don't.

If the item is caught & taxed the first £18 of the value of the item is tax free but you will have to pay vat @ 17.5% for the remainder of the cost of the item, not the postage though as that is not taxable.

There will also be a handling/processing/admin fee or whatever else they choose to call it from parcelforce basically a ransom demand for £13.50.
For the majority of parcels this is more than the vat charges come to but there is no way out of paying it they can also hit you with storage charges if you take your time paying see here for more details:
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/content1?catId=2500042&mediaId=load105044

The other annoying bit is that it can take parcelforce a while to write to you to let you know your parcel is being held ransom (allow 3 weeks after expected arrival date before worrying), once you do receive the letter from them there will be a number you call to pay the charges & the parcel will arrive 24-48 hours later.

The declared value is actually meaningless despite what a lot of people think as customs can assign their own value if they feel an item has been significantly undervalued. Although it is very rare that they do assign their own value they are fair when they do it. The last time they did it to someone I know was with a 50" plasma tv sent as a commercial sample from China they changed the value from £30 to £50 as that is what they believed the unit production cost to be meaning an extra £3.50 vat had to be paid bringing the total costs to £5.60 vat + £13 50 parcelforce fee.

[Chilipepper]

hmmm they do add the postage cost to the value of the item  ;D

[Baccy Man]

They have never included postal costs on items I have bought but just checked & you are right they should.

Customs page is HERE & lists all relevant charges.

EC Regulation (EEC) 2454/93 referred to on the customs page can be downloaded as a pdf file HERE article 165 is on page 41.

[Chilipepper]

i know i work for them baccy lol
but its ok lots of people dont know it im afraid, i also get stuff sent mostly from the states and trust me when i say i had some stuff come worth $50 and the postage was $32 and they charged me £24 in total I was gutted
but as they say we live and learn huh  ;D

[Deb P]

It seems to be a bit hit or miss....some things we have been charged duty/VAT/ delivery charges on, others nothing...... :-\

[Jeannine]

I have had some quite large parcels from the US over the last 7 years even a huge pressure canner, I have only ever once paid any duty and it was a large box of cotton fabric. I have never been able to figure out why, the canner was valued on the box at $200 aqnd it got through. I have bought 20lb weight of a baking ingredient which was not even looked at. Most of the companies I mail order with always state the correct amount on the declaration so I think it must be pot luck.

I do agree the charge for collecting it  is infuriating .

Good luck, I think that is what it takes.

XX Jeannine

[Melbourne12]

Like others, I have only occasionally had to pay duty, mainly on jewellery.  Most stuff just goes straight through.

[ACE]

Result! delivered today with no extra charges at all. Now all I have to do is tune it and learn to play it.