Avoiding Royal Mail's clearance fee?

[Shox Dr]

Based on personal experience 10 years ago, I'd agree with posts #9 (maz0) and #15 (julianf)

I used to receive electonics from China etc. If they were held by GPO I could visit the depot, offer to pay the (legitimate) HMRC fee, and ask GPO to send out an invoice for their additional "customs" (= handling) charge.
I never received a bill from GPO, but at the time the wording was along the lines of "GPO must not withold an imported parcel once HMRC fees have been paid." ie they could not argue you needed to pay GPO fees before the parcel was released - but many branch staff were not aware hence be prepared for long "chat" before you get your parcel. Things may have changed in the past 10 years.
For info, the sender has already paid GPO for the parcel to be delivered (and any other admin needed), so I regard their "customs" fees as an attempt to charge twice for the same work !

If it hadn’t been stopped at customs, then it would have been delivered.

If you import something knowing its going attract Duty and VAT, then it’s up to you to pay those charges or arrange an agent to calculate the rates and pay HMR, if you don't then the shipper does it for you, unless advised before hand.

 

[DAPPH]

There was a line in the 2000 act that restricted royal mail from, in layman's terms, holding your goods to ransom.

It has subsequently been removed, or amended.

To be clear, i have no issue paying VAT or duty. I do have an issue with, what is now, a PLC performing services that ive not asked of them, and billing me far above the odds for doing them.


When royal mail was still government owned, there was a freedom of information request submitted regarding the costing behind the fees. They used a loophole to get out of answering..



For context - the goods im receiving are USD 20 in total. Which puts them slightly over the GBP threshold. So i will get charged duty of about 3% (47 pence) on the goods, then VAT on the goods, the duty, and the postage at 20% (£6.33).

So, £6.80 owed. Plus a minimum charge of £8 to royal mail. But sometimes they charge more for "priority" clearance or something.



Normally im in a rush, but, in this case, im not bothered if it takes weeks. Oh, and these are goods that would fit in a cigarette packet, so its not as if im paying for a crate or something.



£8 is nothing much. Rather like all those £8 bank charges people got refunded. A low enough number that noone cares too much... but its been on my nerves for years, hence asking this time, when im in no hurry, if anyone knows the mechanism for paying the vat direct.

I imported all manner of things for my small internet business 1995 to 2009

Think you can still get a temporary vat import number to pay by bank transfer to HMC&R your number or barcode has to be displayed on the package label , you declare what the goods are HMC&R get the goods code & they tell you what the duty applied is and the total amount to transfer . You transfer it keep the referenced print out acknowledgement that comes back by email . HMC&R enter the reference number related to the parcel as paid on their computer system . You email a copy of the duty & vat paid receipt to the seller & they write the code number on the declaration , some times it used to be a barcode so they copied it pasted it on the package & covered it in clear wide Sellotape . Enclosing the emailed paper you sent them inside the parcel or inside one of the super strong envelops that indicate packing note enclosed .

I managed to ring the local vat offices and speak to a human it helped no end .

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You can also look up or used to be able to look up the HMR&C schedules for import tax for certain goods …. some will not be where you might expect them to be in the schedules . My rifle telescope came under telescopes in the optical devices section and was allowed through without import tax .. but I did have to pay VAT ….. on a $ 650 USD scope inc their taxes .( 1996)

They also used to have a clear cut set of reasonably easy to follow requirements for importing things yourself on their website .
.

Back in the deepest darkest lower levels of my mind I seem to recall also doing it on a HMC&R online form & having to have our electronic banking details readily to hand ( had a mild stroke and lost a fair bit of memory from that period so not 100% sure if it is 100 % correct ) for goods being imported from India , China and the USA .