Customs Charges

[Seano]

Can anybody make any sense out of this, because I'm Bu££erd if I can, I bought a couple of things from the States a few weeks back, anyway last Saturday I had a card through the letter box from the post office to say they had a parcel for me but there was a customs charge of £11.24 to pay, of which £8 of it was handling charge, now the cost of the goods came to $28, I had another delivery from the states yesterday the cost of the goods came to £48 but no customs charge on this one....... whats all that about then.....is it just a totally random charge they make if they are not having a good day or what.......comments please

 

[tigler]

Some stuff is duty exempt, so the second item may have fallen into that category. However stuff occasionally sneaks through without charge.
Generally the charge is duty + vat + handling charge. Nice little earner for Royal Mail that handling charge ! !
However, there is a limit below which duty and vat aren't payable and I think your first item may have been under that limit.

 

[Engineer1964]

Was it those Gloves Sean?

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

Housemate bought an item from America for the equivalent of £15. The parcel arrived fine. About a week later, housemate recieved a letter from the courier asking for another £15 for duty charges etc.... Housemate had a few kind words to say to them on the phone and as the parcel had already been delivered, felt well within rights not to pay the extra charges.

They have sinces chased up with a couiple of letters, but have given up now it seems.
Their 'balls up' for releasing the package before attempting to charge the extra fees.

 

[Seano]

Some stuff is duty exempt, so the second item may have fallen into that category. However stuff occasionally sneaks through without charge.
Generally the charge is duty + vat + handling charge. Nice little earner for Royal Mail that handling charge ! !
However, there is a limit below which duty and vat aren't payable and I think your first item may have been under that limit.

The threshold for importing items from a non eu country is £15 anything over that you get knocked on, and as the first was a pack of tig fingers from Jody, and the second was 4prs of Tillman tig gloves so none of it would be duty exempt anyway, I have also just found out that there is a commodity duty list kept by HMC which has a specific customs charge against it, HERE


Custom Duty rates for specific products

Customs Duty is charged as a percentage of the total value of the goods - that is the sterling equivalent of the price paid abroad.

To work out the percentage, each type of product is given a 'commodity code'. This tells you what the Customs Duty rate percentage is for that particular product, based on whether it's being imported or exported.

There are around 14,000 different classifications. The duty rate percentage for each may vary according to the country the goods come from. The average percentage is between 5 and 9 per cent, but it can be as low as 0 per cent or as high as 85 per cent.

To find out the Customs Duty rate for a product you can contact HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) VAT Helpline or the Customs, International Trade & Excise enquiries.

 

[tigler]

Those gloves may be considered PPE so could be exempt.
The list you refer to is the import tariff list and should be public information. I checked antique books a few months ago and discovered they are duty exempt !! I've been buying alot of antique books since then

 

[Seano]

Was it those Gloves Sean?

Yes one of them was Gerry.....

 

[langy]

Can anybody make any sense out of this, because I'm Bu££erd if I can, I bought a couple of things from the States a few weeks back, anyway last Saturday I had a card through the letter box from the post office to say they had a parcel for me but there was a customs charge of £11.24 to pay, of which £8 of it was handling charge, now the cost of the goods came to $28, I had another delivery from the states yesterday the cost of the goods came to £48 but no customs charge on this one....... whats all that about then.....is it just a totally random charge they make if they are not having a good day or what.......comments please

You got lucky with the first one, some slip through.

 

[Seano]

You got lucky with the first one, some slip through.

The second one, the Tillman gloves were the lucky one Steve.....was thinking of importing a Miller elite digital inferno bucket like yours too....

 

[langy]

The second one, the Tillman gloves were the lucky one Steve.....was thinking of importing a Miller elite digital inferno bucket like yours too....

Chevy2 just bought one, got a good price too, basically the same as mine but the controls are at the bottom whereas mine are at the top

 

[snowcat]

I used to import quite allot of parts either in person or by pallet, If you have the commodity code and have a declaration of the value you shouldn't get a handling charge which is essentially a fine for not providing the correct info on landing.

On large items $2000+ Id always used a shipping agent, who would deal with customs it was much easer (as sometimes you could waste an hour phone C&E to get the correct code and rate), a large percentage of import tax was VAT iirc which I could reclaim anyhow.

When I imported goods in luggage Id simply get the code, have the vendors receipt then walk into the red Chanel and Pay.

 

[Shox Dr]

Unless you personally take the items through customs. You will always be charged a handling fee. No one is going to do it for free. I was charged £14 by UPS regardless of the consignment value, or number of boxes. I had an account with both UPS and Customs. Your customs account is usually 2 zeros after your VAT number if I remember rightly.

As for charges, anything over the value of £18 sterling including shipping costs WILL attract Duty and VAT.

If it comes through anyone else but the Royal Mail, you be charged. The Royal mail are a little lax, but that has changed in the last few yrs with the vast number of people buying items through ebay, that are sent directly from the country of origin.

Simply put you were lucky the first time

 

[Dev]

The handling fee is (they claim) to cover the delivery firm paying the import fees on your behalf. It's a real pain because there is no way that I can find of per-paying the import duty to avoid the handling fee.

 

[tigler]

I've ordered duty payable items from Amazon US and duty and vat are charged up front, so it arrives all paid up. For small items through the mail though there doesn't appear to be an alternative to the Royal Mail scam charge !! Will probably be worse when it's privatised !

 

[Shox Dr]

It's service they offer, if you don't want to pay it do it yourself. As for prepaying, that's not going to happen, ultimately it's C&E that deicide how much you will pay, and they will want to see the paper work, or take the word of the courier, who has no vested interest in not paying YOUR duties

 

[Seano]

Chevy2 just bought one, got a good price too, basically the same as mine but the controls are at the bottom whereas mine are at the top

Where from....? The states.

 

[graffian]

I used to import quite allot of parts either in person or by pallet, If you have the commodity code and have a declaration of the value you shouldn't get a handling charge which is essentially a fine for not providing the correct info on landing.

On large items $2000+ Id always used a shipping agent, who would deal with customs it was much easer (as sometimes you could waste an hour phone C&E to get the correct code and rate), a large percentage of import tax was VAT iirc which I could reclaim anyhow.

When I imported goods in luggage Id simply get the code, have the vendors receipt then walk into the red Chanel and Pay.

I imported some car parts in the 80's. I used to have everything air freighted and I went up to Heathrow Thursday mornings to collect the parts. I did the clearance myself, the clearance charge by all the shippers seemed to be £47, I think there were clearance agents who just did that. I have no idea if the system is still the same, there were always hundreds of people doing the forms them selves.
You picked the code from the tariff book, I did get a bit creative and try and save a few percent sometimes, depended on the parts descriptions. Not that the duty made a huge difference, the vat was almost unavoidable; I once heard a woman called to the desk and a customs man asked "are these clothes really for children", he was holding up a suit that was way to big for him;-)

 

[langy]

Where from....? The states.

No here in blighty

 

[chevy2]

Sometimes the post office attach their sticker showing the duty threshold,
It's £18 value for commercial goods and £28 for gifts.

Recently had some parts with an $80 value slip through and $150 also,
But also been caught with $40 value,
Luck of the draw with the post office?

 

[chevy2]

No here in blighty

Heres the link on the Miller mask i got over here,
Arrived to me in about 3days.
http://www.weldingsuppliesdirect.co.uk/welding/Miller-Elite-joker-Welding-helmet.html