Excessive Customs Charges

[elys1ur]

Its a long shot, but hoping someone can help.

I have purchased a Haephestus Buffer kit for my G28, from Taiwan, it has arrived at customs, and I have been charged, which I fully expected.

I paid 67 US$ for this, approx. £50 using paypal, this includes shipping.

My charges are as follows:

£4.98 Customs Duty?? (Thought this was only calculated over £135...)

£11.25 Clearance Fee courtesy of Parcel Force (Rip off in its own right, but ask another day, got to pay it)

and the clincher...

£59.65 in Import Vat... what the hell, this is more than 100% markup... is this right?

Total cost £75.88

Anyone?

 

[Duff]

It all depends on what kind of goods the sender dispatched it marked as....

 

[Immortal]

What value was declared on the label? That's the figure they base taxes on.

Anything outside the EU and over £20 will bring charges.

 

[elys1ur]

Spoke to HMRC. Very helpful actually.

There should be no charges on items from any country in regards to Customs Duty if the item is less £135 including cost of shipping etc, so charge for me should be £0

Import is charged on everything over over £15 in value if its commercial, including items bought online. This is at 20% like all VAT. So approximately £10 for my item.

The £11.25 handling fee is a Parcelforce scam, that has little if anything to do with HMRC.

The root cause of this problem, is the item declaration was filled in to the wrong value by the Retailer in Taiwan using the online system they have, over 350 dollars declared value...

For anyone who has any issues in future, you have to pay for the item to be released, but you can then claim back incorrect charges etc, so long as you have evidence of what you paid, and then you have to fill in a BOR286 from from the HMRC Website (Customs Duty and/or import VAT relating to imports by post) which will appeal the incorrect charges and begin the refund process.

Educational day all in all.

 

[Sitting Duck]

If they don't declare stuff on paperwork

then they go by the insurance of item

If your item has insurance of up to say £200 or $275

guess what they slap the VAT on ????

AND this duty crap goes on not just the item but the item PLUS POSTAGE !!!!

Then you got customs charge to intercept/open it

Plus the bastid Post Office or Parcel Force International paying this on your behalf

(then charging you a fee without your consent)

My gut feeling, not much info on parcel, so they said WTF whack it on the insurance value

Worst of all, they got you by the balls, you don't pay it gets returned

Only once I told them to poke it, bought some old PCB's to strip components out of

$10 - maybe $15 from US inc shipping type of thing

You owe us £38 - ergh I f*cking don't

but we will send it back - fine go for it

I didn't get the stuff but I was f*cked if I was going pay those sods

5 years earlier I imported a custom rare games console and got shafted coz ofthe insurance value

But the thing is only like £130 top whack & you want me to pay £76 or something daft

Had to bite the bullet and I lost a few teeth/crowns back then

Dirty bastids - I feel your pain

Pay it, then you can go through hell & crap getting sender to send this n that paperwork

then appeal AFTER you have paid it - FFS I'm in the wrong game

 

[Sitting Duck]

Spoke to HMRC. Very helpful actually.

There should be no charges on items from any country in regards to Customs Duty if the item is less £135 including cost of shipping etc, so charge for me should be £0

Import is charged on everything over over £15 in value if its commercial, including items bought online. This is at 20% like all VAT. So approximately £10 for my item.

The £11.25 handling fee is a Parcelforce scam, that has little if anything to do with HMRC.

The root cause of this problem, is the item declaration was filled in to the wrong value by the Retailer in Taiwan using the online system they have, over 350 dollars declared value...

For anyone who has any issues in future, you have to pay for the item to be released, but you can then claim back incorrect charges etc, so long as you have evidence of what you paid, and then you have to fill in a BOR286 from from the HMRC Website (Customs Duty and/or import VAT relating to imports by post) which will appeal the incorrect charges and begin the refund process.

Educational day all in all.

LOL- I should of waited....

I just posted same sort of thing - still a scam imho

Thing is though, that number when/if you finally get through to them....

They get crap ALLLLLLLLLLLLLL DAY LONG

from absolutely livid customers being stung with these rip off charges

they are experts in calming you down a bit

"Well sir, I'm sorry I just don't know what to say about this matter

What you need to do is fill out a form 8ULL$h1T and raise a request...."

They know that 75% maybe 90% of people will just forget it all

You gotta compile all the data, hope the seller will take time to assist

(they got their money, they are alright jack...)

send it in, wait for a review/decision that may/may not go your way

After all said & done the retailer filled in the paperwork

So they made a declaration on the items value/description

Now if you buy stuff from Hong Kong say for $10 or so

they will just send it as a $3 TOY so it will likely avoid agro

However more bulkier expensive items the seller will think

Sod that, if buyer raises a PayPal dispute not arrived or lost

I'll get the correct insurance and declare stuff more legit etc...

Insurance might go in bands

0$ to $50

$50 to $250

$250 to $1,000 etc.....

Customs look at usual $50 to $250

Sod that $75 item plus insurance to cover item, plus shipping costs

Yup let's shaft the bastid, say $75 + another $75 say that's $150

crap exchange rate call it £125 so 20% is £25 + handling + admin

Will you be be paying cash, plastic or do you just wish to bend over now sir ???

 

[MaccyD]

Not that it fully explains it, but you will pay tax and duty on the full price including the shipping. So a part for 10 that you pay 10 to ship, you will pay duty and VAT on a value of 20.

Ive not heard the sub £135 rule before. I imported a little widget for my car from Japan and it cost about £2 to buy but after shipping etc etc it cost me about £20 lol.

 

[Lozart]

Ive not heard the sub £135 rule before.

It's a relatively new change. They used to say that they wouldn't collect duty if it came to less than £9 but I guess this is a little clearer than the customer having to try and find duty rates and work out if it would be £9 or more?

 

[proffrink]

Well there's a difference between the following:

1. Courier convenience charge
   
2. VAT
   
3. Duty
   

Most purchases will just have 1. and 2. put on them. Some purchases will also incur a fee from 3. (but this is not common for the vast majority of purchases).

1. The courier charge will be applied if you need to pay either VAT or duty on the item. They (the shipping company/courier) effectively pay for the duty/VAT for you to get it released from customs quicker and to your doorstep faster - they pay this before you've even had a letter asking for it. For this they charge between £8.50 and £12 (taking Parcelforce as an example - others can be more expensive). There are cases where this charge can be higher than the VAT levied itself.
   
2. You'll be charged VAT of 20% on anything over ~£15 in value (I cannot remember the exact figure, but it's low). In reality I've known stuff up to about $30 to get through untaxed consistently, and sometimes they just seem to 'miss' things even when they've been declared. It's luck of the draw a lot of the time, and sometimes they just don't bother if not value at all has been declared (but once I've known them to apply a rather arbitrary value - I'm fairly sure they're being naughty when doing this). Even something 'gifted' (I believe they treat undeclared stuff as a 'gift') valued over £39 will get VAT slapped on it.
   
3. For duty elys1ur is completely correct (not surprising given how it comes straight from HMRC). Under £135 - even if the item has a high duty tax levied as a percentage - it's given an exemption if it's not marked as a 'gift' (which most retail stuff isn't). Perhaps they're actually being nice or maybe it's to save on paperwork for what will amount to a couple of quid in duty. If it's valued between £135 to £630 then it gets a flat rate of duty at 2.5% (unless the good type has a lower tax rate). For over £630 (or even up to £135 if it's not declared as a gift) you'll be taxed at that goods full rate. This depends on what the item is (steel is taxed differently to toy gun bits, for example).
   

All in all, most of us only really need to worry about VAT or that 2.5% charge that'll get put on over £135. The courier convenience charge will almost always be there though. As others have said, customs will use the package insurance value as a substitute for declared value if it's not been put on there. Some Asian retailers don't declare and don't insure their packages so I've found these ones get through untaxed a lot of the time. I've also found a lot of stuff I've been sent that's £135 or under hasn't been hit with anything but VAT. Perhaps they're being lazy or maybe 'toy parts' (which it's usually declared as) aren't taxed? I can't imagine that's the case though.

One protip I would give about getting your shit to your door quicker is to watch the tracking. The second it reaches your local depot you can pay the customs charge by ringing them and giving them your tracking code. If you wait for the letter it can be another 2 days before you're able to pay it.

Oh and of course if it comes from within the EU then you don't pay VAT (as you've already paid this at the point of sale) and are exempt from duty on everything but alcohol and ciggies so...

This might help for most of us: https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

View attachment 33131

@elys1ur Here's that form you were talking about for claiming back from Royal Mail and Parcelforce: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-customs-dutyimport-vat-relating-to-imports-by-post-bor286

For claiming back for a package delivered by FedEx, UPS, DHL etc. go here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/import-and-export-application-for-repaymentremission-c285

 

[Sitting Duck]

still a gamble & possible con if you get caught/stung

Some countries like the US/Canada are much worse

people get stung for almost everything they import I have heard

none of this helps I know, but wish you luck in getting something back