Buying from the USA - taxes?

[e-rider]

Hi, I want to buy some Park Tools from Jenson USA as they are more than 50% cheaper even with P&P costs so I could save about £150 if I buy 3 fairly expensive tools.

However, it says that I'll be responsible for taxes, duties and brokerage fees???

What exactly does this mean - will I have to pay VAT and more? Any chance that the parcel might slip through the net?

Help please.

 

[davidg]

depends how they post it...

it will probably be done officially and you will be liable to the 17.5%

 

[numbnuts]

You will have to pay import duty, VAT and Royal mail also charge a "handling charge" if you could get them to send it as a "gift" (and I doubt this very much) it will be cheaper
ps on $94 I had to pay £16

 

[amaferanga]

I paid £19 in VAT and handling fee on some Magichine lights from the USA. Parcelforce handling fee was £8 for me, but may be as much as £13.50 I believe.

 

[Coco]

if you could get them to send it as a "gift" (and I doubt this very much) it will be cheaper

IIRC the limit for a 'gift' is £38.

 

[andrew_s]

There may or may not be import duty as well, but it's not easy to find out what it might be in advance. As well as trying to find the right bit of the HMRC website, there's the guessing game about what category the tools will come under.

basically, the arithmetic goes like this (assuming 2% import duty)

((£500 + £20 shipping) * 1.02 duty * 1.175 VAT ) + £10 handling = £633.22

If your £150 saving is on the headline price on the Jenson site, you may not save all that much.

Sometimes you don't get charged any extra, sometimes you do. You've the best chance of not being charged with normal post, and a fairly low chance with a courier firm like UPS or DHL. I also once received a request for the tax & handling fee in the post after the goods had been delivered.
Things like asking for the items to be marked as a gift or declaring a false price are illegal, and theoretically speaking you could end up with a criminal record because of it (even if you didn't ask and the sender thought they were doing you a favour).

 

[lukesdad]

Yes Ive found its pot luck. Sometimes the shipper will put it through and you wont get charged, somtimes you ll get whacked with the lot, seems to depend on how conscensious the are at the time.

 

[e-rider]

Thanks for the replies - it appears that my £150 saving would probably decrease to less than £100 but that's still pretty good and probably worth the effort - I'll think about it!

Cheers