Flash light, UPS, Customs and excise = confused

[screenman]

WD for some reason the rest of my post did not show, so here it is.

The maximum rate for import duty is 85% on average it is about 9% the items I bring in because they are not made by anyone else in the UK are set at 3.5%

Import duty is there to help protect the UK manufacturers and the people who work for them.

Happy Christmas belatedly.

 

[welsh dragon]

What are you talking about "personally"? I don't work for HMCE, nor do I import or export anything. I'm just explaining how the world of business actually works. The fact you don't like it is unfortunate but there you go

I was talking to both you and screenman who is a distributer. Its not a case of not liking it, it is a case of the government not being fair and makng things as diifficult as they can. What would you have them do. ? Simply stopping things coming Into the uk costing £5.00 or less means nothing. What is your solution to the problem. ?

 

[welsh dragon]

WD for some reason the rest of my post did not show, so here it is.

The maximum rate for import duty is 85% on average it is about 9% the items I bring in because they are not made by anyone else in the UK are set at 3.5%

Import duty is there to help protect the UK manufacturers and the people who work for them.

Happy Christmas belatedly.

Thanks screenman. I really dont know what went wrong with my neighbour and the problem he had. I feel sorry for people like you who hve to deal with things like this on a daily basis. Commiserations to you.

 

[nickyboy]

I was talking to both you and screenman who is a distributer. Its not a case of not liking it, it is a case of the government not being fair and makng things as diifficult as they can. What would you have them do. ? Simply stopping things coming Into the uk costing £5.00 or less means nothing. What is your solution to the problem. ?

OK. So now we are into the practicalities of what could be done to improve the current situation. The current importation system was designed to meet the needs of importers who were bringing in large quantities. It was not designed for small value one-offs. This is because, until the advent of the internet, there was practically no trade in these items. This trade has developed and customers and suppliers are circumventing what they see to be an unnecessarily expensive system by illegally declaring goods as samples or whatever.

If the government cares about this trade (and I suspect they don't give two hoots about the economic benefits of people buying £5 of whatever) then they should set up some import-lite system for low value goods. But it'll never happen as the costs of setting it up far outweigh the benefits. So the illegal trade will continue to grow until it becomes too big to ignore, then the govt will clamp down on it a bit

Happy Xmas to you too

 

[furball]

Anyway...this light is seriously bright.... and perfect for clipping to my helmet for night rides.

Please put it in a dipped position on your handlebars.

 

[classic33]

How much of this "tax" is actually tax & not money going into the pocket of the delivery companies.
I had replacement parts sent from the manufacturer & Royal Mail insisted there was tax owing on the items, having checked with Customs & Excise, I was told no Duty was payable & that it was probably more than likely to be a handling charge imposed by Royal Mail.
With this information to hand, Royal Mail confirmed that it was indeed a handling charge on an item they'd already been paid to deliver. That I believe is illegal & the more they get away with it, the more they'll do it.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Stop trying to sell £5 stuff to UK. Unless you scrap the entire importation system you can't make this into an economic transaction

I am not sure what you are talking about, goods* costing (price plus p&p) under £15 is free of all import tax and duties no matter where it is from. See this.

The other thing is if e.g. vat is payable (other duties are not payable under £135+) Royal Mail if they are handling is not charging for the delivery but for handling the importation tax process. It is £8 currently iirc. If you are being charged a lot it is the courier / handling agent who is doing it. More and more US ebay shops are now offering a prepaid custom service which ime works out cheaper than even RM in terms of handling fees.

I think in this day and age £15 is a bit low as a de-minimis for vat given even £8 is more than 50%, but hey ho.

* except alcohol, tobacco and perfume

 

[byegad]

I had an up and down row on a photography forum about import duties. A guy was banging on about buying his camera cheap from China and I pointed out he could get stung for duties. Another guy waded in about never paying duties and importing 'all kinds of stuff all of the time'. I gave my experience of buying from both China and America and having duty applied, but apparently I'm imagining it!

 

[threebikesmcginty]

I made this mistake again recently, will I never learn, had to pay an extra £12 on a $40 CD, I think about thruppence was the customs but the bulk of it was PO admin charges, skanking bastards!

 

[ScotiaLass]

I think, if they change the packaging to say the item is a gift, then there is no tax to be paid on the item.

Not always.
Hubby was sent a package from his sister in Atlanta, as a gift (a GPS unit).
It duly arrived, with a hefty (£70) charge!! Even though it was marked as a gift!