Hope this is the right area to ask a question about customs/duty

[peachybabe]

I would like to order about £85 worth of copper and brass jewellry from an American website but I'm not sure if I would have to pay duty on this, or how I would be required to pay it. Can anyone advise please?

[dzug2]

You will probably have to pay

It will be collected by Royal Mail, Parcelforce or whoever delivers it to you - plus an admin fee.

[yerbamate]

Yes, no doubt about it, you will have to pay import duty.

[boxtops]

Yes, absolutely. I got a card from the Post office telling me that I couldn't have my parcel delivered until I paid the duty on it.

[zebo]

My daughter and husband asked a hotel in New York to send a scruffy soft toy back which they'd left behind. With the cost of shipping and the extortionate rate of duty, it cost almost £60! They tried to argue the duty as it was a year old but without success.

[Buenchico]

Step 1:
Calculate the Customs Duty. That's 2.5% of £85 = £2.13 but you don't pay customs Duty if it comes to less than £9 so our total of charges so far is nil.

Step 2:
Calculate the VAT . That's 20% of the cost of the jewellery and the cost of shipping added together. Assuming shipping from the USA to cost a tenner, that's 20% of £95 = £19. You WILL have to that,as VAT is charged on all relevant items costing over £15. (If there had been any Customs Duty to pay you'd also have had to pat VAT on that as well - yes, that is a tax on a tax!!!). So we're up to £19 now.

Step 3:
Add on the Customs Examination Fee. That's £8 (which you can only avoid if there's no Customs Duty or VAT to pay, such as when purchasing books).

So our estimated total of charges is now £27. You'd probably simply have to pay that to the postman before you could receive your goods but HMRC sometimes holds onto goods and send you an invoice for the charges which you must pay before the goods are sent to you.

Chris

[north star]

An interesting aside here

http://forums.pepipoo...x.php?showtopic=69417

[JimmyCooper]

Ask the seller to put gift on the customs declaration.

Job done

[Buenchico]

Please ignore JC's advice.

VAT is charged on all gifts (sent from non-EU countries) where the value exceeds £40. If VAT is charged the customs examination fee will also be charged:
http://customs.hmrc.g...CE_CL_000014#P56_5044

Further, any item sent without a CORRECTLY completed CN11 customs declaration form will be seized, with no compensation payable to the intended recipient (who also risk prosecution for attempting to avoid the relevant charges).

Chris

[dzug2]

<<Ask the seller to put gift on the customs declaration.

Job done >>

Utter garbage.

Gifts are subject to duty, etc