Nick

Hi

I want to buy a cargo pak & cargo mini, from the US. The total value will be $109.90 + carriage.

Can someone please advise me the expected import duties on this? The HM Customs & Excise site is useless on this, combined with an apparant bandwidth limit of 1k.

I assume that I will have to pay 17½% VAT, but are there any other duties & charges? I really don't want to have to pay some courier "processing" charge on top.

(There seems little chance of it being sent as a gift or with a suitably reduced value.)

OllyK

Been a long time since I was involved with all this kinda stuff, but we used to have a damn great book with just about everything imaginable in it and a Duty rate for it. So in short yes expect to pay duty on the goods unless exempt, how much depends on the nature of the goods (and even if I knew what the above items were) I am so out of date with this that I couldn't even make a guess...sorry.

Nick

Thanks for the reply, so there's likely to be VAT, duty AND processing charges?

The items are boot tidy systems.

http://www.creeksideproducts.com/

OllyK

Possibly. As I say, it has been a long time (over 10 years) since I was involved with this stuf and we had to actually clear all goods through customs from Europe.

Just having a quick dig on HM Customs - damn it is slow!!

OllyK

Try some of these:
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPorta...CE_PROD_008051
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPorta...ageImport_FAQs

And most promising would seem to be
http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPorta...CE_PROD_009729

Nick

Thanks Olly

I got this far: http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPorta...CE_PROD_009868
on the truly awful, complicated & VERY slow HMCE site only to find that I need to pay to be able to find which rate of tax is the government will charge. These people really make it hard.

This was the closest I could get:
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw...aId=load105042

I have already spent 20 mins waiting on hold the the C&E advice line. :-(

Daryl

For duty rates ring 0845 010 9000.

For shipping, try UPS, you might not even get charged duty or VAT

Nick

Thanks, 0845 010 9000 is the number I've been on hold with for ages.

I don't have much of a choice on the shipping.

lem0ncurd

You will have to pay 17.5% VAT, pus 10% Import tax on goods from the US. The only ways to avoid paying tax are to ask the seller to mark the item as 'GIFT' on the export sheet, or ask the seller to state the declared value as just a few bucks.

I bought some wheels from the States, and the seller agreed to declare the value as 150 dollars per wheel, this way I only paid tax on 600 dollars, rather than the 2400 dollars that they were worth! Sneaky huh!

LC

vindaloo

One thing to consider is that the EU and USA are currently 'in dispute' over trading policies with S American countries. There's a rising rate of UK customs tarifs on most goods rising from 5% in March 2004 to 17% in March 2005.

The customs website helpfully listed the multi-digit codes for goods affected . Basically, anything techie or heavy metal was affected.

Get 'em to paint a red cross on it and maybe you'll slip it through the net.....

J.

Nick

Thanks for the info everyone.

albob

this is a good site to try

www.sloanefox.freeserve.co.uk/importukduty.htm

alan

BlkKnight

Easy way round this. . . .

1. get supplier to put an invoice in there giving the product a value of $0.01
2 They must have written on the document that the product is a production sample with no resale value.

Jobbed

Problems:
It must be addressed to a "company" to avoid suspition.
You will be unable to ensure the item in transit as "it has no value"

other than that you are laughing

RIGPIG

Import Duty is usually percentage based. It averages at between about 5% and 9% - but with extremes in some cases between nil and 85%.

Customs assess the amount of Import Duty to be paid based on the declared value of the goods, PLUS the transport and insurance costs to the country of destination.

VAT (Value Added Tax) is then added. The value for VAT purposes is therefore the declared value of the goods, PLUS the transport and insurance costs to the country of destination, PLUS the Import Duty.

Daryl

There's no foolproof method, as if Customs actually examine the package they will realise it's a false declaration, which is a criminal offence

At the very least you will get charged the full rate of import duty and VAT, as well as the possibility of financial penalties/loss of goods

BlkKnight

it's worked 5 or 6 times for me without any issues.

I guess it's largely down to luck.

Daryl

Absolutely, risk and reward. It's the one time you get caught you might regret it

Nick

Thanks, this is a useful site.

I'm VAT registered & can claim back VAT. However I'm looking at a duty fee of around 5%, then the customs clearance fee from the carrier. I don't mind VAT & duty, I don't like paying customs clearance fees for nothing! :-(

Nick

This useful page:

http://europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_c...en/tarhome.htm

Gives a tariff rate of 3.7%, I think.

My other option would be to try to get an aquaintance to buy the product in the US & then send it to me as a gift. A gift up to $65 is tax free.

Hmm...