Ordering from the US

[transatlantic]

I want to order a $40 tool from the US. From what I gather, when it gets to the UK, I'll be contacted to pay the extra import and VAT charges. Has anyone done this? How are you contacted? And how do you pay?

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[marcros]

it depends on the shipper. If it is USPS, it comes through our post office. This is usually the cheaper option.
If it is via UPS, the handling fee is normally more. I have had to pay in advance before the goods are released, but I have also heard of people being invoiced too.
Some merchants- eBay and Amazon in particular, will charge you the duty at checkout.

There is a minimum threshold for import duty and VAT. I can't remember what it is, but you will probably get caught for VAT but not import duty on $40.

 

[John15]

I seem to remember The Post Office charge a handling fee on top of everything else.

John

 

[Glynne]

I seem to remember The Post Office charge a handling fee on top of everything else.

John

I recently bought from Glen Drake Tools in the US and delivery was by the Post Office.
I received a card through the door saying they had my goods but I needed to pay VAT and handling charges firstly. I had the option of going to the local PO depot or paying on-line (which I did) and then I could choose home delivery or delivery to a local Post Office.
I'd have to look up the cost of the tool, delivery from the US and then the costs this end but for a relatively cheap tool it was more than I had envisaged!

 

[AES]

Transatlantic, if it helps, my own experience of importing goods from both the UK and from the US into Switzerland is broadly similar to those stated above.

I'm not up to date on UK rules, but I doubt (NOT sure) that you will pay import duty on an item costing only USD 40 - it depends on the value, and the customs duty category that the item falls into (a complicated numerical code which is international BTW). So probably no import duty but I'm 99% certain that you WILL pay VAT. The difference for you is that Swiss VAT is 8%, UK is, I think, 20% these days!

Further, here, and I think it's the same in UK, you pay VAT not only on the value of the goods themselves, but also on the bottom line Invoice value - i.e. INCLUDING the shipping/postage/courier charges.

If the parcel weighs less than 2 Kg then there may be an option to get the shipper to use US Post/Royal Mail rather than a courier like UPS, FedEx, etc. Axminster are very good about doing this for me for example.

The reason I ask Axi to do that is that here, (not sure about UK) the Swiss PO charge a reduced VAT on their shipping charge, and is there NO service charge. The postie just knocks at the door and you sign, pay cash (only cash) and get your parcel.

OTOH, if the vendor is using a courier such as FedEx, UPS, etc, then full VAT is charged on the shipping cost, AND there is a "service fee" as well (which is also subject to added VAT - "of course" - the bloomin' Government must get their pound of flesh!!!!).

So when the courier knocks, you have to pay both the VAT and the service charge, plus the import duty if applicable, although here anyway, you just sign for the parcel and the courier sends you an Invoice afterwards.

Detail differences between Switzerland and UK for sure, but the same principles apply I'm sure.

For a tool costing "only" 40 USD I THINK that the above add-on charges would hardly make it worth while, so it will come down to do you really want/need that tool, and is it available elsewhere? if yes (and no!), one way around the problem is to add other wanted/needed items to your order from that vendor, but there of course, you will soon run into the above 2 Kg weight limit, which here anyway, has the disadvantage of involving a courier which, as above, adds "unnecessary" charges to your overall cost.

HTH

AES

 

[marcros]

it is a little while since I did so, but the post office handling charge was about £8 from memory, and UPS was about £20.

AES is correct, but Royal Mail do have a handling charge.

Is it a tool that isn't available anywhere else? Annoying when that happens! How urgent is it? Could somebody bring it back for you?

 

[HappyHacker]

My daughter recently bought a mobile phone case fro the USA, she did not say how much it cost but the Post office charge including VAT was £18.00. She paid online and they then delivered it.

 

[transatlantic]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, it is a tool only avaliable from the US (it's a tool that some guy on ebay makes) .. it's about 500g at a guess

From my research, if it was $40, then :

- £8, VAT (20%)
- Customs Duty (N/A as under £135)
- Excerise Duty (N/A)

According to the sellers website, international shipping is via European Union @ $12.75

so $40 + $12.75 = $52.75
so ~£48 (inc VAT) + any post office charges?

so hopefully under £60?

 

[sunnybob]

10 years since I last imported stuff from USA to UK, but under £35 was considered a gift and not charged. With current exchange rates, youre in the grey area, you might be lucky, you might not.
Back then I was never charged a handling fee from the post office, just import duty and VAT.
But as a rule of thumb, you should expect the final cost in pounds to be double the dollar cost, and then rounded up to the next tenner.
UPS or fedex will make the cost almost triple.

 

[iNewbie]

Thanks for the replies guys. Yes, it is a tool only avaliable from the US (it's a tool that some guy on ebay makes) .. it's about 500g at a guess

From my research, if it was $40, then :

- £8, VAT (20%)
- Customs Duty (N/A as under £135)
- Excerise Duty (N/A)

According to the sellers website, international shipping is via European Union @ $12.75

so $40 + $12.75 = $52.75
so ~£48 (inc VAT) + any post office charges?

so hopefully under £60?

Sometimes things do fly under the Customs Radar via the USPS method and you won't get a handling fee - don't bank on it, but it does happen because they can't check every packages value. Tower Records used to use a Yellow label so they were always pulled. Another company used a plain box and they never got pulled. /Greavsy: funny old world...

 

[sunnybob]

I picked up a small parcel from the states once, very small but high price. I went into the post office desk and gave them the card. waited while he went to get it and got prepared to undo the wallet to pay. He walked out with this little box, put it on the counter, said there you are, and walked back off.
I didnt stand to argue. I got outside and in the car and was gone a couple miles before i looked closely at the box. It was so small that the address label took up the whole top of it. i turned the box over, and the duty invoice was pasted to the bottom of it.
£60 saved, thanks very much.
Luck of the draw.

 

[sneggysteve]

All details in HMRC publication - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... post-users

 

[Rorschach]

The best thing to have when ordering items from other countries is a friend who lives in that country to order it for you, then they can re-pack and put a more sensible value on the parcel. I don't object in principle to import duties/VAT, though I like to avoid them where I can, but the handling fee's are nothing short of extortion and I refuse to pay them.

 

[sunnybob]

Hey, SOME body has got to pay for those nice dark brown vans and uniforms!
And do you know how much it costs to paint your name on a jumbo jet freightliner? c'mon man.

 

[AES]

RIGHT, sunnybob! I've had UPS Airlines as a customer thanks very much. NOT a pleasant experience - AND they can't even follow special instructions when delivering parts for their own aeroplanes to somewhere which is "off their normally beaten track"!!!! (All couriers claim to do "everything to/from everywhere" but in reality, they're all better at going to/from some places than they are to others - normally those places off their normal scheduled routes - as you'd expect, but they never tell you that in their adverts).

AES

 

[sunnybob]

AES, preaching to the choir here.

On a trip to america, I ordered from a company and they sent two parcels to me to my hotel in Naples, florida via UPS.
1 parcel arrived, the other had gone walkabout across about 20 states. Same sender, same day. Luckily for me I was on a two stop holiday, and they had to re route the other parcel to my hotel in orlando. I got it the day before i flew home, 5 days later.

TNT, on a 2000 mile delivery across two continents to me, get it wrong by 500 miles and a whole continent!
Repeatedly.
I have to use a fake address and meet the courier in a petrol station.
I always found USPS (bog standard post office) to be far superior to any of the US couriers.

 

[AES]

With the possible exception of FedEx, I agree sunnybob. When they (all of 'em) get it right, it's fine (if expensive) but when it goes wrong they "excel" themselves (IF that's the word I'm looking for).

AES