Who knows about customs duty from the States to the U.K?

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Hello all,

I'm planning on buying some electronic goods from the states to the tune of £450 + shipping... does anyone know how much customs and excise duty and import V.A.T I would have to pay on it all?

I may be able to get a friend to send them over... so is there a differece between a 'gift' and 'goods' ? I imagine there is.

Or I may use a site called 'Bundle-Box' who provide you with a U.S address and then send it on over to you.

I've had a look on the HMRC site and they don't give you any proper figures... I'll give them a call if no-one can provide any info.

Cheers all. _Dan.

 

[jasonB]

2.7% ON ELECTRICAL GOODS, 20% VAT

Or stick the details in a calculator liek this

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-impor ... lculation/

J

 

[Noel]

Hello all,

I'm planning on buying some electronic goods from the states to the tune of £450 + shipping... does anyone know how much customs and excise duty and import V.A.T I would have to pay on it all?

I may be able to get a friend to send them over... so is there a differece between a 'gift' and 'goods' ? I imagine there is.

Or I may use a site called 'Bundle-Box' who provide you with a U.S address and then send it on over to you.

I've had a look on the HMRC site and they don't give you any proper figures... I'll give them a call if no-one can provide any info.

Cheers all. _Dan.

Dan, no difference these days between gift and goods, technically speaking. It's the shipper (courier, US PO or whatever) that seize the chance to make some money by charging you import duty and Vat and of course their friendly admin fee. Sometimes there's a good chance that stuff goes under the radar. If the package is despatched by a company then there will be a customs declaration on the front of it and little you can about that. Best way is get your friend involved and make it look like a "person to person" package and just get it posted as opposed to using DHL, Fedex etc although declaring insurance value might be an issue. This is all hypothetical of course, I wouldn't dream of encouraging anybody to miss the chance of throwing money to HMRC....

 

[Steel City Man]

Unless under £36, marking a purchase as a gift makes no difference to duty owed. Remember there's also a handling charge from parcleforce.

 

[chrs_666]

I allways had gift stamped on my items with a value of £20 this was something the supplier allways did didnt even ask him this was about five years ago the trader is no longer trading mmmmmmmm

 

[Losos]

The charges you are facing are:-

1) Import duty (This can vary) I'm surprised Jason says 2.7% 'cos I thought it would be more. Many years ago there used to be a book about 1,500 pages where you could look it up, but at the end of the day it depends on what the customs man thinks is the appropriate category :roll:

2) Then comes the VAT - Jason is right of course it's 20%

3) Then comes the 'handling charge' by the carrier this might be a fixed amount around £30 you might find even the post office makes this charge

4) And there's the freight cost (ie getting it across the pond)

If its electronic stuff it might still be worthwhile, but only just, if it's heavy woodworking tools it is regretably usually not worth the hassle.

 

[goldeneyedmonkey]

Yeah, I thought I had it about right all in it would be roughly £95 on top. So may not be worth the while that way. But if I can get my mate to ship it over (it's not that big, so shouldn't cost that much) it may be worth the hassle.

Cheers for all the info, hadn't seen that calculator before Jason, very useful _Dan.

 

[hawkeye48]

I have imported many bits for my Harley from the States. It's a bit of a lottery as to how it comes through, the ol customs men aint dim (unfortunatley).
What i have found is that goods come through easier at holiday times, Easter, Christmas. I think there must be a deluge of parcels comeing through and they just push them through to clear the back log.
Another way is if you have a friend going out there, they can bring goods back though tighter baggage weights is curbing this now.