Trying to buy something from Amazon US website as it is much cheaper than I could find the item for in the UK, even when taking P&P into account.
I was about to press "Go" when I noticed that they added "Import Fees Deposit" to the total. The item is only around £50, so why do they charge that?
The UK starts charging import duty/vat from about £12
Be careful: in my experience anything commercial coming into the UK from the USA will be charged VAT, import duty and a handling charge by the Post Office, e.g. $54 USD via PayPal and about a further, if I remember correctly, £17 pounds when I collected it from the PO delivery office. It would have been cheaper and quicker from a UK supplier. Full details of tax etc are on the HMRC website...
Peter
Maybe that's why one supplier we use in the US uses DHL. Extra charges imposed by the UK seem to start at just below £100 value.
I guess the question is just how much cheaper it is on the US website? The chances are you will have to pay 20% VAT and possibly some duty on top of that. If that has to be collected by the post office from you, they add on an extra handling charge, which was around £12 the last time I had to pay it. If, after all that, it is going to be cheaper from the US, go ahead.
I had to pay on a $55 parcel in May
It was around $50 on Amazon US, compared to £50 on the UK site. P&P was only $3, so I thought that it was worth the trouble.
After the comments above (thanks all!) I don't think I am going to bother...
And possibly a 2 to 3% GBP to dollar commission charge from your CC company (or money payment company)
Luckily, that is not my experience - so far.
The sale amount exceeds the VAT threshold. Amazon have an agreement with HMRC to collect duty at the point of sale rather than import or delivery. Most large carriers have a similar arrangement and automatically collect fees on behalf of HMRC based on invoice value.
VAT is charged on the value of the goods, plus the international shipping costs and insurance, plus any import duty due. VAT is not charged if the value of the goods excluding shipping and insurance cost, does not exceed £15.
Import duty is not charged if the value of the goods (excluding shipping and insurance) does not exceed £135 or the amount of duty payable does not exceed £9.
We've had that here, I'd been asked to collect a parcel from our post room and to bring £12.81 cash or they won't deliver it. The order was from di gi-key UK, but the product shipped via the US store. Product was under £5
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