Import duty - naive buyer

Naivety on my part but I bought some electronic hobby kit off ebay (sent from China). It arrived ok works fine etc. Now some 3 weeks later I get an invoice from the shipping Co asking for some £50 ('made up of 3 parts with codes meaning give us your money so we can give it to the gov. for more UK bombs to attack other countries'). Sorry - but it feels like that. It's about 1/3 the price of the item!

Anyway, at the end of said invoice was the text: "We have paid this amount of import duty in good faith. Please pay us". So the shippers are acting as tax collectors then?

Maybe it was always so - but first time for me to buy this way. Watch those charges chaps.

Reply to
michael newport
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Sounds like a scam. Don't pay it! I've bought lots of stuff from China and never had this experience. Scam written all over it.

Reply to
Cursitor Doom

Yes, it's long been the case that delivery companies deal with VAT/duty and then add on a fee for doing it.

Just had a demand Fedex a month after the item was delivered, so I thought I'd got away with it!

It's pot luck to some extent, depends on the value and the carrier and the phase of the moon. For multiple items it's often best to buy them individually as low cost items are more likely to get through than one expensive delivery.

Reply to
Bill Taylor

I think there is a de minimis limit of £18, below which HMRC don't bother to collect VAT.

OTOH, if you have not agreed to reimburse the shippers, can they actually recover from you?

Reply to
GB

I've had to pay import duty when getting things from the US. But have always had to pay it before it is delivered. Which adds considerably to the total transport times, as well as being an expensive exercise due in part to the admin charges.

So I'd make sure it's not a con. ;-)

I've bought lots of electronics from China etc and not had to pay duty - presumably because the value is below the threshold where this starts.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Not come across that before. I *thought* that Customs could put some sort of "mark" on a package which meant the Post Office would hold on to it until you paid up. That happened to me on a £200 leather bag (still amazing value after paying the duty).

I've found with small Chinese products off eBay the Customs Form is sometimes marked up a bit creatively, e.g. with "Gift" or a value a bit below the actual value (say $5 rather than $15).

I'd also heard about the HMRC "de minimis" of 18 dollars / euros / pounds, didn't Amazon use that to fiddle prices of CDs supplied from Jersey at one time?

Reply to
newshound

How long? Last time it happened to me (about a couple of years ago) the claim came from a central unit run IIRC by the PO, not carrier. And the carrier was one of the big US ones.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It's a scam. They don't pay the duty unless it's alcohol or tobacco:

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Also, I haven't had to pay such charges for a long time - occasionally I get asked to pay the VAT - but that is done by the Royal Mail or whoever holding the package and sending me a bill, where they release the goods when I pay.

No seller in his right mind would pay "in good faith" for a customer he's never done business with before.

Reply to
Tim Watts

That doesn't work if the carrier is not the Royal Mail. My guess is that the problem arises with major international carriers who don't normally do domestic deliveries. I had a lens from Hong Kong a few years ago, with no request for payment and no marks on the package about duty. Sometime later, when I'd forgotten all about it, I receiced a statement from the carrier (DHL or Fedex) for an overdue account. As I didn't do business with them I assumed it was a glitch and threw it away. And the next one. When I received a solicitors' letter I realised what it was about and paid up but neither of the statements or the letter had said what I was being charged for. Perhaps there had been an invoice that I hadn't received.

(I heard a story some years ago about someone being (correctly) charged duty on an item from the Channel Islands. They complained to the supplier and were reimbursed. I don't know if the supplier had been advertising 'nothing more to pay' or if they gor away with it enough that they could afford to be generous when they didn't.)

Reply to
Peter Johnson

We have had this mostly from digikey when they don't have the item in stock in the UK they sent it from the USA it arrives at our post room and the co uriers say unless you pay the duty we can't leave the package.

It might be the description on the packet, maybe be a gift or parts for som ething which don't attract customs attention.

On teh odd occasion we;'ve had digikey phoning us and asking what the part will be used for, before they'll sent it off.

Reply to
whisky-dave

Yup, I've had that as well and for only a couple of quid over the 15 quid threshold (that's including the shipping and insurance of course).

I think I had to pay at the local Sorting office, 80p duty and another

8 quid or summat for them to have paid it for me. ;-(

The guy in the sorting office suggested they were (or were then) 'clamping down' on such things as he had seen the number of smaller lower value (but over £15 etc) being picked up had gone from typically

3 to 30 per week. ;-(

As mentioned elsewhere, when ordering from outside the EU and typically from the Far East with free shipping, I try to keep it under the 15 quid or break it into sub 15 quid (and sometimes spaced out timewise) bundles.

At the same time I've had mates import +£100 value items and not get picked up. [1]

Cheers, T i m

[1] It's funny re how some companies ship stuff. I've had multiples-off, ordered at the same time, or even a few hours apart combined in the same package or sent as a swathe of individually addressed and postage-paid packets? I guess there must be a cost threshold between bulk-packaging something and just sending them out (probably when pre-packed anyway) individually.
Reply to
T i m

It isn't necessarily a scam. The OP says that it came from the shipping company and seems to think it correlates with what he received.

I have had just such a request from Fedex 3 weeks after they delivered the goods, so some carriers do deliver and request payment later, even without any business realtionship with the customer.

Reply to
Bill Taylor

Quite common especially on items from the U.S.A. Some American companies wi ll charge VAT but no sign of a vat number on their invoice so where it goes is anybodies guess.

I have also been sent a zero vat invoice from a shipper with an invoice of £10 for raising said invoice.

Reply to
fred

I'm fairly certain that I've had one of these "paid in good faith" things in the distant past and it was genuine.

In the UK gov website the relevant word is surely "may"

You may have to pay VAT, Customs Duty or Excise Duty on goods sent from outside the European Union (EU) before you can collect them.

Reply to
Bill

That happened with us with a package from the USA. The contents?

Tea!!!

HMRC staff do have a sense of humour after all.

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Reply to
bert

Reply to
Brian Gaff

I still feel its a good idea to make sure its genuine. It would not be the first time its been a scam of some sort run by an employee of the company. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

It does seem odd to me that a carrier would pay what *you* owe up front then try and claim it back from you. Asking for trouble. And not worth suing for such a relatively small amount.

Here, I got a card from IIRC the PO, and had to go online and pay. Including something like a 15 quid service charge. Outrageous for a simple online payment. Only then was the package delivered. And it wasn't the PO handling the UK end of the package either - it was a large US one like UPS.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Have they bumped that up then? £8 charge by Royal Mail about 4 years ago.

Reply to
Tim Streater

michael newport was thinking very hard :

I buy lots from China and I have never heard of that. If the declared value of the item exceeds £15, it is liable to be stopped by Customs and they can levy a charge. The charge will be made on delivery, by the post office and include the PO's collection fee of an extra £10.

I would suggest ignore the letter, it sounds like a scam..

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

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