Importing items from China

Good ol ebay has some stuff valued at about £80 i want to buy from china,

they state that i might have to pay import duty, im guessing this is vat @ 17.5%, when it arrives in the country?

is this the case?

if this is the case it makes it cheaper to buy from a local shop!!

Cheers

Alex

£80 is borderline on whether they'll stop it for vat or not, but if they do, parcel force (or whoever will also want £7 or so for handling etc, you have no option but to pay it if you want your parcel (gets my ****ing goat, you've already paid for delivery, that's what the charge is for!!!!, they know they've got you that's all).

Delivery times can be long from China also. It would have to be half UK price AT LEAST before I'd consider it again.

Yeah you may get lucky and they won't check it but they started getting REALLY anal about checking everything the last year or so.

Wanted to go a GO table from China for £30 but shipping was £180 I wonder how many people they sucker that way

Originally Posted by arenalife

£80 is borderline on whether they'll stop it for vat or not, but if they do, parcel force (or whoever will also want £7 or so for handling etc, you have no option but to pay it if you want your parcel (gets my f**king goat, you've already paid for delivery, that's what the charge is for!!!!, they know they've got you that's all).

Delivery times can be long from China also. It would have to be half UK price AT LEAST before I'd consider it again.

There is no "borderline" amount on stopping goods. The decisions are more complex than that and based on intel and risk assessments. Otherwise drug dealers would be sending in packages amounting to £50 or less. :P And Customs dont only look for drugs [see below].

And for the record, any additional charge is the storage, handling and repackaging charge. If Customs deem they want to look at something the importers have to hold it in storage, transfer it to Customs. Customs then rip open the packaging and deem if VAT/duty is applicable or whether its clean if theyre looking for something specific [drugs/meat/endangered species/banned timber etc]. Parcelforce, DHL, UPS etc then have to recollect it in its opened state and then have to rewrap it before delivery.

It really isnt about just adding on another delivery charge despite what you may think - its to cover their costs for actually complying with Customs & Excise Management Act 79 [or its HMRC equivalent which I think was a statutory instrument which basically extended CEMA to cover HMRC. ]