Customs........

befor i get ranted at
one: i was expective to have to pay a bill for vat actuallt, i didnt have a clue how much though,
two: i didnt know when the hell they were coming and i only know what the seller sent them as by looking on the invoice, i didnt acutally have any control over that,
so to be honest id say that it isnt my fault, not rerally impressed that they put 20.00 if that was all i could calim back as i paid 80 quid

[northwind]

See, I wouldn't try to evade it, if the current situation wasn't such a ****-take... Item gets delivered, and held by Parcelfarce until you can go in, on their terms, to pay it off and collect it. They then add a handling charge which, last time I had to pay, was more than the tax. There was no way to pay over the phone and get it delivered, the only way to get it was to go to their office. Then you find that the office is only open from 10 til 3 on weekdays and 10 til one on saturday. Some of us have jobs y'know.

It's the year 2007, how hard would it be to have a phone number you could call with a visa card, and then have it delivered? The sender's paid for delivery after all, how do they justify not doing so? How come you end up paying a high handling charge for such a substandard service when they're not even bothering to deliver? Why can't they just deliver it along with an invoice?

I don't object to paying tax on imports... I wouldn't totally mind paying the handling charge, if I was actually getting something for it (though it's a bit like paying 17.5% on a domestic purchase, then having to pay an extra pound to pay for the tax office's time). But having to pay extra for such an utterly dreadful service is really pushing it frankly.

Lynw, please calm down. I personally think HMRC should be prosecuted on theft charges. I am STILL waiting for a tax rebate of about £200 which has been earning them interest for a fair few months now whilst I'm unemplyed, broke and ineligible to claim jobseekers allowance.
However, what REALLY takes the mickey is when you end-up paying VAT on top of another tax, e.g. car tax which also carries a VAT charge.

Originally Posted by james160987

befor i get ranted at
one: i was expective to have to pay a bill for vat actuallt, i didnt have a clue how much though,
two: i didnt know when the hell they were coming and i only know what the seller sent them as by looking on the invoice, i didnt acutally have any control over that,
so to be honest id say that it isnt my fault, not rerally impressed that they put 20.00 if that was all i could calim back as i paid 80 quid

just read that completely the wrong way. And breathes... your US supplier may find theyre going to live in interesting times if they keep doing this and get spotted and looked at by US Customs.

Rough guide btw:

goods under £290: duty max 3.5% unless its under £7 where its waived. Alcohol, tobacco, perfumes have excise duty added. VAT 17.5%.
goods over £290: duty applicable according to tariff code - could vary. Excise duty as applicable. VAT 17.5%
gifts: limit is £36 duty/vat free. Above that, vat/duty applicable as per above rules.

That presumes the goods are subject to VAT. Which is about 20 public notices in their own right which Ill answer specifics on if you need guidance on those areas.

Originally Posted by lynw

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr....... dont start me off on one...

and breathe...

But congratulations for confessing in public to conspiring to defraud HMRC. I dont think you realise quite how serious an offence that is.

You seem to think its no big thing for someone to make a false legal declaration. Im sure your sender will if US Customs ever catch up with them. And so will you if you do it often enough to be spotted here.

How is he supposed to know, or be able to control for that matter, what they put on the label

Originally Posted by Moffatt666

Lynw, please calm down. I personally think HMRC should be prosecuted on theft charges. I am STILL waiting for a tax rebate of about £200 which has been earning them interest for a fair few months now whilst I'm unemplyed, broke and ineligible to claim jobseekers allowance.

For starters, I misread how that post was meant and duly apologised.

Secondly, its a sad fact that the revenue were and still are slacker than customs at rebates. For VAT, the money would be back with you a MAXIMUM of 30 days from your claim. I think Customs rebates are paid pretty quickly too.

Its because C&E were always subject to these time provisions, yet the revenue seemed to manage to avoid them and keep their archaic working practices. Needless to say its an extremely painful time for HMRC atm as it has two major areas supposedly harmonising. Not that it helps you. If you need some help about chasing it up, pm me.

Too tired to argue the last point tbh. Other than to say that tax isnt fair, no-one likes paying it. But when the budget sets out each year what the treasury can give away or how theyre going to collect more, it comes down to factoring those of us who do pay are paying for those who dont as well. Sorry I kind of resent that because its not fair on the rest of us.

Originally Posted by need2ride

How is he supposed to know, or be able to control for that matter, what they put on the label

I know . Im not saying Customs are fair here - theres no way I can. CEMA was and its replacement is a very draconian law. The responsibility is on the importer if theres been a problem to sort it on arrival and pay any duty/vat thats due. Though Id suggest for £80 value theyll probably deem it too low to worry about. Its where your value of goods starts creeping into the hundreds that they would deal with. Thats if anyone ever actually declared it.

Tbh, unless someones doing this on a weekly basis and frequently importing from the same supplier that continues to do misdescribe and mislabel, it will generally be overlooked.

However, good old Customs "youre guilty" attitude still prevails at times. If goods are spotted to be mislabelled/undervalued and they then chose to monitor imports to that individual, if that individual continues to use the supplier knowing that hes getting the goods in duty/vat free and they are always mislabelled/undervalued, then they will look at that as deliberate avoidance. Thats when youre into the realms of looking at having goods seized.

Not related to customs, but has anyone noticed how speedy the US Postal Service are when it comes to dispatching stuff to the UK? It took two days for a card to arrive from an aunt in Texas and the postage cost was $1.50 or 75p. We're getting scammed by comparison.