UK Customs VAT Questions
LaserWolf
Portland Oregon 11,517 Posts
Never had an issue with UK Customs, until now.
Charging the customer £14.
Customer thought VAT should be £6.00.
Asked me if I could help. I can not as I have no pull with the UK Customs folks.
Then sent me:
"Actually I found out some more information. The charge was a split between £6 VAT and £8 handling charge from the post office. Would there be a way for me to pay the VAT in advance and thus avoid the handling charge?"
So the Post Office is charging an extra £8 for handling? Isn't handling what the PO does? I already paid postage.
They are charging a fee to collect a tax?
Please don't let Comcast hear about that.
Charging the customer £14.
Customer thought VAT should be £6.00.
Asked me if I could help. I can not as I have no pull with the UK Customs folks.
Then sent me:
"Actually I found out some more information. The charge was a split between £6 VAT and £8 handling charge from the post office. Would there be a way for me to pay the VAT in advance and thus avoid the handling charge?"
So the Post Office is charging an extra £8 for handling? Isn't handling what the PO does? I already paid postage.
They are charging a fee to collect a tax?
Please don't let Comcast hear about that.
Comments
The post system here gets involved in lots of non-postal activities, charging a fee. Customs admin could well be in the mix.
I'd heard of German customs being a bit of a hound on record tax, but never aware of a UK purge.
Not a good move for customers, for sure Ebay have lost regular record buyers over this issue (noticed a few discussions and complaints on soul forums about the problem of getting stung by customs/post office charges on purchases since 2014).
I always make sure a low ball park figure of around $10.00 to $15.00 is declared on items when ordering from non European sellers, otherwise I won't go through with the purchase.
Items need to be declared as a gift item (higher limit before tax fees kick in) with a home address from sender, not a business address. Limit before tax fees are charged is around the $35.00 mark.
Never got stung.
They may be clamping down on this sort of thing as Discogs have just started charging VAT on all UK sales. Probably our shitty governments attempts at clawing as much tax as possible from to common man whilst giving a pass to millionaires and multinationals. The cunts.
Anything imported into the UK from outside the EU with a declared value of £15 is liable to a VAT fee, unless it's a gift where it's £36. If the receiver gets hit, the post office stick on an admin charge of £8. Parcelforce appear to only charge an extra £1 fee for the same service. In addition, if it's over £135 you also have to pay 2.5% customs fee on top. So, a £150 basket of goods can cost you something like £38 in fees or it gets sent back. Add on the high cost of post now from outside the UK, that's up to a possible £200. I don't know of any other way to get round this other than the 'Ebay Shipping Program' that adds on extortionate fees at the point of sale but that doesn't apply to off eBay of course.
There are people specifically employed by the p.o. to check this and they do open packets, and they do check the web for transactions, this is not always random (from someone 'on the inside'), its a big money spinner... Next time UK man asks you to put $10 on the packet, that's why...
and they definitely focus on USA>UK packages rather than just 'outside the EU'.
this is why I can't have nice things.
They trying to do this in Aus now.
The govt is apparently going to go to overseas companies like amazon and ask them to tack on our gst sales tax to their Australian customer purchases. At the moment all online sales under $1000 aus are tax free.
They are also talking income tax cuts while they have plans to up the gst from 10 to 15% !
I am personally outraged that they charge for collecting a tax.
Typically everything I ship overseas is $20.00 or less. I would never lie on a federal form, and I don't support tax dodging, somehow it always works out.
But this guy was a pain in the butt from day one, I wasn't doing him any favors.
Still I feel bad about the shock he got when he saw his postal bill.
Sounds like you have been dealing
with a total noob. This applies to all imports from outside the EU. They should teach this stuff in school.
Has he paid the tax+charge and accepted/collected the shipment? In that case it's case closed (but watch whether he tries to challenge your paypal transaction.
If he so far has not paid and the shipment is lying at the post office there comes a day when it will be (should be) returned to sender (assuming there's an address on it).
Good luck....
You do get nice weather and cafe au lait girls for free.