"Customs from Canada to UK" Topic

Any tip on avoiding silly charges fro small orders. I understand over £18.00 GBP warrants a charge or is luck. Do they just stick a charge on anything they can?

I believe the limit is now £15.00 GBP including postage.
Sometimes they pick stuff up and sometimes stuff gets through without customs charges.If a package gets stopped by UK customs then royal mail will charge an extra £8.00 GBP for dealing with customs for you.
Just my recent experience.
Paul

Yep, anything over £15.00 GBP is subject to 20% VAT, plus £8.00 GBP handling charge to the Royal Mail. Enforcement is still occasionally patchy, but packages "slipping through" without charges are a lot rarer than they used to be.

I just wonder how they know if models cost £14.00 GBP or £28.00 GBP or is it just what they think and charge applied with no discussion?

The value should be declared on the outside of the packet, Colin.

Always feels a ripoff when you get stung for £3.20 GBP VAT and £8.00 GBP handling.

Can the value be massaged down a small bit??

Such a pity; very discouraging for trade.

Can the value be massaged down a small bit??

In the UK this is a criminal offence. I suspect the same will be true in Canada.

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Martin Stephenson
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It was my understanding ( and probably wrong) in that the postage was only taken into account re VAT if the initial value of the goods were were over £15.00 GBP

Don't think so, it looks as if the VATtable amount always includes postage –

"The value of the goods for import VAT is based on the:
◾ basic value of goods, plus
◾ postage, packing and insurance, plus
◾ any import (Customs or Excise) duties charged"

- link

No, Steve is correct – I should have spotted that in EL's post, sorry – the value of the goods *only* is used when assessing if it's under the £15.00 GBP threshold. ("Intrinsic value" in customs man speak.) If the goods are over £15.00 GBP, then VAT is charged on both the goods and the postage costs.

We have the same problem in Canada except that the HST is not placed on the postage. I think most people would gladly pay the VAT. It's the brokerage charges that really annoy people. When the VAT was brought in in Canada the promise was that all administrative charges would be included in the rate. It seems to me that collecting the VAT is an administrative responsibility of the government and not the local taxpayer.

Probably better to get the sender to send 2 parcels, postage is probably cheaper than the £8.00 GBP extortion of the post office

That is absolute robbery. How do they justify those kinds of charges?

I had a package of sculpts sent from Canada to UK and for insurance purposes valued it at £500.00 GBP because of what I was paying the sculptor. This value had to be on the outside so if lost I could claim the insurance. Of course when customs saw this they retained the package until I paid over £100.00 GBP in tax. I complained that the goods were mine already which was true and that my friend was just checking them for me. I had to show I had sent them to him originally a few months before. It was touch and go but they eventually accepted my argument after much debate.

We had a similar issue with a watch, bought in the UK and shipped to Ukraine as a present. He paid import duty in Ukraine.

When it broke he shipped it back and we had to prove to DHL it was originally purchased here, so we didn't need to pay import duty again. And when we returned it he had to do the same thing with DHL in Ukraine!

This value had to be on the outside so if lost I could claim the insurance

We had similar issues shipping within the UK. A large shipment of fully assembled and painted recognition models, but RM would only pay out on the weight of the package, not the value…

How do they justify those kinds of charges?

Cos theey got it and you want it… and who is going to challenge the tax man.