VAT

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else getting huckled by C&E over parts coming by post from the U.S. ?

I had a $36 pair of sunglasses, with $10 additional postage, and got charged £3.80 VAT.

I phoned the VAT office and they said that was the VAT on the $36.

They also said that anything over £18 was liable for VAT and anything over £120 was liable for import duty.

Now, like many of you, I have bought tons of stuff over the years from the U.S. Not just car parts, but militaria as well and this is the first time I have ever had the package intercepted by C&E so they can charge VAT.

Putting on my conspiracy theorists hat, now that the pound is so bad against the dollar, it is much more worthwhile C&E nabbing folk for VAT !

That wasn't the worst. The good old Royal Mail then charge you an £8 handling charge too. I phoned Royal Mail and asked what the handling charge was for. Apparently, it appears to be that the Royal mail present the parcel to C&E who say that, yes, there will be a £3.80 VAT on the package and, by the way, charge the customer £8 for us telling you to charge him £3.80 VAT.

I was tempted to go home and run up an invoice for the Post Office to cover me

(a) bending over to pick up the invoice card from my letterbox

(b) presenting it to my eyes for inspection

(c) travelling to the Post/Parcel Office to collect the item.

I reckon that would come to a nice round £8.

The woman I spoke to said that the £8 is a flat rate charge, so you could be importing a box of £1000 value and it would be £8, or like me, £8 for a £24 pair of sunglasses.

I just wondered if C&E and the Royal Mail are tightening up, or was I just unlucky ?

Feeling ripped off.

[MilesnMiles]

sandy, eaxactly same happened to me last year. A 65$ master cylinder ended up £83 at the door

[steveo]

yeah blooming rip off .. funny though had a couple of big orders of $1500
& the customs were only a little more the $500 worth of parts , can't remember off hand now
i just say now if something is $200 its going to cost me 200 pound , more now though as the £ is crap

but yeah its all a con if you ask me , customs even want vat import duty of stuff from a breakers ..... best one to catch you out is fedx , deliver your part & then 2 weeks later , a invoice drops through the letter box & they want a cheque for customs/import duty vat

[Dave-R]

Hardly ever got away with it Sandy. Not very often. You have just been LUCKY all these years.
I got one recently that didn't get charged VAT or anything. Valued at $24. But that was the exception. Normally they get me every time.

[Anonymous]

yeah that £8 charge for stealing your money, is a cheek.

well, all you can do is reuse some stamps now and then that missed the postmark to gradually claw your money back

[MattH]

Will, have you costed up how much your time is worth to stand over the kettle steaming stamps off? I know it can be done, but I'd rather do something else!

[latil]

Check those stamps carefully,you'll find a pattern of near invisible dots on used stamps that are picked up by UV light at the sorting office if you reuse them.

[Ivor]

Sandy, I can sympathise too.

I managed to win some rare Mopar interior trim parts on ebay, they were "driver" condition so I got them for $27.00.

The parcel arrived by courier and a demand for import duty, a handling charge and VAT amounting to more than the value of the original parts!

I duly paid up, to get the parts before they got lost and immediately wrote a polite email to the Customs and Excise.

I received a detailed reply which when you broke it down said we can do what we like and we are going to stiff you for every penny we can get, just because you won't conform to the motoring demands of the general punter.

Nice people.

[MrNorm]

[quote="Dave"]You have just been LUCKY all these years./quote]
Very rare to ever not get charged. IIRC $30 is the threshold, which pretty much tallies with the £18 they gave you Sandy

You do realise that they charge VAT on the postage as well
And also if you pay duty, the VAT is on that too.....talk about massive ripoff.

One reason why I have rarely bought stuff from US and had it shipped....usually it accompanies me on a plane!!!

[Dave999]

180 quid on an engine

£500 by the time i got it

packaging in Oz
150 to send it

the rest was handling port charges

cup of tea for the forklift driver charge

sticky bun charge

pick up and load into van charge
documents charge

then VAT

bunch of gits


Dave

[Anonymous]

Good grief, I guess that I shouldn't really complain then.

I usually get a card through the letterbox, toddle down to the local office and walk away with my box, no questions asked ....

[Ian Z]

no trading 'protectionism' here in UK?