Import vat issue!

**marbles** · 13-11-2018

Bought a couple of ER32 spindles from China. Cost inc post £37.68
Why do customs and excise want £14.14 for import duty?

Is this the new norm, with the clearance fee thats £26.14. What a joke

**cropwell** · 13-11-2018

I had a similar issue with 10 electrical sockets. Well under the £18 limit, but customs decided they were worth more and slapped on duty. Then with Royal Mail handling fee, it came up to nearly £40. I could have paid the fees, received the goods and then appealed the duty. Even if the appeal succeeded, I would not be able to get the RM fee back. So I informed the seller and left the goods to go back to China. He re- sent the order and it came straight through.

Ironically, I did not use the sockets as they were unshuttered and so not safe.

On the other side, I bought a harmonica for $150, expecting to pay duty and handling, but it just sailed through.

BTW - how much would you pay for a couple of Chinese made ER32 collet chucks from a UK supplier ?

**marbles** · 13-11-2018

Originally Posted by cropwell

BTW - how much would you pay for a couple of Chinese made ER32 collet chucks from a UK supplier ?

Looks like UK stock ones from ebay surprising cheap at £18 each so probably just take your advice and inform the seller and left the goods to go back to China and hopefully get reimbured for purchase and buy the UK ones.

**magicniner** · 13-11-2018

Customs and Excise do state that they will charge duty based on their assessment of the value of goods, regardless of declared purchase price.
Most people have already escaped so much VAT and Duty.......... :D

**marbles** · 13-11-2018

Originally Posted by magicniner

Customs and Excise do state that they will charge duty based on their assessment of the value of goods, regardless of declared purchase price.
Most people have already escaped so much VAT and Duty.......... :D

Indeed we've all done pretty well. I'm only concerned about a couple of bigger ticket items on route. Fingers crossed.

So just so i'm clear the goods you had returned. Who paid for the return? If the seller re- sent the order and it came straight through was one of you not loosing money on this transaction somewhere. This was through Aliexpress just wondering about the best proceedure?

**cropwell** · 13-11-2018

Originally Posted by marbles

So just so i'm clear the goods you had returned. Who paid for the return? If the seller re- sent the order and it came straight through was one of you not loosing money on this transaction somewhere. This was through Aliexpress just wondering about the best proceedure?

In my case the actual value of the goods was well below the £18 limit that customs allow before charging duty and VAT (and then Royal Mail fees). I informed the seller that I was not intending to collect the goods from the RM parcel depot and that after a while the goods will be returned to sender, presumably by RM at their expense. The seller was happy with this and re-sent the items straight away. I would advise you to inform your supplier in good time and make agreement as to the action. Remember that you have agreed to buy the goods in the first place. In this instance HM Rev and Cust were doing their job correctly and you have been charged properly. If you dispute the dutiable value assessed by HMRC you can appeal, but in low value cases it just ain't worth it.

In my experience Chinese traders on AliExpress do all they can to please the customer. I have an example of this - I bought 8 plastic cases on Fleabay from China - one was damaged in transit and the seller immediately insisted he would resend the whole order. I just imagine that if he were English, the attitude would be 'so effing what!'.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Cheers,

Rob