Customs

[lancianut666]

Hi all
spoke too soon just had a request to cough up £77 on a purchase of £300 worth of old cameras from Austria so I have asked DHL for a breakdown. The disconcerting thing is the cameras were delivered on the 11th of January.
Clarkey

[Kevinlincs]

What is scary about all this is the lack of clarity, how can you judge whether a purchase from EU is worth doing if you don't know if a £300 purchase will incur no extra bill, or an extra £77! Makes the price way more different.
I hope the situation becomes clearer and any extra costs can be calculated before buying anything.

[peteracs]

Hi Clarkey

Not unusual for a courier to send invoice on after the delivery for the VAT etc..

Beware ignoring it. I once had a shipment from the US delivered and then never received the VAT invoice on the shipment which I had expected I had to pay. Eventually I had a debt collection agency sending letters demanding payment and their exorbitant fee. From memory the VAT was around £60 and the fee was over £100.

I contacted the courier direct and asked for copy invoice of the original VAT invoice and paid that direct to them. No more was heard from the debt company as these guys can be very unpleasant and definitely on the edge of the law at times.

Peter

[peteracs]

What is scary about all this is the lack of clarity, how can you judge whether a purchase from EU is worth doing if you don't know if a £300 purchase will incur no extra bill, or an extra £77! Makes the price way more different.
I hope the situation becomes clearer and any extra costs can be calculated before buying anything.

Hi Kev

I think you should assume that there will be VAT and a fee of around £10 to pay, then you will not be surprised.

Peter

[Kevinlincs]

Guess so. Assume you have to pay, factor that in then if no payment needed its a bonus.

[Beckerman67]

 Interesting article on the BBC News website:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-55841048
 Just substitute Jumpers with Bumpers!

[Derek Creasy]

Further to my post on this topic some weeks ago . After numerous emails , nudges and threat of immediate cancellation , Servex finally replied to say that DHL had just picked up my expensive front grille.  It arrived within the week last Monday with no customs paperwork , nothing from the driver and (as yet) no further invoices in the post .  Many thanks to all who posted but it seems that the consensus of opinion is correct in that no-one has the slightest idea as to what the current rules actually are , how they are interpreted or how they are applied . The new grille however looks superb 

[CasualSaint]

Just adding my recent experience with the new EU rules. Bought an item from France, item arrived in early January, did fit so I returned it and promptly forgot all about it, until yesterday when a letter or should I say a demand with menace arrived from DHL for the grand total of £48.09 in duties, for an item that I no longer have and was returned on January 18th... I should also add there was no indication from DHL before the letter yesterday that any charges where due.

[Dikappa]

Following my experience with buying Jim's appia light lense as a spare, (for 20 UKP plus 9 UKP postage), and having been charged with an exta 34.92 Euro's for VAT and import costs by the Belgian Post, I filed a complaint.

They answered me today that only non-commercial shipments with a total value under 45 Euro (this is including postage costs) are free of VAT and import handling charges, and that a sale between two private persons is still regarded as commercial.

On the phone the lady told me that Jim should better have ticked the box 'GIFT' instead of 'sale of goods' on the CN22 label, and that then it would have passed without problem.....so they advise you to lie!!!!!

Anyone does as he pleases, but just wanted to share this 'opportunity' for small items....

[lancianut666]

Hi all
It seems we are at the mercy of the respective postal services in our home countries when receiving parcels from abroad. The advice given to Koen is wrong on 2 counts as firstly you are committing fraud and secondly it will not work every time as Customs are not stupid and will have experience of people trying to circumvent the rules. I know this as I tried the 'gift' trick on a shipment of brake parts to South Africa but in the end the South African customs demanded a proper invoice and the resultant delay ran into weeks. On another note this time praising the postal services worldwide I sold a camera to a customer in China last August so guess what turned up at my house yesterday? the parcel had a sticker on it in English and Chinese saying there was not sufficient address information to deliver it. Thing is where has it been for the last 7 months?
Clarkey

[Charles]

Slightly different but I sent out the Gamma Consortium Newsletters last week and because of Brexit I had to complete 24 individual customs declarations (previously only 6) - it was worse than doing lines at school. 

"I must vote - Remain"
"I must vote - Remain"
"I must vote - Remain"

. . !

[Dikappa]

In my opinion, they should at least allow for small stuff below this 45 to pass without any declaration, as long as it is a private sale between private persons, but obviously this is not going to happen. 
What is weird than is that I recieved Lambda parts from Australia, declared at 550 Euro, and had to pay 'only' 55 euro for import and handling...I wonder where the relation is to the 35 Euro I had to pay for Jim's 29 UKP package....

Now let us be honest: 24 Euro handling charges to put a stamp on a box is slightly over the top IMO, one can pay personel for one working hour with that.....probably I also paid for the coffee break....

[Kevinlincs]

Damn, you guys have me wondering now...

Recently bought a couple of new panels for the Dedra from Italy, cost inc postage was around £90 (or under £70 once the multiple postage/combined parcel was refunded to me) but anyway I figured I'd be OK as well under the £135 figure being banded about..
Guess I'll just have to wait and see if I get a demand?

[Dilambdaman]

A couple of months ago I bought a Delta 3 radiator grill and four hubcaps from a French dealer and had them delivered free of charge to my neighbour in France. I then used parcelbroker.co.uk (no connection to me) who provided the delivery label and customs declaration label for me to fill in. Paid them around £25, emailed the labels to my neighbour, the parcel was collected next day and with me in four. No demands for any extra payments. Yet!

We have also for many years brought back from France old furniture clocks etc and have checked what the customs situation might be now. It appears that we fill in a simple customs declaration on line which calculates any VAT or duty due. Submit the form, pay the VAT/duty and use the "nothing to declare" lane at the UK port.

There are limits on things like alcohol and tobacco, other items up to a value of £390 are free.. I presume (hope!) this is per person and not per car?

https://www.gov.uk/duty-free-goods/declaring-goods

Robin.