taxes when importing into UK

[mke]

I know a little bit of the situation when importing into the US or into Europe.

A question to people from UK who have done this before.

Is there a threshold below which you don't have to pay any taxes?

And, by chance, if you know how much tax will be requested if you import a pen which you bought at 100 or 150 GBP?

Thank you

[A Smug Dill]

9 minutes ago, mke said:

Is there a threshold below which you don't have to pay any taxes?

 

Yes and no.

 

From the page at https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty:

Quote

VAT is charged on all goods (except for gifts worth £39 or less) sent from:

• outside the UK to Great Britain
• outside the UK and the EU to Northern Ireland

VAT is not charged on goods that are gifts worth £39 or less.

 

The threshold of £135 has to do with to whom you would have to pay the tax amount, not whether a purchase (i.e. not a gift) from abroad is to be taxed (in accordance with applicable laws and regulations).

[mke]

@A Smug Dill

Thank you, that link is helpful.

 

Below 135 GBP: "If you bought the goods yourself and they are not excise goods, the seller will have included VAT in the total you paid."

Does that really mean a seller from abroad has to collect taxes and pay to UK?

[A Smug Dill]

15 minutes ago, mke said:

Does that really mean a seller from abroad has to collect taxes and pay to UK?

 

It's a similar scheme to what Australia has been doing since July 2018, and Amazon.com (as in the US-based operation, not Amazon AU or Amazon UK, etc.), eBay, AliExpress, some sellers on (now-defunct) Rakuten Global Market, Cult Pens, JetPens, etc. all add 10% Australian GST at checkout if the delivery address is in Australia, while some retailers still don't. There's a nominal criterion for whether a supplier (or electronic distribution platform, in the case of eBay and AliExpress, instead of the individual seller) abroad has to collect GST on ‘low-value’ (≤AUD1000) imports, based on a threshold for the total value of exports it sends into Australia in a 12-month period. What is unclear is what paperwork it has to submit to the Australian Tax Office for transactions, and whether the ATO is actually going to chase it for the 10% it supposedly collected, or is supposed to collect, on orders going to Australia. I'm neither a lawyer or an accountant, and I don't know the answer to that part.

[mke]

@A Smug Dill

Thanks.

[dipper]

Four months ago I ordered about £95 worth of items from Fountain Pen Revolution in the US, for delivery to my UK address.

Was promply delivered by Royal Mail in a package with a clearly printed label on the outside listing all the contents and value.

No taxes charged. No home visits by heavies from Customs & Excise, or "the VAT man".

 

There was no indication on the FPRevolution ordering pages that FPR would pay taxes.

 

If I get locked up in prison someday then I will try to get this post updated.

[Chimera01]

I think in the UK it's pretty much luck of the draw. I've had relatively inexpensive things delivered to my doorstep by Royal Mail and some bad experiences as well. Although my worst experience was when I received an invoice from HMRC for £500+ for a single Sankai Juku DVD I was importing from Japan (and quite threatening they were, too). After a few weeks of back and forth, I finally got hold of a laughing customs and excise agent who said it had been processed by a trainee who had misread Japanese Yen as GBP. I've also been held to ransom by FedEx and DHL although they seem to have better processes in place these days. Still... best experience of late has been buying from Europe, where some vendors charge the tax at source (as A Smug Dill comments above). And smaller purchases just stream through the system. At least in the EU➝GB direction! 

 

PS if Royal Mail have delivered the package best guess is you're in the clear

[Karmachanic]

Depends.  Obvious retail packaging will be pounced on.  20% VAT + minimal duty if applicable, and an £8 handling fee.  Brown paper wrap sent EMS/conventional post not so much, especially if value is marked in Yen, Yuan, or Rupees.  Last time I received FedEx the handling fees were at least double the Royal Mail.

 

£150 might sail through, or might not.  Phase of the moon, barometric pressure, wind direction and so forth.

[Chimera01]

In the UK, if you have any kind of a dispute, it also makes a big difference if you can quote the correct UK Commodity Codes (as in tariff code or HS Harmonised System code). And know what the % duty should be. Couriers and Royal Mail can be notoriously fickle (as noted above) and inaccurate at calculating these things... sometimes I think they make it up as they go along. You don't just have to pay, you can take it up and demand that they correct it.