Paying VAT & import duties

[cutandprice]

Hi guys,

Can anyone explain to me (any UK PS''ers who have imported from the US) how I go about paying the VAT & Import Duties on my purchase? Will I be contacted by the appropriate authorities or will I need to contact them? I have just ordered my ering but I am clueless as to what happens next! (JA couln''t advise me)

 

[cutandprice]

Again, sorry for my impatience but can somebody please advise me?

 

[Rhea]

Maisie recently bought a ring from WF and is located in the UK. If you do a search for VAT you''ll probably come up with her posts. I''m not sure if she describes what she had to go through or not but I don''t think that was her first international shipping order so her experience couldn''t have been too traumatic. It''s quite late in the UK and I believe she has relatively young children so she may be back tomorrow if you can hold on that long.

Pandora II also recently had her ring imported from Wink so she may be able to provide insight as well.

 

[lisaC]

link

If you use the search bar and type in uk taxes a bunch of threads come up.
Maisie has been particularly helpful as she bought her ring from WF and she lives in NE of England. She has posted the tel # for Revenue and customs 0845 010 9000

hope this helps

 

[pwendyp]

Hi there

I've made a few purchases from the US, that required customs payment, and thus far, the two postal services used were USPS & FedEx.

With USPS, the package is held, and the customs charge worked out, before letting you know the package is ready for delivery. You then receive a letter, detailing the charge, which must be paid before delivery can happen.

With FedEx - the package is delivered, and an invoice will follow, which you then must pay.

In both cases, the vendor will have marked the packed (insured) with the green custom label, which details the $ amount of the contents, so the customs guys can work out what is payable.

Customs and VAT is a pain in the butt, but has to be paid - the price we pay, for getting something from across the pond that costs a lot less (usually) than here in the UK.

I reckon we still get better value, even factoring in the customs and VAT.

The ring you ordered is lovely by the way!

good luck

 

[cutandprice]

Hi LovingSapphires,

That is exactly the information I was looking for (and hadn''t found when searching previous posts!). I am getting a Fedex delivery so thats great news that I receive my package before having to pay the taxes. Thanks for all your input you other guys - sorry if it appeared I was being lazy but I wasn''t!

It is a pain having to pay an extra 20% and really does hike up the price but, as you say LS, it is still usually cheaper than buying from the UK and at least you get the added comfort of knowing exactly what you are buying (unlike many UK vendors).

 

[Lord Summerisle]

My own experiance - shipping from the US has been fine, its our own postal service that lets us down.

USPS hand over to ParcleFarce - and sometimes they forget to get in touch - usually a card through the door to say custom charges need to be paid before they will deliver, so if you have a tracking number (JA should be able to provide it if they havent already) if posted with USPS then you can track the parcle on their site, then once it reaches the UK it transfers over to ParcelForce, use the same tracking number on their site, and once it says its cleared customs give them a ring to chase it up if you dont hear anything after a day or two.

if FedEx you should be alright, but again you can track it on their site and see when it clears customs.

Should be fairly painless except for the extra damage to the wallet, but your still saving a huge amount over UK prices.

 

[CatherineMcGr]

Lord Summerisle''s description is exactly what happened with my ring in May 2006. We tracked it online via Fedex until it said it was in customs. Then nothing happened for several days. We rang the Fedex number and asked where the package was. They said, "We''re waiting for you to pay customs on it." The thing was, we didn''t know that this was the procedure. Anyway we paid the duty over the phone by credit card and the ring was delivered, to Northern Ireland, the next day. So, I would advise you to contact Fedex as soon as you see on their tracking system that it has arrived in the UK. However, about two months later we got a letter from the customs people telling us that we hadn''t paid the duty. And it turned out that we hadn''t! Although we had given our credit card details on the phone they had not actually processed the information so payment had not been received. We had not noticed that the payment had not appeared on the credit card statement. Anyway, it was not a problem. We paid it and were sent a receipt.

One piece of advice: my husband worked from home that day to be sure that the parcel could be delivered and he insisted on the delivery driver staying until he had opened the package, just in case there was no ring inside! After all, if it had been missing, how could we have proved that it hadn''t been there?

Hope you enjoy your ring.