Recently I have bought three frames from Ebay.com in the States. One was worth £147 inc postage. I was charged £37 in VAT and Parcelfarce charges.
Today I recieved 2 letters from Parcelfarce with charges. One for £62.39 (inc £8 PF charges) then the other £161.20! That is £25.94 Import duty and £127.26 VAT.
Why do we pay VAT on second hand goods and import duty? If they were new frames then I can understand it but they are not. Not even this years models but two years old is the newest one.
Anyone else had similar charges?

was it £147.00 for all three frames or was that just one of them?
either way it sounds like youve been stung!
what you need is a helpful mate in the states.send them to him, then he repacks them, probably more compactly and sends them in someway as to you not paying so much import tax etc…

Why do we pay VAT on second hand goods and import duty?

Because those are the rules! Quite easy to justify as well, as you own a frame which would otherwise have never had duty or VAT paid on it (which is otherwise identical to a second hand one bought new in this country which has). To turn the question around, why exactly should you not pay VAT on it just because it's second hand?

I dident think there was VAT payable on 2nd hand items

were they last years model or used

Because if the items have been used there would be no VAT or import duties to be paid

not unless they were purchased from a shop rather than an individual

Could be wrong though

if its never been in the uk its liable for vat+ taxes – new second hand – hell even broken!

Could be wrong though

You are indeed. Is a common misconception.

Curly you can work out exactly how much you should be charged on th PF website and DHL etc.

It goes on the catergory of item, its value etc. The £162 charge means you must have bought something expensive.

i bought a chain device from us ebay once cos it was waaaayyyy (about 45%) cheaper including postage than the same one even from crc/woolyhatshop.

Then a card turned up, inviting me to 'cough up and pick it up' -import tax payable on the postage as well as the product (I can understand the tax dodge you could have done by undercharging for the product and overcharging for the postage) plus customs/RM handling fee made it cost me about 40 pence more than if i had bought it over here. And with all that my 45% saving disappeared and it took 2 weeks longer to get to me. You live and learn!

( I have often wondered if this very calculation is used to set the price for fancy US made stuff in the uk, ie make it cost around the same as it does bought direct from the usa with all the postage/tax/handling on top and then provide a local warranty service. Whether that bears any relation to the 'trade' cost of the product to the importer could be completely incidental!)

i dont know the ins and outs of this but can you dodge import tax somehow or will they always get you some how?

The only way I know of getting around import tax is to get a friend to bring it over in their luggage, stroll through the green channel at customs and then give it to you. Obviously that's illegal, but hey ho…

what if it was posted to jersey?whould that make any difference or not?