Got home today to find a UPS delivery ticket on the doormat. I owe £18.62 apparently on a package they are attempting to deliver to me.

This was a bit of a surprise but managed to track down the item to a Xiaomi Mi Band 2 activity tracker thing I ordered from China a couple of weeks back. total cost for the band was £22 delivered.

Called UPS to ask for a cost breakdown and it’s £7 VAT + £11 “handling charge”

I did ask how £7 VAT was calculated on an item costing £22 but didn’t get very far 🙂

Oh well, should have bought it from a UK seller.

I have argued in the past that they are contracted to deliver by a third party and the third party are responsible for the extra cost. This was 15 years ago mind.

The seller tried to dodge customs charges?

No customs charges due just VAT + “handling charge”.

No VAT due on that amount.
Also your contract is with the seller – any “charges” or “handling fees” are not your responsibility as you have not entered into a contract with UPS to deliver it.
They can’t legally charge you the VAT either as you can choose to pay it over yourself IF it is actually due.

VAT is payable on imports from non-EU countries if > £15

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

How they calculated £7 of VAT due on something which cost me £22 delivered is baffling though.

They’ve added the handling fee and then charged Vat on the total probably.

Those sums probably add up!

It is exactly that. They charge VAT on the handling charge too (they have to, they don’t have a choice) as they are VAT registered, they have to charge VAT on their services.

Wether the £11 handling charge is an acceptable amount is another matter.

I had a similar issue when I had some Litespeed parts sent from the US. As Litespeed had not explained on their customs form that the declared value included postage, UPS added a ‘nominal ‘ standard postage charge onto the parts cost and charged vat on that, inflated amount. I challenged it with the original invoice and they reduced the Vat but not the handling charge.

Naïve, stop moaning

The “handling charge” is where you have the upper hand.
Parcelforce had to change their ways a few years back due to the number of guys bringing in stuff from china on various forums.
They were adding handling charges to them across the board as policy and got screwed over when one of the guys was an import/export specialist.
The handling charge can only be added if you enter into a contract with them – however your contract is with the originator, whose contract is with the shipper, whose contract is with the delivery agent in the destination country.
He went after them legally as they added a £13 handling charge to an import duty of about £0.80p!
He won.
I’ll try and find the wording you need to use – should have it stored somewhere – if not google around some of the Airsoft forums (zeroin) for “parcelforce charges” or similar and it should come up.

As Litespeed had not explained on their customs form that the declared value included postage

VAT should be payable on the goods price + postage + import duty.

Duty actually comes in a higher amount so you are just paying VAT on the goods + postage for the OPs amount.

The fee is a lot but that is the problem with importing low cost items. Someone still has to process the paperwork and pay the HMRC on your behalf no matter if you are importing £22’s worth or £10k’s worth.

It would be nice if they introduced a low charge for small amounts or the option to just pay it yourself. I would much rather have the option to pay myself when goods are coming into the UK but how many people would try and chance it?

Thats just it andyl – YOU are the one responsible for paying over any duties owed to HMRC and indeed can specify this on the shipping label as is your right.
Parcelfarce, et al choose to either ignore this or use mosts ignorance to rake in millions per year in handling fees for things you have not agreed to.
They can only charge this if you have agreed to it.
They cannot “assume acceptance” which is what they were hit for by the airsoft forum guys legal case.

VAT should be payable on the goods price + postage + import duty.

Yes, that was the point. I had paid $100 which was $65 for the parts and $35 postage and insurance (!!)
As Litespeed said the value was $100 without mentioning postage on their form, UPS in their wisdom decided that They had not declared the postage, the goods were $100 and then added their own nominal $30 for the postage, making the value as far as they were concerned $130, to which they duly charged duty and VAT.
It took two phonecalls and an email to sort out

Bought off Ebay? Refuse to pay it, open case for undelivered item, get money back and buy from UK.

Why the hell they’ed send an item of that value via UPS though…

Not sure what would happen to the VAT + “handling charge” should I just refuse to accept the package.

It wasn’t Ebay but I did pay using paypal.