Import VAT and Royal Mail "handling" charge, Rant

I’ve just received a postcard from my local post office. Apparently I have a packet to pick up. I presume its a frame bag from JandD in California. It looks like I have to pay VAT on it, £4.36, which is fair enough. But I have to pay £8 handling fee on top!

I thought Royal Mail were letting small packets get through? Can’t believe there’s a flat rate on the fee. What’s odd is the last few times I’ve bought stuff from the States, its all got through, despite being much higher value.
Maybe I should have asked Jandd to bend the truth a little on the value on the customs form. Would it affect them if they did?

I know I could refuse it and get it sent back. Would I get a refund if I did? Thing is, I want it, and need it this weekend for the Trans Cambrian Way ITT

Grrrr….
Not impressed by trying to cheat the system and getting caught and having to pay additional fees 😡

FWIW, I just got a couple of hundreds quids worth of backpacking bags from Revelate in Alaska. No duty, no VAT, no handling charge…..

Would it affect them if they did?

Yep, first up it’s fraud and they’re quite hot on it apparently over the pond as the different states all have their own ‘sales tax’ rules. And it affects the insurance, if they declare it’s only worth $1 then if it goes missing or damaged then that’s all they can claim for.

I posted about a week ago about time taken for a pack bought from the US to cross the Atlantic. 5 days it would seem….which is 5 less than it has been awaiting customs clearance and duty charging since it arrived…Acording to parcelfarces own website. God job I didn’t need it for this weekend! Oh wait…

druidh, was the customs form on the packet filled in?
Just luck it got through the system unchecked?

My Gates Center-Track setup came from a shop in Colorado. Value approx £140, and that just sailed through. Suppose I should be grateful they caught the cheaper parcel.

Would it be the receiving post office (Heathrow?) or my local sorting office that’s resposible for filing and paying the import tax?

Can’t believe there’s a flat rate on the fee.

Quite honestly it amazes me that anyone thinks that something like this shouldn’t be a flat fee. The actual cost to the royal mail of dealing with the import duty to be levied will be the same no matter if the package is worth £10 or £10,000 so a flat fee is the most appropriate way of dealing with stuff like this.

ir_bandito – Member
druidh, was the customs form on the packet filled in?
Just luck it got through the system unchecked?

All filled in as per normal. 😕

What’s odd is the last few times I’ve bought stuff from the States, its all got through, despite being much higher value.

So you’ve saved at least as much as you’ve just had to pay now in previous fraudulent activity then. 😉

Isn’t this the antidote to the regular (naive), ‘just take a cheap flight to the States and buy yourself a bike for next to nothing’ threads?

So you’ve saved at least as much as you’ve just had to pay now in previous fraudulent activity then

I was never fradulent, just lucky that the post office/customs let my previous parcels through. As was Druidh it seems.

When I go to pay the money and pick it up, I’ll ask what the policy is.

Maybe I should have asked Jandd to bend the truth a little on the value on the customs form. Would it affect them if they did?

yes there is a status you have to apply to obtain from US customs – in effect without you can’t ship goods – something along the lines of being a company of good repute – there are hurdles you have to jump thru and if you lose it shipping abroad is not impossible but is very hard
US customs randomly check declared values though i’ve no idea why they bother on exports as well as imports

Just for info – I had a similar issues with Parcelfarce – they were trying to charge me 12 handling for VAT worth £4. I made it clear to them they were holding my goods illegally, and I should have been given the opportunity to decide whether I wanted Parcelforce to clear my package.

I went to the depot, requested the package, it arrived with a request for £16. I paid the 4 pounds and asked the handler to invoice me the £10. I stated that if he did not handover the goods I would call the police. He went and spoke to his manager, came back and gave me my goods. 🙂

this is on the Royal Mail website:

If you are receiving a package from overseas (unless it’s from another EU Country), please be aware that it may incur customs charges. Any package assessed by HM Revenue and customs as being liable for customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8.

Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £18 are liable to import VAT. Please note that with effect from 1 November 2011 the £18 threshold will be reduced to £15. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £40 are also liable for VAT. Goods and gifts over these values may also be liable for customs duty. You no longer have to pay customs duty for goods up to the value of £135, however you will still be required to pay import VAT and excise duty where applicable.

So, are they holding my package illegaly? Its mine, but they’ve paid the VAT and won’t release the package until I’ve paid them back, with the admin fee (for contacting Customs etc) on top. Why don’t they simply deliver it and leave to Customs to chase me for the VAT?

Why don’t they simply deliver it and leave to Customs to chase me for the VAT?

because its far more efficient and cost effective to do it the current way?

I’d imagine that it’s also the case that delivery cannot be made until the all the duty is paid, hence the need for bonded warehouses. What you’d actually have to do is pay the duty/tax/VAT whatever to customs and only then could the goods be delivered.

Just be glad you’re not in India.

I ordered a frame from China, it took 2 days to clear customs in Hong Kong and a further 2 days to reach India. Then 7 weeks to clear customs in Mumbai 🙁

It arrived eventually, with only a slightly bent mech hanger…

Cheers, Rich

because its far more efficient and cost effective to do it the current way?

Is it?

If the resposibility of the payment was put on the receiver:

Package arrives in UK. Customs sticker scanned, all details put onto a database.
Parcel is delivered. Customs sticker includes a note to go online or similar and pay the relevant VAT/customs.
Because data is stored electronically, non-payment would come out in annual tax-return or similar, possibly with a late-payment penalty fee as incentive to pay promptly.

Would work better and be less for the Royal Mail to do. Unless the Royal Mail are actually turning a profit on paying the import VAT themselves…

Parcel is delivered. Customs sticker includes a note to go online or similar and pay the relevant VAT/customs.

Well if I were running the customs office there is no way I’d do it this way. You’d pay up and then I’d allow the package to be delivered. It may well suit your purposes but it certainly isn’t a clever way for Customs to operate.

Customs sticker scanned, all details put onto a database.

You’ve got a big problem there right away, worldwide standardised scanable customs sheets? We’d need Kofi Annan involved to sort that out

FedEx / DHL do it the you pay later way. If you don’t pay they issue a warning with the second invoice (I don’t know what happens then – I paid!). Nasty surprise when that pops through your letterbox a week later.

Just picked up the package. Paid the money, had no choice. The postie at the sorting office was extremely apologetic about the fee, he said HRMC at the border control must pick packages at random. The feckers.

Anyone else think druid should pay ir_bandito’s fees?

Seems only fair to me, I mean druid’s had a windfall, ir’s been ripped off, this would create fairness by cutting out the middle man.

ir_bandito could have saved a bit of money if he’d shopped about…you can buy the same bags through ebay, off Bike Wagon, with much cheaper postage!

you can buy the same bags through ebay, off Bike Wagon, with much cheaper postage!

Well, I can’t find it on ebay. But it is on the website for the same price as direct from Jandd and min domestic delivery charge is $5, international will be more. And anyway, BikeWagon are still in the US so I could still get stung by HMRC. So d45yth, how’d you figure it would be cheaper?

But I have to pay £8 handling fee on top!

Think yourself lucky. I’m waiting for a (small) package (a watch) from Japan sent via the japan postal service. For some reason it’s been picked up by Parcelforce rather than the post office in the UK and their handling fee (for a £23 VAT charge) is £13.50

I’ve no problem with paying the VAT but you would have thought there might be some system whereby the VAT could be paid in advance at source (I thought Ground Effect sorted something like that out a some point) so that there isn’t such an overhead.