Buying stuff from US

[ladymuck]

Actually not true - it depends on the value of the gift. You can still be liable.

You're not wrong there - I was sent a rather lovely Chanel handbag, worth £400 or there abouts and was stung for £90 odd quid on its arrival to the UK.

[snaw]

Undoubtably yes. I bought £300 quids worth of goods and got stung for an additional £80 when it arrived.

The only way round it is to get them to package it (and on the postage label) mark it as a gift. I doubt the people you're buying it from would do this, and the VAT man can always open it up (and presumably find a dispatch note) so this isn't guaranteed. Not that I would even consider trying that of course.

Actually not true - it depends on the value of the gift. You can still be liable.

[Mailman]

Bit of a have really, especially if you have already paid tax on the purchase where you got it from.

BTW, anyone know what happened with that case involved HM Customs and their duble taxing of European alcohol etc?

Mailman

[AtW]

No wonder colonists rebelled against taxes

[AtW]

Yeah that's what I thought, oh well, at least price difference is not as big as it used to be.

[Ruprect]

Undoubtably yes. I bought £300 quids worth of goods and got stung for an additional £80 when it arrived.

The only way round it is to get them to package it (and on the postage label) mark it as a gift. I doubt the people you're buying it from would do this, and the VAT man can always open it up (and presumably find a dispatch note) so this isn't guaranteed. Not that I would even consider trying that of course.

[DimPrawn]

You'll be hit with VAT and possibly other duty on top.

Only worth doing if the thing you want is not easily available in the UK.

To do it to save money rarely works as the nice C&E people make sure El Gordo gets a big fat slice.

[snaw]

How to find out how much custom duty will be? Will they also charge VAT on import? It seems that if dury is over 15-20% then its pretty pointless to import stuff that I want.

To be honest, unless it's a great bargain and possibly small size then once you factor in customs and shipping plus intangibles (Local sale vs foreign sale etc) it's not normally worth it. Cost varies on value of goods and type.

[AtW]

How to find out how much custom duty will be? Will they also charge VAT on import? It seems that if dury is over 15-20% then its pretty pointless to import stuff that I want.

[snaw]

Suppose I want to buy few grand worth of IT hardware from USA, would it be hit by UK custom duties/VAT?

In theory yes. Doesn't always happen (I bought loads of Cisco kit for my lab via ebay from the US and about 75% of the time I got hit with Custom Duties). Depends how it's worded I guess - if you can get the other end to lie about what it is, and maybe downplay the value (Screws your insurance).

[milanbenes]

it'll take fecking ages to get through EU customs

Milan.

[AtW]

Suppose I want to buy few grand worth of IT hardware from USA, would it be hit by UK custom duties/VAT?