HM Customs clarify the import duty puzzle

[Nick]

With more people than ever before buying over the Internet, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) today warned of the extra costs that many online shoppers face from import duties and VAT on purchases that are delivered from abroad.

You NEED to read this if you're buying from abroad so head to HEXUS.gaming for all the info.

[Moby-Dick]

does play.com count ?

[kalniel]

Aren't they based in Jersey? In which case, yes, you are importing things if you're buying from them, so will need to pay VAT on over 18 pound purchases (hence why they have so much at 17.99) but that's kind of a special case regarding UK taxes (and the break for jersey) so you won't have to pay custom duty charges as I think they count as part of the UK (and hence part of the EU), and in any case the charages wouldn't be over 7 pounds. They automatically add VAT onto purchases above 18 pounds.

Er.. to cut a long story short, play know what they're doing and take advantage of the vat situation where they can, without the customer needing to know or do anything about it

[Funkstar]

To add to the Jersey/Play case: The company has to actually be based in Jersey to get round this special situation. Tesco and other companies started doing vat free DVD/cds online, but they only had a token office or distribution point there, but had to stop this a while back.