Importing Items, How Much Customs Will I Pay?

Well, Im going to be buying from an ebay shop soon enough for some audio equipment for my car. Items are totalling £350 + around £100 delivery for a High End Amplifier and Subwoofer. Saves me around £250 from buying over here.

THe seller told me I will almost 100% be hit with custom taxes when I receive the goods and told me he doesnt know how much itll be. Does anyone know what they can charge me? Is it just simple 17.5% VAT smacked on it or does it vary with items?


Thanks

The charges will depend on the description and value of the items shown on the customs declaration on the package.

You can expect to pay anything between nothing, e.g. for something that is a 'gift valued at $30' , to 17.5% VAT and 20% import duty on 'Hi-Fi equipment valued at $700'. - which is why buying stuff from the USA via Ebay, for example, rarely makes economic sense, unless you pick the goods up in person during a holiday or business trip. You may also run into problems if the goods are faulty or develop a fault as they may not be repairable in the UK - lots of manufacturers will only repair stuff sold in their 'area'.

Customs don't open every package, but if they do open a package and find that it has been mislabelled then you can expect the goods to be confiscated with no compensation, and you may run the risk of prosecution (I'm not a lawyer so I don't know the exact legal terminology here!).

I would say that you are almost certainly going to end up paying import duty.

If thats the case it will be no cheaper (probably more expensive) in the long run to buy from here.

This might help: link

an estimate of about 30/40% over the original cost and you'll probably be pretty near. Shippers like DHL really bump up the price though, i bought about £30 worth of clothes from boeing and then i got an invoice from DHL asking for £40!!!! i payed it, but i wasn't happy :(

roughly speaking, VAT plus a service charge from your courier

exact values are difficult as the rules are so complex

Here a post i made on another forums

You dont need to buy cds to get the duty, just use
TARIC Consultation


The reason HM have the cds for sale is that the sender is meant to pay the duty and vat when they ship the goods, hence its all business biased.



Heres a worked example for a night vision device using your costs


from DHL
What is the value for VAT?
The value for VAT is the declared value of the goods plus the transport costs to the country of destination plus the customs duty.

Example of Duty calculation
Goods night vision scope thing
Value of goods £350 +
Transport to the UK £100

Total value for Duty £450 x 3.5% Duty = Total Duty payable £15.75

Example of VAT calculation
Value of goods £350 +
Transport to the UK £100 +
Duty charges £15.75

Total value for VAT £462.25 x 17.5% = Total VAT payable £81.50

Therefore the total import Duty and VAT charges payable on import of these goods would be £80.90+ a handling charge from the delivery company (£20ish)

So on delivery you would have to pay £100 ish, but it varies depending on who delivers it and the exact amount of duty which varies from item to item.

Also be aware that the warrenty might be an issue, and if it goes wrong you need to be able to prove that you paid import duty if it gets caught by custome on its way back from repair. If you dont have all the docs you pay again.

Flibb is broadly right in those calculations, except that the value on which duty is charged is the value of the goods, including any local sales tax, packing and shipping.

So you need to add that £100 shipping to the bill before calculating duty.

You also need to check, if buying from the US, whether they'll be charging you local sales tax. Unlike the UK, where sellers selling to the public need to show the price inclusive of VAT, US sellers show tax-exclusive prices. If so, you could find the base price goes up by, oh, 6% or so.

So £350 becomes £371. Add shipping, for £471. Add import duty (assuming it's 3.5% on that item), is £487.49. Now add VAT, giving £572.80. Now add the courier's customs clearance fee, say £20-ish. Total around £593.

The import duty rates vary. Some items are 0%. Many around 4%, and some 14% ..... right the way up to 70%. You really need to know what the duty rate will be.

have eddited to incude the postage in the duty, you didnt have to pay it in the past unless it was declared