Freight / Import duties.

I used to know some one who imported items from an ebay seller in the US and then sold them on ebay. The seller gave him a bit of discount. He reckoned that postage was included. This was over 10 years ago.

Also some one who sold fishing tackle small scale. Same problem. Tax made it more difficult to compete with the big boys. In this case the collection fee was significant as well.

Personally I think it should be opened right up as it's the big boys that lobby for changes. They don't want people selling things cheaper than they do. If we are to become a nation of people who sell hamburgers to each other and hair dressers etc in a situation where rather a lot of the things we buy are imports I feel opening it up to give smaller outfits a chance would benefit all of us eventually. Say a nice round number like £1000 and tax for every one over that. I also suspect HMRC would get more if they arranged to collect tax electronically without a collection fee as well. The other thing about tax on £1000 plus is that it is worth collecting - collecting tax on £16 worth is pretty pointless and costly really.

Then Curries would go just in time and only ever order £999.99 worth at any one time. I'm sure that could be handled but with some complications. Maybe £1000 is too much but at the other end of the scale £15 is stupid. The £18 limit I suspect had been around for a very long time and was never ever increased.

That leaves items delivered that are marked as being worthless. Our postman says they get a lot of them. I suspect most if not all are pretty low value items. Personally if items are on the pricey side I always pay tax. I may ask for a reduced price on the paper work to cover the collection fee. Some things I don't buy as the collection fee would make it too expensive. In that case there is usually some one some where who sells at an acceptable price. Some charge a lot more.

John

-

Edited By Ajohnw on 30/12/2016 13:48:51

An update on the facemill mentioned earlier in this thread. Sure enough it did not come direct from Guernsey or China but somewhere else in the UK. I don’t know where because the package had no place name franking mark and the local Royal Mail sorting office could not tell me so it remains a mystery. There was absolutely no paperwork so I don’t know how much of the £34.99 was “free” postage and packing or indeed if I paid VAT. The cost exceeds the exemption under LVCR mentioned in MichaelG’s link so whether it was from Guernsey, the UK or another EU country I think VAT was chargeable.

The face mill itself looks fairly good except the socket head cap screw was too short to engage in the thread in the R8 arbor. Easily remedied but reinforces my view that quality control for tooling from China rests with the customer and not with anyone else in the supply chain! I suspect the weak spot will be the ten carbide tipped inserts but only time will tell.

I also ordered recently a very cheap battery tester for a friend. On eBay the location was Luton, Bedfordshire, the cost £2.95, free Royal Mail second class post. It arrived today from Spain again with absolutely no paperwork!

As I mentioned in a previous post I rang up and asked HMRC about import duty and they were most helpful. Why not ring them up and ask if there is any way of avoiding the collection fee, possibly by registering with HMRC as an importer and having a number. I'm sure Curries don't have lorries turning up at their warehouse with the driver going ' Ere mate , lorry load of tellies ere for you mate, oh and wheres the boss ' cos theres a £10, 000 bill from customs before you can offload 'em.' So there may be a way of formalising things. I know I bought some thing from the USA and I know I paid the customs in advance and paid a little bit extra so as not to have it submitted to HMRC upon arrival in the UK. It seemed to me well worth the effort.