vat on parcels

hi just a bit of information regarding vat on parcels

i recently received parcels from my daughter in canada for christmas

only to find that i had to pay vat on them as the value was over £39 so £35 later i got the parcel £16 of witch went to the royal mail (£8 per transaction)

so be warned if you order anything from abroad you may also have to pay vat on it

i belive this came into force on the1st of august this year

regards

peter

0

VAT was payable on imports back in the 70's. They taxed you on the value (import duty) then they put VAT on top

Anything imported from USA/ Canada has always had charges on them. From China / India & the like it does not seem so much.

Steve.

Last year I purchased something from Holland and after a few weeks got a £300 bill for vat via the carriers. I presume that is as a result of Brexit. I don't know whether that has changed.

it all depends on the country, and the sellers VAT status, countries such as USA,Canada etc you will have to pay inport duties and VAT on the total plus any carrier charges for handling.

As for EU, if the seller is UK vat registered then there should be no more to pay, an example, in October I purchased a watch from Germany, the price I paid was that quoted on the web site, so very fast delivery and no more to pay the courier (DHL)

If you purchase from eBay (or Amazon UK) now and it is shipped from the EU or China/India VAT is included (Added when you check out) ... You can see the VAT if you look at the invoice.

Also India/China seen to declare a low price i.e. <10$ so it comes under the threshold for VAT/Duty.

I have always had to pay VAT/Duty for items from USA/Canada when it is over the limit. (Excluding Books)

Dave

The duty from the EU seems a bit random, I ordered a flywheel casting from Atelier MB which cost 59 euros plus vat ( paid on ordering) and paid no duty, yet my friend ordered a slightly more expensive one from the same company a week later and was charged £30 duty and administration fee. Have had similar things in the past when no duty charged, yet a repeat identical order a month or two later was charged duty on.

Have always had to pay the duty from the US, it seems their authorities are hot on that sort of thing as the sender will never undervalue an item on the customs form, not that I've ever asked of course! The Chinese seem to put a minimal value on everything, although it is some years since i bought anything direct from China.

Atelier MB castings and service excellent BTW, wish I'd seen their Tigerli locomotive before starting my current project loco, would have prevented much whingeing and gnashing of teeth.

Edited By Dave Wootton on 14/12/2022 11:33:03

my daughter has been in Canada for 30 years and we have never had to pay before that is why I brought it up I got a card through the post telling to pay I went to my local parcel office and paid there

regards

peter

Correction to my above post re EU imports, just found the Atelier MB invoice and I did not pay vat at the time of ordering, just for the flywheel and postage. Shows how awful my memory is getting!

Looks like no-one bothered to collect the vat, the courier just left it on the doorstep, that was back in October and I've had no request for payment.......yet.

Looks like a nice loco, but 472 euros for a set of drawings is a bit steep.