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Buying parts from USA


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Good day, loosely technical and connected to my thread on the TR4 forum.

I purchased my car from USA and paid 5% VAT and Import Duty to HMRC via the shipping agent. All clear with special rate for a classic car.

How does this work when purchasing say $100 of parts that come via UPS in a jiffy bag direct to my home address. I presume I should pay at least 20% VAT as its from outside the EU? And is their any Import Duty?  Is this collected on such a small sum? And how is it collected? Any body with experience of this.

Thanks, David B

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Hi David,

You will have to pay VAT and duty on goods imported from the US. It is generally charged by the Royal Mail if goods arrive by post or by the courier company before releasing the goods.

VAT is payable at the normal rate on the value of the goods including duty and is payable on all imports over £15. Duty is only payable on goods over £135 and charged at 2.5%

So if for example your goods cost the equivalent of £140. you'd pay duty of 2.5% = £3.50 and VAT at 20% on £143.50 = £28.70 ie total of £172.20.

If the value is less than £135, only VAT is payable at 20%.

If you buy online (eg ebay) this is not mentioned. First I knew was when I got a card from the Royal Mail telling me they were holding my package pending payment.

All the info is here.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

Hope this helps.

Sean

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In addition Royal Mail will also charge you £8 for the privilege of charging you the duty and VAT.

Stuart.

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The sender declares the value of the items sent. I used various suppliers over a 3 year period and the nicer ones declared the parts at $10 where practicable.

 

I found the best to be usps and onward by fedex over here. Parcelforce weren't that bad either.

 

There are only a handful of couriers over here authorised by hmrc to collect the duties which if applicable are paid before you get your goods delivered.

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I had a mate who claimed that if you get the sender to mark them second hand old car parts and there is nothing to pay?

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2 hours ago, jfg said:

the nicer ones declared the parts at $10 where practicable

Which is of course fraudulent, if the actual value is greater. I was reading on another forum that Royal Mail have a duty to inspect a sample of incoming parcels, and they charged the addressee with "conspiring to defraud HMRC" or something like that, which cost him several hundred pounds.

Pete

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12 hours ago, PodOne said:

I had a mate who claimed that if you get the sender to mark them second hand old car parts and there is nothing to pay?

Nope that doesnt work either. There has to be a declared value on the package and customs will check if they think its wrong. You will also find a lot of the suppliers in the US specifically state they will not undervalue their items or mark them as "Gift"

Stuart.

Stuart.

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