VAT and Duty rates in the UK

[Casey Burns]

I have a question for fluters in the UK:

When you order a flute from the US - what is the import duty, VAT etc. that you have to pay (in terms of percentage). Am just curious.

Thanks!
Casey

[BigDavy]

Hi Casey

You have to pay 3 things.

Customs Duty - 3.5% on the value of the flute plus postage packing and insurance
Value Added Tax of 15% on the value of the flute plus postage etc plus the customs duty.
A post office handling charge

I recently bought a chanter from Australia and the charges added up to 21% of what I paid for the chanter including p&p and insurance.

David

[benhall.1]

Yeah, it's bloody awful. I've done it twice now, and that was before the pound went south and prevented me from being able to buy from the States - or anywhere else for that matter - even if I wanted to. The duty, charges etc were enough in themselves to put me off ever doing it again. Not only were there customs charges, duty, VAT, postage etc, but also heavy charges on Western Union, compounded by my credit card company charging me interest and charges on the "cash advace" for the next three months (!) even though I paid it off in full before the 'due by' date. The total came to more than half of the price of what I was buying.

So, never again ... Well, except for one thing, which I really really want, and I'll just have to hope the banks start lending again in order to get it ... (WhOA, rather than FlOA )

[jemtheflute]

Ben seems to have had a particularly bad experience, but that was I think chiefly due to the involvement of Western Union and credit cards. I have bought in several eBay flutes from the US and Canada, but have always paid by PayPal and had no problems on that score. As I have written in other similar threads, whether or not one actually gets zapped for the duties to which one is indubitably liable on such imports is something of a lottery as the authorities seem only to sample a percentage of consignments at the regional Post Office/Customs depots through which postal imports pass. I have been hit for approximately one in three of my liable imports. The amounts are pre-determinable and can be taken into account in one's decisions to buy (or, re: eBay, one's bid ceilings). If you budget for getting hit, it's a bonus when you're not!

The regulations and rates are clearly (?????) set out on this HM Revenue & Customs web-page on postal imports.

The only supplementary information needed is that current VAT in GB is 15% (temporarily - was and will eventually revert to 17.5%) and the Post Office handling /admin charge is £8. Here's a link to Royal Mail's webpage on the topic.

To get hit for import duty, an item (including its despatch and insurance costs) has to be worth over £200. Excise duty doesn't apply to flutes etc. (thats for alcohol etc.). VAT at 15% will apply, and the Post Office handling fee of £8, to any commercial item worth over £18. BUT, you seem to have only about a c30% chance of getting hit for any of it. A woodwind repair man of my acquaintance has told me of £3000+ saxophones coming through un-taxed!

I think the sensible approach must be to budget for being charged, but there's a good chance you won't be, and in any case it usually isn't that much hassle to actually deal with, in my experience. You get a letter from the regional depot with the breakdown of the charges, you pay by phone or online by credit/debit card, and the packet gets delivered as usual in due course. However, the depots do seem to be rather slow, so if a packet you are expecting seems late, there's a good chance you can expect to be taxed on it. Getting "caught" seems to add about 2 weeks to delivery times.

Of course, if you haven't done your groundwork and aren't expecting it, it could be a nasty shock if you do get hit for tax, especially on an expensive item! If you are prepared for it, I don't think it ought to be viewed as so terrible (principles about taxation etc. aside, of course - that's a whole other matter.....).

I hope that helps, Casey.

[sponge]

Hi,

the max before duty and Vat has gone up, I enquired last week you can now bring in an item without paying Vat and Duty if it does not exceed £ 100 this £100 has to include the cost of the postage, as soon as you go over that combined amount you are liable for vat and duty, the VAT will always be the same which is slightly less at the moment at 15%, the Duty varies quite a bit and is dependant on what it is your buying, but the average is about 3.5% I have never got away without paying, Uk customs are usually very hot, also if you ship via Fedex, UPS or any other courier other than USPS postal service you can gaurantee that a private couriered parcel will be slapped with a duty charge, I have bought quite a few flutes from the USA, and some whistle from OZ, and Canada, my wife buys fabric from around the world and again gets charged a different rate of Duty.

one other thing if you send it from the USA and use USPS, the UK carrier will usually always be Parcelfarce, if you have charges applied the parcel will be marked as needing charges these charges will be done at the customs/parcelfarce depot at coventry, now the two offices are on the same site, but it gets charged in one section then travels across to the Parcelfarce site ( not far ) parcelfarce will then charge you a handling fee ( plucked from thin air ) always query this as I have made two succsesful claims.

and no parcelfarce isn't a typo.

but remember you will be charged on the items insured value plus the cost of the postage as well, so if your insured flute is $2000 and you opt for an expensive courier say fedex at $80
then you will be charged for Vat and duty on $2080, Jem is right always expect and budget the cost of the tax and duty then at least there will be no shocks.

sponge

[david_h]

My experience is what people say above. A flute from you came in via Parcelforce ((which is the courier operation for Royal Mail), quickly and the duty was handled close to the depot as sponge says. Need to be in to recieve delivery. Things sent US First Class Mail (e.g. flute from Doug Tipple) came in via the normal postal service, the postman left a note and I paid (including the the £8 charge) and collected it at a the local sorting office (could have paid online and had it delivered). But it took 18 days to arrive, the postman said that was not uncommon and it had probably been to Northern Ireland to have the paperwork done.