buying from Taiwan and not getting stung for VAT/custom duty

Anyone know what is the max value of declared goods purchansed from Taiwan to get under the radar of UK customs (i.e. not having to pay VAT nor customs duty).

Ta.

30 quid ish but you'll be a fool to yourself if you try to con customs.

Remember, apart from the defrauding customs thing, if you declare a lower value and need to make a claim, you are flat out of luck.

Just pay and hope for the best. If its because your saving wont be much compared to shopping in the uk, then support the uk instead



Edit: typed like a tool

2 new items ive bought recently from abroad
Manitou fork and a chris king devolution headset
The CK came from the US and was flown here ,so it arrived quickly but incurred about £8 for tax and duty.
The fork came from Singapore and was shipped in a freightline container.It took about 12 weeks to get here and there was no tax or duty.

The fly always seems to incur taxes because i think its easy to unload onto an Xray machine(this will be where the handling charge comes in . )Whereas the freightline container isnt as easy to check so it probably gets 'sniffed' for drugs/explosives and sent on its merry way.
If it can be easily sent by container then go for that ,as long as you dont mind waiting a few months

The items I'm after are not available in UK.

I'd like to think I am not unusual in not wanting to voluntarily pay VAT and duty; I already pay enough tax to governments that I do not believe in and who IMO squander the money raised from taxes.

If you can't get the stuff in the uk then that's not an issue. However I think wilfully avoiding tax/vat is not acceptable, regardless of how you believe it is spent. If you don't like how much we pay, take it to the gov and your local mp.

I suppose you were in full support of the mp's use of loopholes and blatant misuse of their expenses too. Plus those who are claiming more than one set of legitimate being its must be alright as well.

If you get lucky and noone asks for the money, well done, but I feel if you blatantly try to avoid paying what you owe, you may end up worse off.

What he said.

How much is the percentage tax levied on goods from outwith the EU anyroads ?
Dont mind paying tax if I know how much and factor it in to my spend.

I've only ever been stung on stuff I've bought from the US.
And as for feeling guilty about not paying tax on the stuff that got through, the inland revenue can kiss my furry bean-bag!!

I ordered a £200 aircraft model kit from HK and the sender declared the goods value
to be at £50, but customs opened the package and they found out its value was too
low, I was sent a letter by customs telling me I have to pay £65 before my goods will
be released, I payed them and got the model kit, was still happy as the kit in the UK
was some £340, Won't ever be allowing a seller to declare any item as low value again.