custom charges aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggg

THWANG-666

Senior Retro Guru
bought a suntour xc pro rear hub off usa ebay for £22.00 got charged £8 customs is that mad or what is there a set charge for inmporting items or is it a case of put a figuer out of the hat
 
so how much do you recon they will charge me for the forks they have at the mo i payed $266 for them. i think about £40 higher or lower
 
Depends. If the seller was honest and put the value on the customs ticket, then you should only pay 17.5 percent VAT, plus import duty of around a tenner. so around £35.

The trouble that we have is that when somebody puts 'gift' with no value, as well meaning as that is, customs bods get suspicious. When a customs person looks at the parcel, they take a reference price and charge VAT at that level so although you bought the hub for $22, it probably didn't say that on the parcel so customs 'guessed' its value as £45, hence the £8 VAT.

I had a similar problem with some Tange Switchblades, paid £60, seller did me a favour by putting 'gift', but customs pulled them and charged me VAT based on their reference value which for "Forks - ATB" is £300! Landing me with a VAT bill for nearly £35.

You can get a refund as long as you have written proof of what you paid and customs do accept e-bay prints and paypal information, but you do need to pay the VAT up front and then fight your corner.

Lesson here is that actually, putting 'gift' isn't the best thing to do as if customs use their reference values, they are often way out of touch.
 
The 'system' does appear to be rather random, hence the view that it is inherently unfair. Whether or not you pay VAT and import duty and how much you pay seems to depend on the mood of the official at the time.

I would rather pay every time, knowing that I paid the correct, fair amount than not pay it some times, but then get hit for a massive incorrect charge every now and again.

When I rule this country........

:D
 
just reading yesterday on another forum , that in the us , the duty only gets applied when the amount hits 49 dollars

but still randomly ????
 
SLIM":ir0sxiyw said:
just reading yesterday on another forum , that in the us , the duty only gets applied when the amount hits 49 dollars

but still randomly ????

Likewise over here, even if its marked as a gift, if the value is over £18 (iirc), you still pay VAT.
 
Had to ring Customs last night to clear the GBP33.31 duty on my Tioga Disk Drive.. :?

Generally we get away with it in Aus unless it's over $1000 [GBP400].. Strangely I didn't have to pay duty on my Fat Yo! into the UK from Cananda tho? Not that I'm complaining!! :LOL:
 
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