[captainarchive]

Originally Posted by Todd Tomorrow

Strikes me all as amazingly generous on behalf of the companies.I nNever worked anywhere where I didn't get called to reception at arrival of a packet to pay charges.

A postie delivering a handful of mail at reception is different to the company I was referring to. We had a post room employing a team of 8 staff who had to deal with several sacks of mail a day, they had to sort and deliver it by 10am each morning to 3 different sites in and around the city. We calculated it would cost an extra 100k a year if we wanted to recover the cost of sorting employees personal items purchased via mail order. The costs that would have been recovered was estimated to be around 15k a year.

[Canary_Jules]

Quick question. I've bought some speakers over Ebay from a guy in Germany and I've arranged a collection from him via Parcel Delivery | Cheap Parcels | Worldwide Parcel Services. I noticed on their invoice that it says that you have to fill in a customs declaration and attach 4 copies to the parcels. It implies that you have to do this wherever your parcel is coming from. But when you look at the actual declaration they attach to the email it says it's for countries outside the EU. So... do you have to do a customs declaration when importing from the EU?

Thanks

[LV426]

I believe not.

[Mo Better Blues]

Originally Posted by Canary_Jules

Quick question. I've bought some speakers over Ebay from a guy in Germany and I've arranged a collection from him via Parcel Delivery | Cheap Parcels | Worldwide Parcel Services. I noticed on their invoice that it says that you have to fill in a customs declaration and attach 4 copies to the parcels. It implies that you have to do this wherever your parcel is coming from. But when you look at the actual declaration they attach to the email it says it's for countries outside the EU. So... do you have to do a customs declaration when importing from the EU?

Thanks

You do not require a customs declaration but the price you pay should include VAT at the German rate unless you are a business and can provide the seller with a valid EU VAT number

[Simian Sibling]

Originally Posted by Mo Better Blues

You do not require a customs declaration but the price you pay should include VAT at the German rate unless you are a business and can provide the seller with a valid EU VAT number

I would imagine this is a private sale and wouldn't need to be applied in this case? If it is the vat would have been paid when bought.

There is no limit and no import charges for anything bought from within the EU so you will be fine. The exchange rate on the other hand.......

[EL Dukeo]

I am thinking of buying a bluray from amazon.com which is $21.99, around £14.50. With postage on top of that the total is going to be around £19. Does postage get included into the total cost of goods? Will I be hit with a customs charge?

[AnthonyG]

Originally Posted by EL Dukeo

Does postage get included into the total cost of goods? Will I be hit with a customs charge?

No

[snooloui]

Postage is not included. However, if the item was over £15 then you would be charged for the price of the item and the postage on top. I would also suggest being very careful with items close to the limit as exchange rates can always be changing and therefore there's a small risk they might be over.

[nwgarratt]

Originally Posted by snooloui

Postage is not included. However, if the item was over £15 then you would be charged for the price of the item and the postage on top. I would also suggest being very careful with items close to the limit as exchange rates can always be changing and therefore there's a small risk they might be over.

They use a set exchange rate for the month. Currently $1.5664.

Rates of Exchange for Customs and VAT purposes 01-2012

[guylikeu]

Just wanted to point out that if you choose amazons expedited shipping at shipping, which is the 2nd of the 3 options, then they pay the import taxes for you. If your item doesn't get picked up then they refund the deposit back to you. I have done this for 3 separate orders since the £15 limit was introduced and every time I've had the $8 refunded back to me. I would definitely recommend anyone else use this if shopping from amazon US

On a side note, I don't actually mind paying a few quid on imports, it's the £8 charge that the post office want just for working out your tax that gets me!

[Schreck]

Originally Posted by guylikeu

Just wanted to point out that if you choose amazons expedited shipping at shipping, which is the 2nd of the 3 options, then they pay the import taxes for you. If your item doesn't get picked up then they refund the deposit back to you. I have done this for 3 separate orders since the £15 limit was introduced and every time I've had the $8 refunded back to me. I would definitely recommend anyone else use this if shopping from amazon US

On a side note, I don't actually mind paying a few quid on imports, it's the £8 charge that the post office want just for working out your tax that gets me!

How well does that work out on big orders?

[guylikeu]

Honestly couldn't tell you, maybe someone else could help? Each of mine were around $27, plus $11 shipping plus $7 in fees, which I got refunded.
Either way, the amount you'd pay in import tax would be less that the amount you'd save in cheaper shipping, so I'd still recommend expedited shipping for bigger items

[Karlin]

Interesting on the Channel Islands' tax dodge:

High Court asked to keep 'cheap DVD' VAT loophole open
Judicial review begins this week
By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

12th March 2012 15:28 GMT

The English High Court will tomorrow begin an investigation to determine whether online retailers should be allowed to avoid paying VAT on CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.

The judicial review, demanded by the Governments of Jersey and Guernsey, follows Chancellor George Osborne's decision to close the Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) loophole on 1 April 2012.

LVCR allowed online retailers shipping low-cost goods from the Channel Islands to avoid VAT. For the past decade, that has allowed the likes of Amazon, Play, Sendit and others to slash the prices of discs.

Disc buyers love it, but small retailers and, crucially, the Treasury hate it. The UK government's finance arm estimates that the loophole, a gap in the tax legislation governing the importation into the EU of goods costing less than £15, costs the Exchequer £110m a year.

Since Jersey and Guernsey aren't part of the EU, retailers have been able to ship low-cost goods there then sell them on to UK punters at VAT-free prices. The government of both territories are keen to maintain LVCR. They say closing the loophole is discriminatory and illegal.

Others argue that LVCR is an anachronism, intended to cover perishable goods sent by post. They argue that the loophole now does nothing but benefit big companies who can afford to ship goods to the Channel Islands and have them shipped out again to the UK.

That, they say, harms small, local retailers across the UK.

The judicial review takes place at the High Court of Justice Queen’s Bench Division Administrative Court concludes on Thursday. It could force the government to maintain LVCR. ®

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/03/1...loophole_open/

[Jonathan S]

Nick Wrigley (of Masters of Cinema fame) Twittered this week that he ordered three new US blu-rays separately on Amazon UK Marketplace (from allyourmusic and moviemars), each under £15 before the £1.26 p&p, but had to pay 20% VAT and £8 RM fee on every one - doubling their cost. This is clearly a case for a refund of charges, but I wonder if it has happened to anyone else?

He says the sellers declared only the amounts including p&p, which took them over £15. I order quite a lot from allyourmusic and they don't seem to declare any value, unless it's part of the barcode? (There is a figure that sometimes looks like a value, but I believe it's referring to something else like a dispatch time.)

[RPupkin]

I can't answer the question directly mate but allyourmusic seem a very baffling company indeed. I have ordered some Criterion titles from them after the £15 limit and been hit with 2. Then I ordered Chinatown which was under the limit but when delivered, showed it was shipped from inside the UK?

A few people have mentioned that they have had some titles shipped from inside the UK too. Is it completely random as to where they will eventually be shipped from? It would be very useful to get a concrete idea on this - unfortunately their customer service is not very forthcoming.

[bosque]

Originally Posted by RPupkin

A few people have mentioned that they have had some titles shipped from inside the UK too. Is it completely random as to where they will eventually be shipped from? It would be very useful to get a concrete idea on this - unfortunately their customer service is not very forthcoming.

It's probably not in their interest to let it be broadcast that they occasionally post from inside the UK - otherwise they would have said.