> If there's excise duty to be paid on an item _posted_ to the UK, the
> Post Office will deliver a card saying that duty is payable, and that
> you should go to the sorting office to collect. YOu pay the duty to
> the PO, which they pass on to Customs & Excise, but they charge a fee
> for their services. Last time I had to pay duty, the PO fee was about
> 80p, but that was more than 8 years ago.
Last time I paid Royal Mail the charge had increased somewhat - £12.50 IIRC.
Since this was on goods that had a purchase price of about £20, I wasn't greatly amused. But that is RM, rather than HMCE; I *think* there is a way to pre-pay VAT & duty to HMCE, but I'd need to check with a couple of guys who regularly import stuff on this sort of level. Also, if it isn't delivered by RM, some carriers have a delightful habit of billing for VAT, duty & handling some time after the fact.
> It's been some time since I bought stuff from overseas, but when I
> regularly bought CDs from the USA, it was rare indeed that
> the duty was
> claimed, because I was buying a handful of disks, all different, and
> duty payable wasn't worth collecting. This bulk buy that's being
> planned is more likely to attract the attention of Customs Officers,
> because there's going to N(1) items the same, and it's more likely to
> be seen as a business, rather than personal, import.
My understanding is that DVDs regularly get nobbled, but since I tend to buy training DVDs (stone setting, for example), they aren't. Although unless duty is > £7, it's not supposed to be collected...
At the end of this year, the threshold at which things become liable to duty is supposed to be increasing - from £18 to around £118 (actually 150 euros as it's down to the EU).
> If there's duty to pay on something you _carry_ through
> customs then no
> fee other than the duty is payable, IIRC.
Import duty where applicable (and the weird & wonderful lists on what falls into what category is somewhat imposing) + VAT (again, where applicable. Don't get me started on teacakes, cakes and biscuits <G>). But yes, it's more-or-less a POS transaction in that case.
Peter
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