Odd Customs Charge
Discussion
Could do with a bit of advice about a customs charge which (to me) seems unfair. I sell womens clothing (Ebay, Amazon & website) and back in early February a woman in the US bought a dress (from Ebay in the UK).
I posted it & got on with my life. About a week later, I get an email from the woman saying she wants to return it, as it didn't fit (she assumed all clothing sizes were US sizes
) - no problem says I & agreed to a return.
The dress was sold by me for £37 (plus about £5 postage to the US) if it makes any difference.
Fast forward a month, I get a card through the door from the Post Office & it's telling me I need to go & pay a customs charge of £15.85 for the dress that's been returned. I can't see why I have to pay a customs charge on something that's been returned - it's not like I've imported it, it's simply been sent back.
So, what do I do now?
Do I have to pay the customs charge & if not, how do I dispute it?
I posted it & got on with my life. About a week later, I get an email from the woman saying she wants to return it, as it didn't fit (she assumed all clothing sizes were US sizes
) - no problem says I & agreed to a return.The dress was sold by me for £37 (plus about £5 postage to the US) if it makes any difference.
Fast forward a month, I get a card through the door from the Post Office & it's telling me I need to go & pay a customs charge of £15.85 for the dress that's been returned. I can't see why I have to pay a customs charge on something that's been returned - it's not like I've imported it, it's simply been sent back.
So, what do I do now?
Do I have to pay the customs charge & if not, how do I dispute it?
No you shouldn't have to pay VAT / tax.
Everything imported into the UK is subject to tax. Every type of item is allocated a commodity code and this, together with where the item has come from denotes the import duty payable. Vat is then added to the cost of the item, the import tax and the shipping. Couriers will usually levy a surcharge or handling fee for using their processing staff and accounts.
People like the post office automatically charge the fee if they pick up on it. Personal items being returned are not liable for taxation, gifts etc are.
When items are sent to you the sender will have to declare what the item is and crucially what it's value is. Your customer has listed a value and that's what you are being taxed on. When you buy items from many foreign retailers on places like ebay they massively under value the items and commit fraud to avoid you getting knackered for tax. I would love to see consumers getting widely prosecuted in the UK because it penalises legitimate UK businesses.
I don't know how the post office work but you will have to contact them and explain the situation. They may want to see copies of your invoice to the customer.
I presume you are not registered for / choose not to pay VAT. If you were VAT registered then you would not charge Vat on items exported outside the EU or sold to company within the EU with a valid EU VAT number. You would temporarily reclaim the Vat element of any imported items before charging Vat when selling the item on again.
Henry
Everything imported into the UK is subject to tax. Every type of item is allocated a commodity code and this, together with where the item has come from denotes the import duty payable. Vat is then added to the cost of the item, the import tax and the shipping. Couriers will usually levy a surcharge or handling fee for using their processing staff and accounts.
People like the post office automatically charge the fee if they pick up on it. Personal items being returned are not liable for taxation, gifts etc are.
When items are sent to you the sender will have to declare what the item is and crucially what it's value is. Your customer has listed a value and that's what you are being taxed on. When you buy items from many foreign retailers on places like ebay they massively under value the items and commit fraud to avoid you getting knackered for tax. I would love to see consumers getting widely prosecuted in the UK because it penalises legitimate UK businesses.
I don't know how the post office work but you will have to contact them and explain the situation. They may want to see copies of your invoice to the customer.
I presume you are not registered for / choose not to pay VAT. If you were VAT registered then you would not charge Vat on items exported outside the EU or sold to company within the EU with a valid EU VAT number. You would temporarily reclaim the Vat element of any imported items before charging Vat when selling the item on again.
Henry
Cheers chaps.
The link to the form is interesting - it basically confirms that I need to pay the customs charge then claim it back (as it is a returned item). What's interesting, is if I pay the £15.85 to Royal Mail, how much of that is customs charge & how much is "handling charge" and how much of the £15.85 do I get back...
The link to the form is interesting - it basically confirms that I need to pay the customs charge then claim it back (as it is a returned item). What's interesting, is if I pay the £15.85 to Royal Mail, how much of that is customs charge & how much is "handling charge" and how much of the £15.85 do I get back...
Update on this...
I can legitimately claim back the Customs fee as I can prove the item is a return (original invoice etc). Of the £15.85, £7.85 is the Customs fee, and £8.00 is Royal Mails handling charge.
So Royal Mail can charge £8.00 "handling fee" when in reality they do less than they would do if they delivered it - and I can't claim that back. Cheeky red van driving robdogs.
Part of me is tempted to tell Royal Mail to stick it & send the bloody thing back to the US.
I can legitimately claim back the Customs fee as I can prove the item is a return (original invoice etc). Of the £15.85, £7.85 is the Customs fee, and £8.00 is Royal Mails handling charge.
So Royal Mail can charge £8.00 "handling fee" when in reality they do less than they would do if they delivered it - and I can't claim that back. Cheeky red van driving robdogs.
Part of me is tempted to tell Royal Mail to stick it & send the bloody thing back to the US.
Mad long as you have evidence of export and that the goods are being returned as not needed returned as British Returned Goods, no VAT or duty is applicable and RM should not be charging a handling fee as this is charged for the paperwork process for VAT & Duty.
Tell them to stuff it and release the goods to you. They should not be charging anything.
Tell them to stuff it and release the goods to you. They should not be charging anything.
Chris200 said:
Mad long as you have evidence of export and that the goods are being returned as not needed returned as British Returned Goods, no VAT or duty is applicable and RM should not be charging a handling fee as this is charged for the paperwork process for VAT & Duty.
Tell them to stuff it and release the goods to you. They should not be charging anything.
It's called return goods relief now (has been since I've been dealing with it, which is about a decade). If you can get RGR the goods still have to clear customs, but you shouldn't have to pay VAT and Duty. The rules on the Royal Mail website suggest that a misdeclared package (such as this one) would still incur the £8 charge even if you can get HMRC to use the correct customs procedure. Tell them to stuff it and release the goods to you. They should not be charging anything.
http://www.royalmail.com/personal/help-and-support...
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/notice-...
The whole thing is at least somewhat dependent upon how the goods have been declared for import by your customer. You'll need to pick the package up first and then you can figure out what you can do.
The long and the short of it is that for the amount of work it will take, it's really not worth doing for such a small saving.
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