Importing car parts from the US

[Flying machine]

Has anyone done this? Does it make sense with shipping and other costs? Parts I'm looking at would cost around 600-700 dollars plus shipping. What sort of taxes am I likely to get hit with? Cheers!

[marshalla]

http://www.pistonheads.com/GASSING/topic.asp?h=0&a...

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/ch...

[Strawman]

Bit of a lottery, the good might go through unchecked or you might get charged import duty plus VAT,
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/ch...

[Flying machine]

That's excellent - thanks! I'm not looking for any loopholes or evasion - just trying to get a feel of what sort of sum I may end up paying and if it is actually worth it or not. It seems a bit sneaky if you end up paying both US sales tax and UK import/VAT etc etc

[Nickyboy]

Something like that wont be sent normal mail it will be sent via courier, customs don't just check random parcels and add duty where appropriate. when the shipper sends something overseas they have to present a commercial invoice with the package declaring, ship from/to address, exact contents, price, reason for export etc etc, this is given to the collection company, UPS/FED-Ex etc who themselves present it to customs, without this the parcel will not go any where. All the details from the invoice is inputted into the system and the invoice is digitally scanned, all this is electronically sent to the port of entry in the destination country within a few hours, by the time your parcel arrives any duty payable has been calculated and an invoice prepared, the amount of duty is determined by what the shipper declares on the paperwork collected at the other end, this incidentally isn't nessacerily what you will find on the box when it arrives.
International couriers set their own deadlines, if they don't meet these deadlines they can be fined by the DfT hence the reason parcels are delivered asap and payment collected on delivery or later on

[theironduke]

When i bought the bits for my 928 the chap in the states kindly forgot to list the entire contents of the package on the customs form...just the clutch kit ($400) as opposed to the $1400 grand total value... I think i pad 40 odd quid in tax.