Rip off England: Import duties and fees

[King Herald]

My sister in law sent my daughter an xmas pressie from the USA a few weeks ago. It arrived, by Fedex, addressed to me for some reason, and all was well with the world.

Last Friday I received a Fedex bill for £72 to cover import duty, VAT and admin charges from Fedex. The gift was valued at $200 on the paperwork on the box, labelled as clothing, and the shipping cost a ridiculous $120.

Shirley this can't be right: £72 duties on an Xmas pressie that is worth £100 max?

And why should they be asking ME to pay, as it was sent to me from afar, it is not something I personally imported?

[King Herald]

Kermit power said:

I would imagine your sister in law got the paperwork wrong?

Out of interest, how much would you have been charged under the same circumstances in other European countries? I assume you have done the research ahead of deciding that this is "Rip off England"?

Sorry, my mistake, charging £72 bullsh1t taxes on a parcel worth £100 is not a rip off.

esselte said:

tubbystu said:

esselte said:

g_attrill said:

£72 sounds rather high, do you have a breakdown of the costs? Worst case is 10% duty plus £15 and then 17.5% VAT?

Have they charged tax on the shipping as well?

VAT goes on last and on everything, purchase cost, shipping, fees etc

And there'll be Fedex admin charges too......

Duty £24.35p
VAT £41.03
Admin fee £6.80


Shipping £57

Value of package $200

So, they appear to have charged duty at 24% on the $200 value, or do you pay duty on shipping too?
VAT is charged on everything, shipping, admin and value of package.

[King Herald]

tubbystu said:

Pesty said:

jaybkay said:

It will be interesting to see what reasoning Fedex will give as to why you have to pay, .

The reasoning is the law. They have had to pay UK customs in order to get the parcel to you and fulfill their contract to deliver the item as they were paid to do. All you are doing is repaying them the money they have paid on your behalf.

do you seriously think a world wide company would pay out money if they did not have the law on their side ? I could be wong but I recon FEDEX has a larger legal department than you do

And their response will be that they attempt to deliver the parcels as soon as possible and the charges can take some time to come through.

It will all be in the small print of the paperwork/delivery docket, but you probably will need a magnifying glass.................................

There was no delivery docket that I can recall, that I was shown anyway, merely some electronic gadget that I was asked to sign receipt of the parcel on. I'll call Fedex tomorrow and tell them it is basically nothing to do with me. If they had asked me for £72 when it was delivered, the guy would have driven away with it still on his truck! Maybe that is the plan: to trap people into accepting goods, and the relevant charges??

[King Herald]

Uncle Fester said:

That it it a rip off is obvious.

But nothing to the rip of you get in the high street every day.

The wife's christmas pressie.....

Yes, but she didn't receive it for Xmas, then have a man beating on the door for a chunk more money two weeks later

[King Herald]

tubbystu said:

siscar said:

The person receiving goods from abroad is liable for duties and taxes. It's the law. It may not seem fair but it's the only way it can work.

Fedex are in the middle here, all they have done is what was asked of them and deliver something. So you could have refused to accept the parcel, you'd still have been liable for the duties and the taxes, if you don't pay them who does?

The sender probably when Fedex return the package to them with return freight and 5hit loads of extra admin fees added.

siscar said:

If you think the duty is calculated wrongly you can appeal to customs, but the person you should have a gripe with is the person who sent you this stuff, not the people in the middle who are just doing what was asked of them.

I've never bothered to ask, but I am sure Fedex and the like will give an estimate of possible charges before commiting to shipment - the sender enters into a contract that either allows charges to be made back to them or that the recipient will pay. The OP's sister as sender entered into a contract with liability on behalf of the OP as receipient.

Just called Fedex, and appaaaarently, the sister who sent the package ticked the box on the form that said she will accept all costs and duties etc etc at the UK end, but Fedex, er, well, mumble: "we forgot to bill her and sent the bill to you by mistake".

Oh well....

At least if I import anything myself I will know to keep a tube of KY jelly close to hand, ready for the financial reaming I'll probably get from customs/excise/Fedex.

[King Herald]

Parrot of Doom said:

I recently imported an item marked as worth $100 by the seller.

FedEx sent me a bill for VAT + admin, about £23. £17 or so of that £23 is VAT.

So thats £17 of VAT on a $100 item.

Now is it me, or is that VAT amount mysteriously double what it should be?

Fedex wrote my wife again a couple of days ago, giving her five days before they take legal action. She called them up and asked WTF?!!!! She told them that they have already informed us the SENDER had signed to pay all charges. She told them that her sister had been in touch and given them credit card details to bill her. "Oh, well look into it again" they told my wife.

I thought they were a respectable company, but no, they're obviously weapans grade cocktards to a man!!

[King Herald]

JMGS4 said:

King Herald said:

The gift was valued at $200 on the paperwork on the box, labelled as clothing, and the shipping cost a ridiculous $120. Shirley this can't be right: £72 duties on an Xmas pressie that is worth £100 max?

It's not the actual value of the goods, it's the stated value PLUS the freight i.e $320,- then possibly import duty up to 20%, then VAT, then the Fedex costs.... cheap at half the price!?!?!?
Next time get it sent with a ficticious value put on the label...

Yes, I know, it was all discussed ten minutes into the thread.