Shopping on the Internet £7 limit?

[DG]

It's been a very long while since I ordered anything online from outside of the UK - I was checking if tax needed to be paid on vitamins / supplements I wanted to order from Guernsey that would come to about £15 if ordered separately (in 2 batches) or £30 if I did it all in one go.


I just saw the following online - mentioning a £7 limit - never seen this before - anyone come across it before and had to pay extra?


http://tinyurl.com/basfh


If you purchase goods through the Internet you should be aware that customs duty and VAT will be payable, as follows:

Customs duty - if the amount of duty is £7 and over.
Import VAT - if the value of the goods is £18 and over.

The last time I had things delayed in customs (ordered several years ago and coming from Canada) it took longer to get the goods, plus the customs fees, plus the post office added it's own £4 fee which totally made it not worth while.

[I'm With Stupid]

A lot of things theoretically have import duty on them, but never get charged. I've bought a few things from Canada and America and have never been charged. Apparently if the company marks the package as a gift, it will avoid any additional tax, so email them about that. The general advice is to budget for the extra tax, but hope you don't get caught. And in my experience, you usually don't for such a small purchase.

[TheNameless]

Order hundreds of pounds in stuff off the net, never been charged, sold lots fo stuff too and nothing ever happened. Bought steroids over the ent and all kinds and never been charged or caught either.

wouldn't worry.

[budda]

I got taxed for customs duty for the first time a little while ago, the company put the value of the items on the box, it was over the limit by about £2 so they charged me the import fee of £11.25.

[DG]

I got taxed for customs duty for the first time a little while ago, the company put the value of the items on the box, it was over the limit by about £2 so they charged me the import fee of £11.25.

So you thought you were paying about £20 and ended up paying more like £31.25 which is a huge 50%+ increase?

[budda]

So you thought you were paying about £20 and ended up paying more like £31.25 which is a huge 50%+ increase?

Yep, the limit for commercial goods is £18, and my order was $40 which put me just a tiny bit over. I was far from impressed in having to hand over another £11.

This is why a lot of the vitamin companies dont sell anything in packets costing more than £17.99.

[DG]

Oh I think I figured out the £7 thing now - I was misreading it.

I'll have to email the company and see if they send it in batches of less then £18 which they might be able to do.