US Shipping & Duty

[gibby]

We sent an order to the US 2 months back & the customer has just informed us a $40 demand has just been presented to them for duty by UPS

Ive no idea what to do or know if its a regular thing.
anyone any knowledge on this sort of thing?


Cheers


G

[Beachcomber]

I've never had any US buyers charged import duty but then I've only ever sent mail order items of up to £100 value.

I've always had a disclaimer in my T&C stating any customer outside of the UK is responsable for any tax or duty levied on their order and have advised them to check their own countries Customs web site for details of current rates.

This site may offer some insight into the US system:
http://www.sourcejuice.com/2007/12/12/the-nitty-gritty-of-united-states-import-duty-rates/

[WhiskyFive]

We got a great tip from the US embassy....

There is a $100 personal import allowance. But if you address your package to Mr & Mrs X (and they don't check to see if there is a Mrs X), then the import allowance is doubled to $200.

If you aren't charging your US customers VAT then although most won't get charged, it isn't unreasonable to expect them to pay import duty.

[websnail]

I don't know if this helps but I've had import duty invoices appear in the UK as much as 6 weeks after I've received the goods. Granted I expect the invoice but it makes proper cashflow management difficult when you don't know what you're going to be paying. Doubtless UPS are the same in the USA as they are here in getting stuff out late.

As Beachcomber pointed out though, this is the customers responsibility to sort out.. You aren't responsible for charging or passing on US tax costs to US citizens. It's the customers own responsibility and they should have been aware of the tax implications when they ordered from you in the first place. It's not like we're a province of Canada or anything...

[deniser]

It's not like we're a province of Canada or anything...

But you forget, there's no world outside the USA;)

[gibby]

thanks for the replies

we do charge all customers vat.
I didnt think we couldnt.
When I spoke to the VAT office they told me the customers had to reclaim the vat themselves

Its would be far better if we didnt ahve to charge em vat

ta

G

[KidsBeeHappy]

As long as you have proof that the items are acutally going outside of the EU then i think that's sufficient not to charge VAT. For online selling it's quite easy because you are posting them. And as long as the card address is registered outside of EU, and you are posting goods to the registered card address, then I would image that should be sufficient. For offline, it's a bit harder because they could just be Americans living over here for a few years.

[WhiskyFive]

We spoke to the Inland Revenue and they told us that so long as the goods were exported (i.e. the delivery address is outside the EU), then we didn't have to charge VAT - even if the billing address was in the EU.

For Americans with a UK delivery address but a US billing address, we always charge VAT - they can then reclaim that themselves if they are taking the goods back to the US.

The only exception was if the UK billing address was a freight forwarder/ delivery company.

For our online retail store, we charge everyone the same (with prices including VAT) but we subsidise the international delivery and treat the items as having a higher net price.

Most website software enables you to selectively charge VAT to EU or non-EU customers.

[KateCB]

We don't charge VAT for NON-EU customers, including Jersey (!).

We also have T&C's which state that each countries tax/duty requirements are the responsibility of the customer - we sell goods, we do not fund the customers countries import/tax!