Help with Customs!!

[vandanamu]

I had posted about this earlier but posting it again with greater detail.


I am a sole trader trading for the past few years in screen-printed, organic cloth bags. I help sustain a producer group which employs women affected by the Boxing day tsunami. I source orders in the UK for them. Normally, the consignment is sent in parcels of 18-20 kgs (by Surface Air Lifted as that is the most cost-effective method from the Indian side). On arrival in the UK, Parcelforce makes a door delivery.

Until recently, one out of every 10 of my parcels would be stopped by the Customs and I would receive from HMRC charges for VAT and/or Import duty and clearance fee amounting approximately £28. Upon payment online the parcels would be released the following day and there would be no sign of the parcels having been inspected.

Lately, every single consignment of mine has been stopped and would be released only on payment of aforementioned charges. And today, I received a whopper of a bill for £155 ([SIZE=-1]Import Duty £21.01, VAT £126.25, Clearance Fee £8). The contents of the box is only worth £150 and this comes as an incomprehensibly large amount. I had to pay the duty as the bags were due for delivery on a certain date and contesting the charges might mean delay of release of the bags which I cannot afford at the moment.

Are there import duty or VAT consultants who can explain these increased charges? I am panicking!

Thanks in advance for your help.
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[Kernowman]

As I understand it, HMRC are under the cosh at the moment to get some money in the till pronto for the government coffers so they are more vigilant and zealous than ever before. However, you are at liberty to challenge HMRC's valuations on your consignment, particularly so if the is a delivery/consignment note attached to the package which stated the true value of the contents. If there isn't one, or there is an ambiguous value on the customs declaration, then you have to accept their valuation - onerous as it is.

I sent a hi-fi component of mine back to the USA for repair recently and I had a heck of a job getting my customs charges refunded when it returned to the UK. I went into a local HMRC office and read them the riot act because I sure as heck wasn't going to get fleeced for duty on something I already owned.

 

[telephoneman]

"Until recently, one out of every 10 of my parcels would be stopped by the Customs and I would receive from HMRC charges for VAT and/or Import duty and clearance fee amounting approximately £28. Upon payment online the parcels would be released the following day and there would be no sign of the parcels having been inspected."

So what you're saying is that you successfully evaded VAT and duty on 9 out of 10 parcels and now you're upset because they want you to pay your dues? Regardless of how much good your enterprise might do for the producers why do you think that it's OK for you to evade taxes that everyone else has to pay?

 

[vandanamu]

"Until recently, one out of every 10 of my parcels would be stopped by the Customs and I would receive from HMRC charges for VAT and/or Import duty and clearance fee amounting approximately £28. Upon payment online the parcels would be released the following day and there would be no sign of the parcels having been inspected."

So what you're saying is that you successfully evaded VAT and duty on 9 out of 10 parcels and now you're upset because they want you to pay your dues? Regardless of how much good your enterprise might do for the producers why do you think that it's OK for you to evade taxes that everyone else has to pay?

It's a bit unfair to call it 'evading'. By 'evading' the tax, I am never going to get my consignments! All I want to know is why is it so arbitrary? Given that the value of the parcels themselves is only £120-150, it seems excessive to be charged £155!!

 

[Christiane]

The VAT should be calculated from the invoice that your supplier would provide with the consignment so it doesn't sound right. Go back to the courier and query it with them.
VAT is calculated on the whole amount of the invoice, i.e. goods and shipping costs.
If it was handwritten, maybe it was misread?