Importing from the USA ?

My wife will be buying hair bows and headbands etc from a company in the USA and I just wanted to check what happens in terms of HMRC. The order values will be under £1k and they will probably ship via airmail. How does this all work in terms of customs and import duties etc?

 

[sendit.co.uk]

I've ordered a few times from the US now, and each time the import tax has been around the 17.5% mark of the declared value of the products being imported. Once your item arrives in the UK, it is normally either sent on by the parcel company and you will be billed later (UPS did this) or it is held until you pay the import taxes (Parcel Force do this).

I'm not too sure whether this will be the same for the hair products you are ordering, but I can't imagine it being much different. I've never known it to be more than 17.5%.

Has anyone else experienced anything different?

Trevor

 

[figolmf]

You can try another market, just like China or south east Asia. For a comany, it is the most important to have high margin. how do you think of this thing?

I've ordered a few times from the US now, and each time the import tax has been around the 17.5% mark of the declared value of the products being imported. Once your item arrives in the UK, it is normally either sent on by the parcel company and you will be billed later (UPS did this) or it is held until you pay the import taxes (Parcel Force do this).

I'm not too sure whether this will be the same for the hair products you are ordering, but I can't imagine it being much different. I've never known it to be more than 17.5%.

Has anyone else experienced anything different?

Trevor

 

Sorry but I will NOT be buying from China. The hair bows are high quality hand made and not mass produced junk.

 

[Calypso]

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channels...ort_InfoGuides&columns=1&id=IMPEXP_CLASSGOODS

Try this link for guidance on codes etc. There is a phone number sonewhere too, that you can call, but they limit you to three items each call!! They'll tell you the code to use and the duty to pay.

Good Luck

 

Well that was quite painless. I rang HMRC and they gave me a classification code for the goods and told me the rate for the import duty.

Once the goods are in the country I have to pay the duty either prior to release or by invoice from the courier depending on who the carrier is.

Just wondering now ifs worth registering for VAT.

 

[Calypso]

Probably better to get the courier to pay it and include it in the invoice from them to you.

VAT register? How big you going to get? Are we going to see "Little Bo Peep" stores in every shopping Mall?

 

you never know...lol

At the moment it will be an off shoot of Hedgehog Toys but if it gets big enough then we will probably split them up. I am also running the baby equipment hire business as an off shoot. It saves all the hassle of opening bank acount setc.

 

[brian xu]

You can try another market, just like China or south east Asia. For a comany, it is the most important to have high margin. how do you think of this thing?

sorry i must say you do not know about chinese market.if you can offer same price of ordering from US, we can offer better quality you want. I come from YIWU international commodity city ,china. It is near SHANGHAI about 3 hours by car. if you have interting, i can sent you quotation,and sample. My MSN: xulihua1121 hotmail com

 

[bitsnstuff]

Hi,

When I import smaller quantities from the US I always use USPS. The parcel will then get picked up at Heathrow by Parcelforce, they pay the relevant charges and then deliver it to me, so alot easier and cheaper.

You need to make sure that your supplier is correctly completing the customs form as one of my suppliers, who had never exported, filled in the form with the retail value, which meant that I had to pay a much higher customs bill!

I have set up a customs account with Parcelforce as it speeds up the process. Otherwise, Parcelforce will collect your parcel from Heathrow, pay the charges, take it up to Coventry, then send you a letter by post asking for the charges paid, you then pay online or by phone (online is better) and select a delivery date. If you have a customs account, it comes straight out to you from Heathrow and then you receive a letter later telling you the charges which have been added to your account and then have 30 days to pay.

Customs as far as I understand, take the goods value plus shipping cost plus insurance cost and add the customs charge (get the tarriff code from HMRC and that will give you the % customs charge) plus VAT at 17.5% (unless the goods imported are exempt. Then you have a £13.00 charge from Parcelforce for handling.

I have tried a freight forwarder for the most recent import as it was too large for USPS, but the list of charges is huge. It is also currently stuck in Customs as they are being very picky on paperwork.

Hope that helps.

Kate

 

[steve23]

Hi,

Sounds like you've got your plans in order - and good luck, but I wouldnt be too quick to dismiss other 'supply lines', such as China.

Cant hurt to check out other markets, and in my (limited) experience, you can find rubbish produced anywhere, but also quality if you look hard enough - or are maybe lucky!

One other important point, I know you said your orders were small, but i would still look to go sea and not air - a penny saved after all.....

All the best

Steve23

 

The only thing is, these products are made specially for the US market by the US companies. Its not quite the same buying a US hand made product from China !!

 

[Blush]

My husand received a parcel from the states this week.Ups were the courier and he had to pay the customs on delivery.

 

[Christiane]

I have a few suppliers in the US. My invoice value varies between $500 and just over $1,000.

I HATE USPS because it ends up in the hands of ParcelfArce who hold your parcel, unlike other couriers, until you pay the charges. I have to wait to receive a letter telling me how much to pay, then I pay, then they deliver. I lose about 3 days worth of sales every time because of it. SO, I end up tracking the parcel and when I know it's at the depot, I call them to say I'll pick up so I can have my stock quicker. It's happening right now, they had the parcel since Wendesday, I'm waiting for that stupid letter and if it doesn't come today I'll have to go and collect otherwise I can't put the stock on the site this weekend and I will lose even more ''sales days''.

Fedex: I love them, they invoice you therefore much better for my cashflow as I pay when I can/want (within reason). However they are about to change the way they calcualte their fees by taking a %age instead of a fixed fee, so I think it will become more expensive.

UPS: very very quick from the US, they deliver to your door but you have to pay the charges by cheque there and then. I love them too and the delivery guy is very cute.

DHL: none of my suppliers use DHL from the US (China and Australia, yes but like Fedex, although they sometimes take a few months to invoice me!)

The invoice will show duty (they don't always charge you), VAT and the courier charge otherwise known as Admin Fee.

Bear in mind if not VAT registered, you might be asked for a TURN number. It's a temporary VAT number, doesn't cost a thing, you don't need to do anything about it, just get a number. Tel 01792 634004.
I didn't know about this until I had my first order with a value of over $1,000, below that it was unnoticed and it's only UPS who picked up on it.

Register for VAT? The threshold is around £62k (rolling year), so I wouldn't worry about registering for VAT now. I only registered once I had reached the threshold, and I applied for the flat rate scheme which is for businesses with T/O of less than £150,000 ex VAT (I think).

Bea

 

Thanks Bea, that helps me a lot

 

[swisslogistics]

Hi all...

Hedgehog...

"Sorry but I will NOT be buying from China. The hair bows are high quality hand made and not mass produced junk."

Mate I take offence to that...you are obviously one of those people who think that just because something is made in china it is of low quality, take a look around your house, I wonder how many pc's of 'junk' you have that where made in china.

Your bows or what ever they are can be made to the same specs as the US ones if not better, will cost less, will arrive quicker and hence will make you more money.

You get what you pay for, Ipods are made in china, are they junk too? how about pioneer plasma screens, junk? ASUS laptops...junk? some of the highest quality products are leaving china on a daily basis, you shouldnt write off the whole country because they make low end goods AS WELL as high end goods.

Sorry for the ranting and raving people, but I do get ticked off when people assume that made in china means low quality, it just shows there lack of experiance and narrow mindedness.

Best Regards

Khalid

 

[Arhiann]

We've been here before Khalid, but I'll say it again all the same.

Mate I take offence to that...you are obviously one of those people who think that just because something is made in china it is of low quality, take a look around your house, I wonder how many pc's of 'junk' you have that where made in china.

Your bows or what ever they are can be made to the same specs as the US ones if not better, will cost less, will arrive quicker and hence will make you more money.

I think the key phrase there is "can be". Of course they can be made to the desired quality, but that's not the point. It would be a smaller percentage of factories in China that can produce to Western quality standards, than the percentage of Western factories that can meet a requried standard.

It's two completely different cultures, and the effect the difference causes is a royal pita, but it is avoidable with some effort. It's not always avoidable though. There is a larger percentage of less than honourable business people there snce they know they can play the "I'm the other side of the world" game.

Sorry for the ranting and raving people, but I do get ticked off when people assume that made in china means low quality, it just shows there lack of experiance and narrow mindedness.

Most people aren't assuming. China has a well founded and justified reputation for producing poor quality goods, though I accept that they are capable of producing good quality goods as well.

I was on a welding forum the other day (don't ask, I like to weld stuff), and a poster from China appeared and asked what colour we like our MIG welders to be. That goes to show that their focus is not in the same place that ours' is.

I accept they can make to a good standard, but equally there's no doubt that they produce a larger percentage of poor quality goods than the western world do. That's why they have the reputation.

 

We've been here before Khalid, but I'll say it again all the same.


I think the key phrase there is "can be". Of course they can be made to the desired quality, but that's not the point. It would be a smaller percentage of factories in China that can produce to Western quality standards, than the percentage of Western factories that can meet a requried standard.

It's two completely different cultures, and the effect the difference causes is a royal pita, but it is avoidable with some effort. It's not always avoidable though. There is a larger percentage of less than honourable business people there snce they know they can play the "I'm the other side of the world" game.



Most people aren't assuming. China has a well founded and justified reputation for producing poor quality goods, though I accept that they are capable of producing good quality goods as well.

I was on a welding forum the other day (don't ask, I like to weld stuff), and a poster from China appeared and asked what colour we like our MIG welders to be. That goes to show that their focus is not in the same place that ours' is.

I accept they can make to a good standard, but equally there's no doubt that they produce a larger percentage of poor quality goods than the western world do. That's why they have the reputation.

Thank you, that was better put than my post

 

I'm not trying to be awkward, all i'm trying to say is that these bows are American, they are hand made in America because they are an American kids fashion item. Key word here is American, not American copy made in China. If I wanted a cheaper copy then fair enough China is the place to go for the cheaper goods but I don't, I want the genuine hand made American ones.
If I wanted a cuckoo clock, I would buy from Germany or Switzerland not China. Can you see the point I am trying to make.

 

To give some balance to the argument, if I wanted a load of electronic stuff then maybe I would consider China.