Importing from USA. What taxes will I need to pay?

I have found with Parcelforce that they won't deliver the goods untill you have prepaid the import duty/vat/their fees. So if they have released the goods, I would assume that you are in the clear.
I have found the duty rates vary considerably, this does make pricing difficult. I think if the shipper put in the exact HMCR product classification code then rates would be consistent.
Re: can you reclaim... You can reclaim the VAT if VAT registered but not the import duty.

 

I am not VAT registered.

 

No worries, you can't reclaim the VAT and you don't need to add VAT when you sell.

 

How much £?

 

Yes, you pay for full amount, even shipping cost.

 

I recieved some items from the USA as gifts from a friend there, (childrens toys) and of course got a letter from Parcel force saying I owe import tax vat blah blah blah, Now they were gifts, and I dont think they were worth more than £18 Althou it did come in a bigish box.... Is there anything I can do to claim this back?

 

The chap who said that sometimes items don't get flagged for duty is correct.

It seems to be a lottery to be honest. We have trade agreements in place with the US and although we get hit for VAT on just about every consignment, duty as duty, is extremely rare.

A lot of the determination is based upon the commercial invoice that the exporting company puts on your goods.

Certain classes of goods have differing levels of import duty. For example importing a complete file server in a box carries a different duty to a box containing spare parts for a file server.

Mad, but true.