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"Shipping Taxes"

Just received something from Play-Asia, but not too sure about the taxes and whether I have to pay or not. It was marked as "Sample". Is tax added onto those?

Belldandy wrote:
> I picked up another nugget of information about couriers and customs
> though - UPS will charge you a £10 handling fee for anything
> above the legal limit, and that is BEFORE any VAT.

Naturally, pretty much anyone charges a handling fee. I've had stuff where the handling costs almost as much as the tax and duty.

Sorry but Customs are fools. ever since being on eBay only 2 out of god knows how many things has ever been inspected by them, both seriously undervalued, yet they applied no additional charge.

I picked up another nugget of information about couriers and customs though - UPS will charge you a £10 handling fee for anything above the legal limit, and that is BEFORE any VAT. Ouch!

Customs aren't fools - even if an item is marked as a gift they can still examine the goods and ask for more information, though don't always. You just have to accept that every now and then you'll have to pay up, if you're using couriers it's almost always.

I hear that, with a few exceptions I have left feedback for everyone I have bought from or sold to, and in total I've left over 1300 feedbacks but only received just over 1100 in return. $£"s!

But the feedback system is crap anyway.

Iccy, if you want a CoD tonight sign into msn mate.

And leave feedback. I would have got at least a hundred by now, but nooo, they takes their item, and runs away. Even after leaving them feedback.

It can be sometimes, thing is more and more anime is coming to Region 2 now so I wouldn't do it again.

Really anyone buying imported stuff on eBay should just look for a seller who has it abroad (obviusly you need Paypal to do this) and get it that way. Just email the seller first and ask if they can mark a lower value or something on the customs form and the majority are happy too. Those that won't I just don't buy from.

Just this morning I received my set of Final Fantasy X-2 Figures, which including shipping, cost just under £30 for all three. Now I've seen people buy these from UK sellers at £24.99 plus postage a time, for each figure! Insane! What some people paid nearly £80 for I've got for £30.

I've ordered stuff from hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Phillipine, Hawaii, America and Austalia and only one thing has ever gone missing. In most cases the sellers are more friendly, helpful and have more realistic postage than most UK ones. A lot of UK sellers need to learn they should answer people's questions!

Darn it, that means I'll have to pay tax unless my controller gets shpped as a gift. And your import from abroad thing seems like a real money maker, it's a shame I don't know anything about anime.

mikelar wrote:
> yeah you stumbled on a real gold mine.

Heh, I left out the next bit. I then sold them all on ebay UK and made about four times my investment...

Anyway back to the topic.

Officially merchandise can be to the value of £18 before it is taxed. Samples and Gifts can be to the value of £32 before they are taxed. If your items are delivered by courier than you will not have to pay them straight away but will get an invoice a while later which you can't just ignore. If it just goes through the Royal Mail...well there is a good chance it will not get noticed but if they do notice then be prepared to pay around an extra 25% of the items value. However books/comics and a few other things are exempt anyway.

That's what I'm unclear about; what limit is there on marked parcels before they start charging?

And there must be some sort of pricing policy with couriers for these charges; I've heard stories of people receiving the same item, but getting taxed at different rates.