Customs tax

Well done silverbrooks - you explained it better than I did.

There is a setting at the bottom of Etsy's Home page, where you can choose UK. Not sure whether that would help us to be certain that we are buying locally, with no customs charges.

The FedEx website says that you'll usually have to pay duties before your goods are released from customs in the destination country. But it also says your carrier may be able to pay on your behalf to ensure your goods are released quickly – and then invoice you for the charges.

My guess is that the vendor put the VAT inclusive amount on the customs declaration instead of the value of the goods.

It should be easy to do a rough calculation at least of what any charges should be based on FedEx believing that the good were worth say £150. A leather bag worth that would attact customs duty and VAT totalling £33.60. FedEx add an admin fee up to £12.50 so the amount being demanded is in the ball park.

If the vendor has charged you say £150 including VAT then the value of the bag was £125 and they charged you £25 VAT. The vendor will have been correct to charge VAT and there would be no customs duty as the value of the goods was not more than £135.

Ask the vendor to provide confirmation of the value of the goods before VAT was added and submit to FedEx as proof that you paid VAT at the point of sale and that the value of the item was not more than £135 assuming it was and no customs duty is due.

I agree sounds like a scam

I send ‘Nanny made’ jumpers etc to my grandchildren in France and even after declaring what’s in the package and its value etc and paying import duties in advance my son still has to pay customs duties on receipt of the package
‘Viva la Brexit!’ 😡

It does soumd like a scam, you'd usually have to pay it before delivery.

You would not have received the goods until custom charges had been paid.

It is a scam.

I would have thought so, yes.

If this is a legitimate request, then the seller is surely responsible to explain this at the point of sale at the very least.

I think it probably is a legitimate tax/duty. My beef is that it wasn’t made clear at the time of ordering, and I had no right to refuse delivery as the bill came a week later, so I am posting to warn others, more than anything.

As Fed-ex is an American firm and the bag was sent from Italy, a EU country, which you are not, I doubt this is a scam. To me it sounds like legitimate import tax.

However, that said, the supplier or Fed-ex, or both should clearly have stated that you would be liable for this tax, so a complaint to both is in order.

You could check with the British Customs authorities whether this is a legitimate charge or not, they should know.

Doodledog

Hmmm.

The general Etsy T&Cs say that customs duty may apply and will be charged on delivery to the country (UK in my case). The seller's listing says that delivery is free (I must have misremembered paying shipping) and that delivery is usually 3-5 days. There is no mention of additional charges.

I have messaged the seller and will see what they reply, but it's looking as though I'll have to pay, isn't it?

@#£%&%£#@

While it is beginning to sound genuine, I would baulk I at the words "Customs tax" as it is.not a tax; it is a duty, which is albeit nominally, a different kettle of fish. Also, as has already been said, you should have been asked to pay before you could take possession of the goods. FedEx may have dealt with that for you and are now charging administration fees. They should be able to provide you with the paperwork.

The seller can't do anything about it as they don't have anything to do with the customs requirements of the importing country.

A friend of mine (in the UK)had this problem as the seller of merch for her son's rap group. Someone in Germany had ordered some items and refused to pick it up because they were charging customs duty. She had no idea this would be an issue when she sent it off.

No, you pay the sellers direct. The seller told me that it was clear on the listing that customs tax might be payable. I asked him to point me to the relevant clause and he said it is part of Etsy’s T&Cs.

He may be right, but as the bags are on EtsyUk and priced in sterling I don’t think it is too much to ask for charges to be made clear. Particularly as the listing says ‘free delivery’.

I would have thought that all courier companies acted the same way. DHL will definitely not hand over any goods until you have paid your customs duties. So I would definitely contact Fedex, but not using any numbers, or contact details given in the letter. When you get through to Fedex tell them to contact the seller to get their money.

Contact Etsy and explain the situation. Who took your money, Etsy ?

I would have thought you would need to pay any tax before the item was delivered by Fedex. Bit suspicious for me.

Do not pay without double checking - I have ordered several items from abroad - and have had to pay tax BEFORE the items were delivered. Sounds like a scam to me - unfortunately the scammers are very clever at getting enough info to convince you to pay!

Hmm. For goods with a value exceeding £135, VAT should NOT be charged by the seller and should be collected at the point of import hence import VAT.

It sounds like you've been double charged and it's the vendor who is at fault as they haven't taken into account new Brexit regulations.

Bear in mind that the value for VAT of imported goods is the customs value as well as incidental expenses such as P&P plus the Customs Duty. In other words import VAT will be more than VAT simply calculated on the value of the goods.

Thanks everyone.

Yes, it was more than £135, but the bill is not for VAT - the bag was sold with VAT included.

I had a tracking number, so will trawl emails tomorrow and see if I've still got it - good idea, thanks. I will also look closely at the bill and see if there is an HMRC number. I can see my taxes on the YouGov site, so maybe it will show up on there? Again, I'll do it tomorrow, as I'm going to bed.

I hope you enjoyed the Branston, Cold. That's really annoying.

Doodledog

Well, I did wonder, but the details of the bag are with the letter, so how would a scammer know that?

I googled, and Fedex do charge customs tax. I agree that it seems more likely that the tax would be charged at the time, but this is not a situation I have been in before.

Has anyone on here had this happen?

I had to pay Customs duty and VAT on a gift which was sent from Australia even though GST had been paid on thd item in Australia.
As far as I remember, the goods weren't released until I had paid. Different rules apply to different classes of imports.

This might help:
www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/article/explainer/customs-duty-free-and-vat-after-brexit#:~:text=customs%20duties%20(sometimes%20called%20tariffs,way%20it%20is%20collected%20differs
[[

I reckon so … 😡

Hmmm.

The general Etsy T&Cs say that customs duty may apply and will be charged on delivery to the country (UK in my case). The seller's listing says that delivery is free (I must have misremembered paying shipping) and that delivery is usually 3-5 days. There is no mention of additional charges.

I have messaged the seller and will see what they reply, but it's looking as though I'll have to pay, isn't it?

You haven’t mentioned VAT but I’ve included a bit about that anyway in case the bag was worth more than £135.

VAT

If the goods were worth £135 or less, the vendor will have included VAT in the price they charged you.

If the goods were worth more than £135 you will to pay the tax separately.

Customs duty

On goods worth more than £135.

If you’re charged Customs Duty, you’ll need to pay it on both:

• the price paid for the goods
•on the postage, packaging and insurance

Using the goverment’s trade tariff pages, it says importing a leather bag (assuming it is) from Italy, the customs duty would be 2%

Then there would be an admin fee on top.

I found a site that says Fedex charge £12.50 or 2.5% of duty + VAT whichever is higher.

Their fixed charges are higher than any other firm:

dutyrefunds.co.uk/glossary/handling-fee/

Doodledog

*Not sure what the seller can do - usually the buyer is responsible for paying the taxes for the goods to enter their country.*
The seller can tell me if this is usual, so I know whether or not it is a scam.

Does it have an HMRC reference number? You would be better off contacting them directly as it is HMRC that levies the charge as a seller in Italy probably has little knowledge of UK import duties.

Did you get a tracking reference for the parcel? You can usually track it to see if it is in UK customs and whether a charge has been levied,

Astitchintime

Cold

Since Brexit you have to pay customs duties on anything you import from the EU and the EU countries have to pay duties on stuff they import from the UK.

Your purchase is usually held up until the amount is paid. Some companies arrange for the customs duty to be paid in advance when you purchase (M&S, Amazon etc) but probably not a small Etsy shop

I bought some fabric last year that was despatched from Germany - the enclosed paperwork, one sheet of A4 per cut length of cloth, stated that NO customs duty was payable. I did keep the paperwork as it included the cost off the fabric and I presented copies to my customers once their garments were ready for collection.

I believe there is a minimum amount before you have to pay duty. Somewhere around £40

Although when Brexit first took effect Sweden used to charge duty on everything - speaking as the person who once paid £10 in duty for Branston pickle (£2.50 for the duty and £7.50 in customs admin fee)