I'm thinking about purchasing an item of clothing from the usa but the company told me I may have to pay import tax or fees when the product arrives in this country, can anyone advise what these are and what they might charge

Also, how much does it cost to call the USA from a BT Line

Unless it's a very very expensive item of clothing, like a jewel encrusted Gucci suit or something, you won't be liaible for anything although you will get an invoice.

Depends on the time of day for the call but look into Ratebuster which costs 2p per minute or less.

When you go on holiday there aren't you allowed to bring items worth something like $300 back home with you without having to pay a tax on them? Maybe there is a similiar price tag on importing items?

It is, it's the same value of gifts etc you are allowed to bring into the UK from outside the EU. However unless it's exciseable like booze and fags, it has to be a substantial value before anyone is remotely interested.

There was one of Chelseas footballers wandered through customs half asleep with a 20 grand handbag for his bird and he got hammered but Mr Tree says 'an item of clothing,' and I can't see that being that far over the value, if at all, that anyone will be interested.

what happens is that you buy your item from the usa shop and they will invoice you. That invoice has to be in triplicate inside the package and on the outside clearly showing the total cost of the item and shipping. When it lands at stanstead or east midlands depending on the main courier ( fed ex or UPS) they will pay a customs duty for you. This will be about 18% of the value of the item. Then there will a vat fee of 17.5% of the TOTL COST so far. Therefore you will have the cost of the item, say £50 the shipping £30 the customs duty £9 then the VT on £89 which is £15.58 so your £50 jacket or jeans cost you £104.58

USPS united states postal service is cheaper on the actual postage but they take longer, use our post office to deliver in the UK and they charge you a handleing fee of between £8 and £11 depending on the value of EACH BOX or package.

ny item that attracts a duty fee of less than £7 ( i.e. the £9 above) should get through without paying of customs but will still need to have vat on it.

Personal returnees to this country can bring in goods with a face value of £36 but over that attracts customs etc as above.

The rate of customs duty varies with the product and there is a big book available which has over 30,000 items in it but clothing is 18%....unless it's socks and they are 23%, go figure...

hope that helps...

Thanks for that, so the item of clothing which was going to cost me $240 us dollars could now cost me nearly double that

No thanks.

Cheers for that

Howay Mr.Tree....I still think they'll be worth it....




:sweet: :sweet:

Yup !

lt also it depends on the exchange rate of the $/£. If you go to the bank now you might get $1.97 to the £ but customs and excise use the bank of england rate which is always 30 cents to the pound dearer so the exchange rate is 1.67. a quick calc will be $240 = £143.71 add your postage, customs and vat and you will be near £250.00 - £265.00

One risky thing if you want to try it is to ask the supplier to send it via fed ex on worldwide expidite. Time this so the three day delivery lands on a friday evening at standstead airport. ..........apparently customs don't check any parcels on a friday night at standstead.

I can't verify this myself and it seems incredulous with the hightened terrorist alerts but it's up to you if you want to risk getting stung with the customs....

That's it with customs and excise, the operate as a law unto themselves. If the hard drive was declared as computer equipment then it would attract duty of 5% where as if it is described as computer storage facillities then it would atract 30% customs and this would take you over the £7 customs duty ( anything worth under £7 isn't collected over £7 is)

You also need to watch out for trade wars between europe and the usa. When the US was supporting their steel indusatry with subsidies about 3 years ago there was a 100% duty tarrif put on 98% of all goods imported from the USA to the UK.

As someone who imports a lot from the usa it's worth knowing the tarrifs to ask the senders to label the boxes properly.
For instance I imported a load of jars for candlemaking. Basicly these are posh jam jars but if they were glass jars with lids in one box the duty is 24% without lid the duty is 8% therefore it's cheaper to box the lids seperate and pay a seperate duty of 5% on lids and 8% on the jars....

Thank god we won't be importing david beckam memorabillia from the states...to be honest I think the C&E make it all up as they go.......