Shipping from the USA to the UK - help required.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Sep 19, 2006 10:57 pm

Does anyone know if I ship a $4k computer from the US to the UK, will customs here in the UK charge me Tax or somthing?

My problem is this.

I have built a nice new workstation by Hewlet Packard on thier US website - the only ppl in the UK who can build a similar machine are HP,UK , Dell or Alienware.

Only problem is, the same spec machine will cost me at least £1.2k more here in the UK, which is a ******* piss take.

Now, HP, US wont send over sea, they direct you to the UK site, and then I pay more - but, I have someone who I can send the machine to in the US.

then I could ship it back here to the UK. UPS shipping says the cost will be $275 but will customs sting me for more cash?

Optimus Prime Rib · Post by **Optimus Prime Rib** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 3:04 am

i am hving one hell of a time sending ***** to the UK

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 7:52 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:but will customs sting me for more cash?

Yep. Well, they'll try at any rate. You'll be liable for VAT (at the standard rate), Duty (varies according to commodity... no idea what the rate would be for a PC), and you'll probably get lumbered with an "admin fee" by whichever delivery company ends up handling it at this end.

Best thing to do is to get it labelled up on the customs forms as a gift or as No Commerical Value or something. Problem with the latter is that if customs inspect the item, they might see a brand new computer and realise it's got commercial value, then you could be looking at a fine or something, too.

Probably best to stick an arbitary value on the customs paperwork (couple of hundred dollars - anything less is going to scream "made up" if customs get into it) and mark it as a gift. There's a chance it'll go straight through without being checked as it's in the postal system... there's a chance it won't, but then they're only likely to charge you the VAT and Duty on the declared value.

Oh - and make sure that whoever forwards it on doesn't forward any invoice with it. Customs find an invoice in something marked as a gift, then you're definitely in the ****.

Basically... it's a bugger of a situation. Can go either way, and is fraught with danggggger.

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:27 am

yeah - there's no good way around it.

you can either pay teh UK price or take a riask and hope custom's don't charge you, but in all honesty they probably will.

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:36 am

Brend speaks the truth. You can either lie about its value on the customs forms (and take the consequences if it gets lost/opened) or just pay the duties which HM Govt will slap on top, since the chancellor naturally needs ever more money... Smaug needs a new bed, damnit!

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:27 am

So im still a bit confused by all this.

If I declare it to customs as a computer worth $4k - they will slap VAT on right? and thats the legal way to do it?I end up paying around £350 ?

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:32 am

rthere are usually other fees as well for handling as well - might be worth checking tehri website.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:40 am

Ill take a look - im thinking, even if I do pay £350 or so for VAT, thats still roughly £1000 cheaper!

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:42 am

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:So im still a bit confused by all this.

If I declare it to customs as a computer worth $4k - they will slap VAT on right? and thats the legal way to do it?I end up paying around £350 ?

Yeah. You'll get between £350-400 VAT, depending on what the exchange rate is at the time they work it out. Plus Duty... no clue what the Duty on a computer would be. It's about 4% on toys, that's all I can remember.

Then you'll probably get charged an admin fee by the delivery company. If it comes regular Parcel Force, they charge about a tenner for the service of clearing it through customs on your behalf. Couriers can tend to charge upto around £30, because they're bastards.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 10:50 am

Just calling the Customs ppl at the moment - this will be interesting...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 1:19 pm

Just an update.

I called the customs chaps and they said on the computer I would just have to pay Vat at 17.5% - which im happy to pay as ill still save over £1000!

I cant wait to get my new shiny PC - its a freaking beast!

Roughly $4000

Windows® XP x64 Edition
HP xw8400
CPU: Two (2) Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 5130 2.00 GHz 1333 MHz FSB 4 MB L2 cache
CPU: NVIDIA Quadro FX1500 256MB PCIe
RAM: HP 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2-667 ECC FBD
Hard-drives: HP 80GB SATA 3Gb/s 7200 (1st)
HP 250GB SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 7200 (2nd)
Monitor: HP L1955 19inch etc...

Post by **Best First** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:41 pm

bear in mind customs might not e teh right people to ask about delivery charges etc

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 2:54 pm

When u call them up, u can give them all the details and they can process the order - once agreed its legally binding they say.
bit of a headache to sort out but its worth it for £1k.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:44 pm

Umm, why don't you ask the person sending you the PC to declare it a gift?

It could be done, methinks...

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 7:47 pm

BB Shockwave wrote:Umm, why don't you ask the person sending you the PC to declare it a gift?

It could be done, methinks...

Does nay help, m'dear. I've tried it many times- all customs care about is the value afaik, declaring it as a gift may stop one or two additional charges but they still sting you something chronic.

BB Shockwave · Post by **BB Shockwave** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:10 pm

That's interesting... I got packages from all over the world (granted, mostly TF toys) and I always ask them declared as presents - never had to pay tax.

One of my friends got caught with this, though, when he shipped 6 Takara Primuses from Japan - I guess a package of that size caught the eyes of the officiers...

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Sun Sep 24, 2006 10:17 pm

when he got caught - what happened?

Brendocon · Post by **Brendocon** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 12:19 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:
BB Shockwave wrote:Umm, why don't you ask the person sending you the PC to declare it a gift?

It could be done, methinks...
Does nay help, m'dear. I've tried it many times- all customs care about is the value afaik, declaring it as a gift may stop one or two additional charges but they still sting you something chronic.

Aye. There's a maximum value permissable on giftage... it used to be 50 USD / equivalent... not sure what it is at the moment.

TransFans.co.uk

Shipping from the USA to the UK - help required.

Re: Shipping from the USA to the UK - help required.