The Wholesale Forums

[lukie2005]

Hi guys, im trying to set up a online business, sites designed web servers up and running and i have the products i wanna sell in mind. The only problem is i dont have the money ( as im only 19, but have good ideas) to buy BULK orders from china, as this is the cheapest place to get what i wanna sell from (which is usb pens mp3 players ect). i have got in contact with quite a few suppliers over there and they have said they will drop ship, i dunno if the understand (not being rude). Any way my question is, when i import from where ever, i pay custom charges and 17.5% vat. but when do i pay this? if i ordered a single item would i pay at the door or where? this is where i get confused! lol any help would be really appreciated. i really wanna get off the ground i am a hard worker and i have good ideas and good selling techniques.


your help is much appreciated Yellow_Fl:

[Boro97]

now then
import taxes you pay depends on what your goods are worth and also depends which carrier is used if its say ems/parcelforce if there is a charge to pay parcelforce want money straight away , tnt they will send a bill a few weeks later, but if you ask supplier to send as a sample goods value @$18 you should be ok, good luck
mick

[Davey-D]

When importing things its pretty straightforward if your Vat registered.

Importing on a small scale as said above, the recipient of the goods will be responsible for the Import Duty payable which is collected by Royal Mail etc

Import Duty varies from item to item, wooden items are duty free wheras clocks etc average around 6%

If you buy certain goods manufactured in China they may be supplied with a GSP Form A which gives a reduction on the payable duty, this form must be requested from the supplier and as they have to apply to the Chinese Government for it, the order needs to be large.

TNT ussually bill you 7 days after delivery and it is payable immediately you recieve the invoice although I have been known to leave it for 1 month Yellow_Fl:


Companies in China ussually work on MOQ's (Minimum Order Quantities) normally around 1000 pcs of 1 item, but you may get some offering initial orders of lower quantities as samples.

If possible ask the supplier to list the invoice as samples, then no Vat or Duty will be payable, best way is for the invoice value to be 10% of the true value ;-)

[stevenelliott]

Hi when i order apple ipods in to the uk
Its 17.5 % standard if you want mp3 players its 2% on top if they have a radio its 10%
The way you can sort of geat around it is by saying the vaule of the goods are below £1000 also list the box as a sample product but of course if you are getting 10000 units you will have to sign up to customs and excise its £300 to sign up you can pay customs when the items get here or you can pay per month if you using a shipping company they can charge you 2% of the Total value including shipping and insurance which ever is the cheapist for you. Also its a pain because if you want to start fast they aint the fastest people to deal with they take your money fast but signing things and sorting bits out they are very slow

Anyway good luck im getting some other mp3 players from hong kong is there anyway i can keep the taxs down on these products if any one can help i would be greatful.

Thanks Steven

[Davey-D]

Keep your taxes down by getting your supplier to put the goods value much lower on the Invoice, i.e USD$10.00 per unit instead of USD$40.00 per unit.


Put the goods down as samples will exempt them from tax, but, if your caught selling them they are no longer samples and you'll get hammered with back duty and Vat payment.

Also remember that the qty may look suspicious to Customs as far as samples go, they may accept 20 items of one product, but 100 tends to look fishy. I know when we started with the Hour Guard Timer I had 100 samples and 2 weeks later a Visit from a Customs Officer who was very polite but very inqusitive as to why I needed 100 samples of a timer, as soon as I explained everything to him and pointed out it was a brand new product on the UK markets and when it was eventually going to be launched he agreed that no duty was payable as we were giving them away as freebie demo units for Research & Developement Purposes.


There are times you have to decide when it's just not worth messing about with your taxes.