The Wholesale Forums

[glenni]

1. No cost to register for VAT

2. Depends on the service used. If courier this will be door to door. Courier will make Customs Entry without reference to you if low value (£18 or under) as a simplified entry and no tax will be collected by HMRC. If you are a business, they should conact you to obtain your VAT no. for the entry and check if you have your own Deferement Approval Number to pay taxes due.
Couriers get away with a lot that the conventional airfreight community can't. Not that I'm bitter !
It generally comes down to how export invoice has been done. You will see many Hong Kong ebay sellers selling goods for peanuts and making their profit on the shipping. If their sales invoice only shows the sale value, and it is under £18, it will be part of a bulk clearance and very unlikely to arouse the interest of HMRC.
If goods arrive traditional airfreight into LHR and, you will get a call from a freight company at the airport advising you of arrival. What you pay for from them depends largely on the shipping terms (Incoterm) agreed with seller.
This will range from just Duty/VAT/Fee for paying taxes to all the charges from departure to delivery. You could come to LHR and collect or let the freight agent arrange for you. This will be cheaper as they will have vehicles/subcontractors covering UK wide deliveries.

Good luck.

[rasabelle]

I have a few parcels sent via airmail this year that seemed to slip through customs (items imported from USA), I want to straighten this out, so do I just contact them ..?? How do I declare? Thanks

[jayjrc]

this thread has been really helpful

[Meeko]

So by charging the customers VAT you're basically working for the government and collecting the VAT for them to prevent yourself paying for it?

[fooddestroyer]

I am a UK customer currently in USA.

Quick question regarding import duty.

If I were to buy an odd bike from a dealer in US and have it shipped to another addreess in US would I get 'hit' for import duty if I then posted to UK?

thanks for your help.

[Zak_K]

Moving on to a more general and open question.. I've seen some stuff that I'd like from the States, obviously importing around Xmas time will be quite profitable so I'd like to have one parcel sent beforehand so I get the feel for it, before I make a big order.

How awkward / stressful is importing (from America), and how fool-proof is importing generally?

Zak.

[Brockkk]

Originally Posted by Zak_K

How awkward / stressful is importing (from America), and how fool-proof is importing generally?

Zak.

From what I have heard/read/seen importing is as only "foolproof" as the buyer makes it. There are a lot of ways to minimize risk and research the companies you are interested in. I guess that you will hopefully come across less scamers in America then say China if thats what you were trying to ask.

Originally Posted by Zak_K

I've seen some stuff that I'd like from the States, obviously importing around Xmas time will be quite profitable so I'd like to have one parcel sent beforehand so I get the feel for it, before I make a big order.

Asking for a sample order is also another way to help minimize risk and assess product quality if that's what you meant by making a small order.

Hope this helped. Goodluck.

[Exgate]

After I graduate from University in a year or so (here in the US), I am interested in moving to the UK and starting a business concerned with the importation and distribution of American bicycle parts. It has been interesting learning the niceties of the VAT, and this is my present understanding of the system:

1: Parts purchased and shipped from USA by way of a logistics company which also pays import taxes upon my behalf.
2: Upon entry to the UK, I am charged both the 1.8% import duty (assuming mutual MFN status between the US and UK) and 17.5% VAT.
3: Parts sold to UK retailers.

There are a few areas which continue to confuse me, however. In the United States, or at least in California where I live, sales taxes are only levied upon the final purchase of any given item by the consumer, in the form of the 8.75% state sales tax. Instead of this, is the VAT levied upon every stage of sale, from initial importation, again onto wholesale purchases, and finally again upon the consumer sale?

Is the claimed value of the products I plan to distribute the amount which I paid for them in the US, how much I plan to sell them to retailers, or the final consumer RRP of the item?

If I am charged VAT upon products as they enter the UK, am I liable to have the taxes I pay refunded, or are they just a cost which I would have to carry on to my customers?

[fooddestroyer]

Originally Posted by Exgate

After I graduate from University in a year or so (here in the US), I am interested in moving to the UK and starting a business concerned with the importation and distribution of American bicycle parts. It has been interesting learning the niceties of the VAT, and this is my present understanding of the system:

1: Parts purchased and shipped from USA by way of a logistics company which also pays import taxes upon my behalf.
2: Upon entry to the UK, I am charged both the 1.8% import duty (assuming mutual MFN status between the US and UK) and 17.5% VAT.
3: Parts sold to UK retailers.

There are a few areas which continue to confuse me, however. In the United States, or at least in California where I live, sales taxes are only levied upon the final purchase of any given item by the consumer, in the form of the 8.75% state sales tax. Instead of this, is the VAT levied upon every stage of sale, from initial importation, again onto wholesale purchases, and finally again upon the consumer sale?

Is the claimed value of the products I plan to distribute the amount which I paid for them in the US, how much I plan to sell them to retailers, or the final consumer RRP of the item?

If I am charged VAT upon products as they enter the UK, am I liable to have the taxes I pay refunded, or are they just a cost which I would have to carry on to my customers?

Interested in this post. very similar to my situation...

[Tom.tvctech]

thanks,useful