Clueless People- Customs Duty??????

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Originally Posted By: expat
I would guess that the complaining Brits are used to ordering from EEC counties, and not being charged duty.

How do you ship?

I often orderfrom the US, If the shipment is sent via USPS I VERY seldom get charged Duty or Tax.

But many US shippers ONLY use UPS or Fed Ex, They calculate Taxes, Duty etc. (Even when Duty is not applicable) and charge a Brokerage fee on top.
Very often the fees exceed the value of the shipment!

As a counter point, yesterday I received a bunch of Reare earth magnets from China, $1.75 including shipping!!!


Brits always pay Value Added Tax on every import (every sale of anything, whether in the UK itself or imported, actually) of 17.5%. The item could easily be Duty Free, but they probably are complaining about the VAT, which is collected by customs upon import, and is the reason for all inspections, brokerage, COD fees (because the shipper collects at the door for payments it made on the importer's behalf in order to clear the shipment so it can be actually delivered) and the high cost of shipping (since the shipper is the one who ultimately deals with it).

So, it's irrelevant whether the item is duty-free or has a tariff of some kind applied to it, because for 100% of imports there will be customs fees and shipper's fees to deal with customs and paying out and collecting fees for the importer.

Every Brit KNOWS they have to pay VAT, so if you are getting bad feedback over added fees and VAT you are somehow attracting bad buyers. Find out why and fix it.
 
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In the UK the VAT is hidden in the retail price when you buy in a store.
I can imagine how someone might forget this, and be a little surprised when VAT is added to a price.

That said:

I am a Brit by birth and a duel UK / Canadian citizen. But I have to say there is an 'element' in British society that would screw the system and screw you, the vendor, if they think they might have half a chance to save a $.

THAT IS NOT EVERYONE!

But there is a faction that think that way.
 
It's very expensive to get stuff from the USA here, and a lot don't even ship to NZ. I get my BMW motorcycle parts from the UK, under a week and freight is very reasonable.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
I believe if the seller sends something along that says the duty on the item was paid when the item arrived in N.A., then there's no further duty to be paid when the item crosses into Canada.

I don't do ebay, but there are some places that know what they're doing or use a customs broker, which helps. For car parts, if they're made in the NAFTA zone, they're duty free for personal use within the NAFTA zone, so if what I want is made in Mexico or the States, I'm fine. And yes, when it comes to some cheap items, the customs people seem to do whatever they feel like.
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I order all my tea from the States, and that has come duty free for over 15 years. As for the OP's problems, people are silly. When one orders from another country, one takes the risk of paying duty. If there was no duty, I'd order a few truckloads of booze and smokes from North Dakota and sell them on the street corner here and retire within a week.
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I get many tools shipped from USA Ebay. I'm grateful that there are sellers still shipping to my country. Locally, many of the same tools would cost about double, even after paid shipping.

Singapore does have import tax, but for goods over SGD400 only.
 
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