sorry if this has been covered but I have not yet looked into the subject of being taxed on parcels received and would like to understand the system. I have just received a parcel and had to pay 64€. These were gifts from family.
Can anyone explain the system please - or point me to a source which can?
thanks in advance
You are now getting things from outside Europe. So you have to pay TVA, import duty and often an administrative charge too. It is possible to buy things VAT free with some companies, so only pay this once.
This explains
thanks Jane - but it only says that they can charge what they want, if they want. There is no clear info here on what kind of goods will be charged for or their value or what they will be used for. It also says that the douane ‘can’ charge VAT but not that they must. I received a parcel of used toys (I am a collector) from my son. The package weighed 11kg. and had an indicated value of £100. They are asking me to pay 64€.
At least there should be published guidelines so we can at least try to form an effective workaround !
cheers
geoff
If you look you will find the information. There are huge manuals of product codes which detail the customs duty which should be applied to different items. TVA is in general 20%. And the admin fee is normally between 5 and 25€ But it is a bit of a lottery.
This might help you
When things are sent the customs form has to be carefully filled in to avoid as many charges as possible. So gifts with no value usually arrive ok.
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I avoid completely now buying from the UK, except for downloaded books, but I do use Amazon there as a sounding board to find things that I want before searching FR and DE for them, and I saw something yesterday priced at around £60 which had a stated ‘delivery’ charge of 40%. Before Brexit it would have been free or no more than about £5
@cat…isn’t this a duplicate thread on topic for parcels …New 1st July postal charges and processes …and sending parcel to uk
sorry; my fault if it is a duplicate. Can you tell me where the original thread is to be found please
I have just received a small package of wool valued at 36 euros plus postage and packing from UK and it came through with no problems.
Interestingly I called the company, Wool Warehouse, to see if they had had any problems with France and the young lady said no.
However, she did say that they were having a huge amount of problems with Ireland and they were refunding the costs on production of a 'photo of the documentation.
I told her about ISOS and she said would pass it to her management.
It seems that many UK companies which are registered for paying VAT with foreign countries just have not heard about these changes.
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I received a parcel last week from the UK, contents valued at £148, about £5 p&p. It was the size of a 2"-thick A4 book. It was just left in our letterbox.
It just feels like “tax”, and more middlemen creaming off transaction charges off any transaction that is proportionally beyond reasonable for the value of the transaction. This seems to be a growing trend, and not just of the state but of essential things like financial services. And not just in the UK, but in France (and who knows where else) too.
Somehow it seems around the arrival of Trump, the world went backwards in terms of free trade. Economists seem to have said for the last forever, free trade is good and ends up costing everyone less due to efficiency. Seems we’ve gone back on that. And now personal liberties getting attacked in the name of various “threats” they somehow don’t seem to be given back when the latest version of “threat” disappears.
this is very helpful: