Paying tax for parts imported from USA

[OPT]

Hi guys,

I've never imported any part from USA before but i am now interested in buying some bits from science of speed and Dali. How's the taxing work? Any info would be appreciated. Cheers.

[simonprelude]

Any parts I have received recently seem to have gone under the nose of the tax man, nothing so far.

[wgmr]

if it is smallish, the nice men form Dali put gift on it and it gets in ok, shhhhhhhh!

[jaytip]

It's hit and miss regarding the taxman.I have imported lots of stuff for the car in the past and yes as mentioned above the smaller parts have more chance of getting through.
Things like my suspension,bodykit and wheels i got stung on.
One way around it is to ask whoever you buy it from to put a lower price on it,thereby paying less tax.The only problem with doing that though is if the item gets lost of damaged,you will only recieve compensation for the quoted value.

[OPT]

Many thanks for your info.

[DTA-Motorsport]

It is indeed hit-n-miss with HMS Customs and Excise. As a general rule of thumb expect to pay approximately 24% of the total value of the shipment (this includes the shipping charge) for import duty and VAT. That's what I work with and whenever I do get stung it roughly works out to that percentage.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dan

[AR]

It is indeed hit-n-miss with HMS Customs and Excise. As a general rule of thumb expect to pay approximately 24% of the total value of the shipment (this includes the shipping charge) for import duty and VAT. That's what I work with and whenever I do get stung it roughly works out to that percentage.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Dan

That is about right on my experience.

[sportyking]

Most has been said but also the courier makes a difference as they often charge you for dealing with the tax issue and the "admin" charge varies enormously across them. I imported a load of Mugen stuff from King once and the kindly customs people stung me for the total invoice price which included about $250 shipping!! rebate, not a chance :(

Currently waiting to see if I get stung on a car cover from car Kingdom and about $100 of stuff from Dali :|

[710]

They add up the price (on the invoice or customs declaration), and the shipping worth.
Then they add about 12% import tax to those.
Then they take that total and add 17.5% VAT (or 21% here) on the whole thing. Yes, they are taxing the tax.
Get the sender to say it’s only worth $5. For some reason they don’t seem to mind you paying $100 to ship a $5 thing. So far I haven’t had any DHL planes crash with my stuff on board so haven’t had to use the insurance on the $5 thing.
If you send it as a “gift”, the gift also has to have a value. It’s whatever value the sender says it is. Like $5.
Many American companies won’t lie about the value, they think that’s wrong and don’t understand tax anyway. If that’s the case, print an invoice with some bogus invoice info on it, post the invoice (4 copies) to the sender in the USA and ask them to stick it on the outside of the box in that little plastic envelope. Make up a story like it has to be there for our Disneyland customs. Don’t explain what it is. They don't know where Disneyland em, Europe is anyway. Or even Canada for that matter (Except Mike at Dali, he knows). They fall for that all the time. Then when it arrives here, DHL looks (DHL-or whoever- now do all the work for customs now) at the 4 copies in the envelope, finds invoices saying $5 or whatever, and charges that. Even if the dopey sender has stated the full value, you can get DHL to change it back sometimes.
Customs never seem to open anything or do anything anymore; I suspect if they did, customs would go bankrupt really fast because of their high labour cost for not functioning. Pathetic. I have heard they even know they are pathetic, so they are charging import tax on 75% of the shipping costs instead of the full 100% value if the stated value is low/zero. Weird, eh? Haven’t had time to find out the facts yet though.

Another thing to try is the sender saying on the description it’s being returned to you for repair because it’s defective. Value zero. Then you only pay the tax on the shipping costs, and the tax on the tax and the shipping cost (VAT).

All this just goes to show that if customs aren’t willing to open every package and have an expert value the contents (and stopping the economy), then they shouldn’t be farting around charging import tax at all. It’s just waste of everyone’s time.

It also depends which EU country you are receiving it in. Besides the VAT being marginally different, the way the customs department functions in each country varies widely (although it’s supposed to be the same). Holland is conscientious, Belgium is chaos, UK is giving business a break, and I suspect Italy is, well…I know they let illegal aliens from Albania through for $1000 a person. So what would they do with a Dali shift knob?!

[jaytip]

I bought an Omega sea master from a shop in indonesia via the web(and yes it was a real one).They sent it as an analogue watch with a £100 value,saving me about 300 quid on the UK prices :D
I also had wheels from japan which cost £2,300 but the company that sent them listed the total value at 50,000 yen(approx £250) saving me A LOT of money on them.
It's good to know that there are people out there who are willing to help :D

[DTA-Motorsport]

Beware,

(1) Understating the value of the consignment means (as previously stated) that any future compensation claim is limited to the (under)stated amount only ... no exceptions as I've found out to my detriment.

(2) Purposely understating the value of a consignment can also land you in trouble with HMS Customs & Excise as they are fairly clued-up on car parts, etc. This is classed as "wilfull misrepresentation of goods value" and will not only attract a steep fine but you will also have to pay import duty and vat over the amount THEY think the consignment is worth - and if they claim a radiator cap is worth £300 then so be it.

(3) Bogus invoice information falls under the same category as described in (2) and should be avoided at all costs.

(4) Items imported under the guise of a "repair" are now tagged and their export back to the sender closely monitored. I didn't know this until about two months ago when I received a letter from some department within Customs and Excise who very accurately described the "damaged" item and where it has come from. They wanted to know whether the item had already been returned and if so whether they could have the export details ...

(5) The reason why a lot of US companies do not wish to under state invoice values is because they have a reporting duty - they must declare the total value of all exported goods which is then compared to their declared turnover value. Not sure whether all companies are subject to this regulation but most of the major tuning and accessories companies I deal with have stated this.

My usual advise to anyone wishing to import items is to add 24% to the total. They may or may not have to pay this but if you set the expectation correctly then you won't be too surprised when that bill lands on your doorstep. The above points are all made based on my personal experiences with import/export exercises and may not be representative of how Customs and Excise works all of the time - I may have just been unlucky ... but it pays to be warned.

Dan

[jaytip]

(2) Purposely understating the value of a consignment can also land you in trouble with HMS Customs & Excise as they are fairly clued-up on car parts, etc. This is classed as "wilfull misrepresentation of goods value" and will not only attract a steep fine but you will also have to pay import duty and vat over the amount THEY think the consignment is worth - and if they claim a radiator cap is worth £300 then so be it.


I beg to differ on this one,and Honda are a perfect example to quote.A plastic header tank will cost you more from HUK than a stainless example will cost you from SOS or Dali,and if customs argued otherwise,they would look pretty stupid in court.Same goes for wheels. A set of cheap chrome wheels may look expensive,where-as a set of lightweight volks for example,although looking quite plain(not yours Darren :wink: ) are quite an expensive set.
The fujitsubo inconel exhaust doesn't look like $11,000 worth of exhaust but thats what they cost.
It is EXTREMELY difficult to place value on car parts.

[NSXGB]

Recently bought a second hand part from a chap on Prime for $50 + $29 shipping. Just got a bill for £21 from customs/Parcel Force. Believe it or not £8 of that was a Parcel Force charge for paying the duty for me.
The part actually cost me in the end what I could have bought it here for. you live and learn.

On the flip side I have received a $200 parcel from MJ and not paid anything to HM Customs.


On the whole I have probably got away with it more than I have been caught out, so it's still worth doing.

[710]

Thanks Dan (DTA-Motorsports) for the facts. It’s always good to know them. I mean it.
But I don’t live in the real world (either that or the government doesn’t live in the real world…).
Your last paragraph is right too except whenever I’m legal I end up paying more like 42% and higher. Just like NSXGB, above. That’s WAY too much and has a negative effect on our economy (I do my best to promote our economy, of course).
But you’re right, expect to pay more anyway and it will still be a nice experience to receive your latest toy.
Dan’s point (1) is correct but (2) gives us all the opportunity to understate the value because we aren’t understating the value. The “sender” is. And the sender is outside EU jurisdiction. (4) They couldn’t track the direction of their own piss in the snow. Just say it was scrapped. Gone. By definition it was defective anyway. Their system is full off gapping holes. Save your money, take advantage of the bureaucratic gift they’ve given us.
Sorry Dan, I’m not flaming you, most of what you wrote is correct. I’m just telling my experience, like you. Hope this helps OPT save his money.
Peter