$200 Parcel £43.24 Import Tax - taking the piss of what!

Jee's, this is getting boring, going to try & claim what I can back, but the parcel was clearly marked Collectables :evil:

The clearance fee has also shot up from £8 to £13.50 - WTF??

This country is raping us with Tax wherever they can & it sucks the sweat of a dead man's nutsack

End of mini Rant

£13.50 for a clearance fee ?

They are taking the piss there - what are they claiming that the do for the £13.50 fee ?

I always ask sellers in the States to mark my items as gifts with a value of $35.00 - most are pretty good for this

Bollocks I've just bought two items from the states and have my eye in a couple more.

I've asked for the item to be marked with a code that was in a previous post regarding import tax stating 5% vat, see if it works, bet it doesn't.

I think HMRC take you for what they can knowing that most folk just can't be arsed to bother claiming it back,tossers!!'

I did get one with lower rate tax but generally they always charge full tax and know that you wont be arsed to fill in their shitty claims form and wait 3 months for a reply.

Its all a load of ****, i take the risk and get it marked low every time, i save more that way even if i did lose a parcel, imaging getting raped for £40 every time you buy from the US ect.

plantman said:

i take the risk and get it marked low every time

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I wondered about that. Marking down value means you can't insure it for the correct/full price?
Convicts don't pay import tax so it doesn't affect us

Damn it, i have a parcel arrived in the uk but it is being held while they bill me for charges. It's about £100 worth. If the tax is more than £20 they can keep it. Seriously.

PGowdy said:

Damn it, i have a parcel arrived in the uk but it is being held while they bill me for charges. It's about £100 worth. If the tax is more than £20 they can keep it. Seriously.

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I think it will all depend on how it has been marked but if it is marked as merchandise with a value of £100 then you will pay VAT (20%) on the value over £18 I think + this £13.50 charge so that way it will defo be over £20

i think i will put my 2 pence worth on this subject its absolute rubbish about paying 5% tax on collectable any one who has got away with the 5% is lucky vintage star wars toy action figures do not come under that commodity code ive rang the people that class these codes and wrote countless letters to customs and its a waste of time they tell me that any item over £40 is subject to vat of 20% i buy stuff from the US all the time i always factor the 20% + the parcel force fee in to my final price normally i dont get charged if the item is below is marked below £135 including postage but i had a shock recently i bought a item for $75 the postage was $35 the seller marked the packet value and i got stung for £22 which is a complete piss take this is over quarter the value id say ive bought at least 40 items this year from the US a lot of them have been big collections of loose figures

Thats a bag full of assholes. I won`t deal with the states unless they will mark it down. If there is something I really want and they are being a boy scout about it, I get it shipped to a friend in the states and then sent on.

FLETCH said:

i think i will put my 2 pence worth on this subject its absolute rubbish about paying 5% tax on collectable any one who has got away with the 5% is lucky vintage star wars toy action figures do not come under that commodity code ive rang the people that class these codes and wrote countless letters to customs and its a waste of time they tell me that any item over £40 is subject to vat of 20% i buy stuff from the US all the time i always factor the 20% + the parcel force fee in to my final price normally i dont get charged if the item is below is marked below £135 including postage but i had a shock recently i bought a item for $75 the postage was $35 the seller marked the packet value and i got stung for £22 which is a complete piss take this is over quarter the value id say ive bought at least 40 items this year from the US a lot of them have been big collections of loose figures

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Im sorry dude but there is a different angle on this. It does work as I have done it my self. I have claimed money back because I was able to prove that the item was a vintage collectible (over 30 years old) I quoted the tax code to the guy on the phone at HMRC and he assured me that this was correct and that I only had to pay 5%. I then received a refund. I wrote to them and included pictures of my item, provenance on its rarity and collectibility and quoted the code given to me by the guy at HMRC. Id like to think there is reason why my application was successful and yours wasnt. I find it hard to believe its purely down to luck. Others have also succeeded in claiming money back. I wonder if it is more to do with the nature of the items??

I totally hear what everyone is saying about the charges though. Extortionate!

hello Caswellbot im not doubting that you have made a claim you must have bought a very rare item the sellers i have bought from usually mark the packet as antique figures i have rang the comoditty code people 3 times they told me that vintage action figures for the 70s and 80s do not come under that code they said they would have to be from at least the 50s so good luck to anyone who can get there charges back you are right they are a totall piss take i hate paying these taxes and i especially hate paying the parcel force charge but i have given up with it and just pay them to get my items

Caswellbot said:

Im sorry dude but there is a different angle on this. It does work as I have done it my self. I have claimed money back because I was able to prove that the item was a vintage collectible (over 30 years old) I quoted the tax code to the guy on the phone at HMRC and he assured me that this was correct and that I only had to pay 5%. I then received a refund. I wrote to them and included pictures of my item, provenance on its rarity and collectibility and quoted the code given to me by the guy at HMRC. Id like to think there is reason why my application was successful and yours wasnt. I find it hard to believe its purely down to luck. Others have also succeeded in claiming money back. I wonder if it is more to do with the nature of the items??

I totally hear what everyone is saying about the charges though. Extortionate!

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Chris, do you know if this also apply for other countries? I recently payed 157 euro on taxes and customs fees to recieve a vintage MOC because they charged 21% VAT... I was ****ing pissed but i paid as i bought the item on the Bay and i did not wanted to have i send back to the seller. But reading this there might be a chance i could recove rsoem off those funds....


Cheers, Dennis.

I think the lower rate does apply on vintage items, but to actually get them to apply that rate is a rarity, to fill in a claim form could take ages as they would ask for proof ect, then be months in replying.

The only issue with having it marked low is the seller cant claim on insurance if it gets lost or damaged, so i understand why they wont mark down price, you might be best off hitting a marginal charge like marking it at say $65, you still get a charge but customs are less wary of people importing.

i mean to buy a load of stuff that costs $50 in postage but has a value of $30 may raise suspicions lol.

ive also had a 2nd tier of tax, you can get charged

tax = 20% in the UK

Import duty = i think applies to items over £150?

Parcelfarce handling fee which can be £8.50 or £13.50 depending on how much customs they pay and how big the parcel is.

I got stung recently after I bought an incomplete sand crawler from the states. Even the bloke behind the post office counter thought that it was a piss take. Made a rule to buy from the UK only now..

Thanks for all the input & strong views on this subject guys, looks like I am not the only one who has feeling about this subject, got my parcel today but I will be phoning customs tomorrow to try & get the code I need for vintage collectables, I will then ask any seller I buy from outside the EU to add it in large print to the package, I am in all honesty crapping it as I have committed myself to buying a large collection from a buddy in the US which will be a bit by bit thing as I simply do not have funds for such a large buy in one go, he is thankfully willing to work with me on it regarding on how it is packaged & labelled, but I also have 2 other items on hold awaiting postage from the states till I can get this code from customs.

I for one feel that we are being well & truly taken the living piss out of, its not like this country does not tax us enough on everything else, I filled my car up yesterday & with this on my mind asked the filling station manager just how much they actually made per litre on fuel, I was little surprised to hear that they in fact make between .5 & .7 pence per litre, I used to smoke till 2 years ago & used to (due to nessecity) buy all my roll up tobacco from the black market, the packs I like were Drum light blue (mild) they stated packed in Nottingham & I then lived in Leicester some 35 miles from Nottingham, now the packs I got were not even available in the UK for sale, I would pay £6 for a packet that was packed 35 miles away, then went all the way to Dubai & back again for that price, yet if I wanted the equivalent pack here I would have been paying £13.70 - WTF is going on in this bloody country - its lost the ****ing plot entirely IMO.

The American don't even have to pay ANY import tax & with the UK seemingly trying to follow along in the shadow of the US just when do they plan to start treating us like human beings?? - I for one am looking forward to that day that will never come.

Do all countries in europe suffer the same tax fees?

From what I have been told I presume so

Update (Useful one 2) :lol:

Right after a rather contrived call to HMRC I have had success!

If importing SW toys & they confirm to the below criteria they will qualify for the 5% import tax bracket -

Must be -

30 years old
In original packaging :?
& no longer in production

If so you can add this to your parcel & (in theory & with an insane amount of luck) you will only get charged the lower Tax bracket of 5%

commodity code 9705000090

Failing this & they do charge you, you WILL qualify to make a claim for the over tax via claim form BOR286 which you can download & print @ - www.hmrc.gov.uk

I hope this will help others out & that I get my monies back, about bloody time for a victory for us collectors Vs the customs.

What do you mean "add it to your parcel"?
Write it on? ie, get the sender to write it on the box?? Do you just write those numbers. Nothing else?

Good info! Tho most of the things i buy are from the mid-80s... :roll: :lol:

Ask for it to be added to the customs decorations form when the seller sends it out, though adding it in LARG letters to the actual parcel can't hurt now can it!, would make it easier for the bloody dim-whits at HMRC & parcelforce to notice it & less chance of us getting ass raped :lol: