Quick customs help please lads.

_Lee_

_Lee_

Sith Lord
Joined
May 7, 2008
Messages
2,442
Hi all,

Ok, not technically vintage but i need some help with something and i know loads here buy from the USA.

Im purchasing a cast of Han Solo in carbonite to use of my lifesize prop build which is costing me $375 shipped. I need to know how i can get round customs fees. I dont want to be get stung and be paying another £100 to those ****ers on top of the original cost :evil: Do i have it marked as a gift??

Any help is much appreciated.
 
Your best bet maybe to get the seller to declare as a gift but with the correct value for insurance purposes. You may still have to pay the handling fee plus 2% of the value but that's alot better than VAT.
 
Gift at $30. Lee, have you seen any of Adywan's Empire Strikes Back Revisited - might be worth looking at his facebook page as he has just finished creating a new version of the Carbonite block (the one in the actual movie has a continuity error with Han Solo's shirt). But it might give some pointers on resin / fiberglass quantities, etc

https://swrevisited.wordpress.com/2015/09/13/han-in-carbonite-sculpt-completed-wampa-started/
 
Sorry Lee but I think you're stuck on this one. It's a new item, so you can't use the lower tax rate code for vintage items. It will also no doubt be massive and heavy, so nobody is going to believe it is only worth £15/$20 (the threshold for import tax.) And if you have it marked at $20 that's all you're insured for, which I personally would not risk on a fragile $375 item.

Having it marked as a gift only raises the threshold to £30/$50.
 
Thanks lads. The item itself is $300-whats the customs / vat charge on that?
 
It's around £8 handling fee plus 20% VAT. So you're looking at an extra $125 USD.
 
From a quick read it's $300 + customs duty (which they say depends on the item and country of origin) + VAT at 20% so I guess around an extra £80-100 but without knowing the exact customs charge thats the best I can work out. I've never ordered anything that value from the states but have been lucky with stuff approaching £100 and not been charged anything.
 
Lee, I believe it could be marked as worth £0 and you'd still pay as, if I recall correctly, in theory customs can add the value of shipping to the total of the declared goods. I guess the theory is that if you pay £90 for something and shipping is £10 it's worth £100 as that's what you paid.

The charges would be:

£8 handling (that's rises of fees paid out reach a certain threshold but not sure what it is)
20% VAT (of total if they're feeling nasty)
5% import duty (as above)

But that really is worst case scenario.

To be honest, in such a case I'd declare the full value and even include evidence of the value inside the shipping container (which may be opened for such a large unusual item) and hope Customs are feeling generous and only apply charges to the value of the goods.

Just remind yourself of how bloody awesome the finished product will be!
 
Not sure if this would be feasible due to shipping costs but if you know someone in Ireland you could get it shipped to them & they forward it on to you. Ireland don't have our Customs fee's so you'd avoid that but obviously you would have to pay to get it shipped from Ireland to you.
I had a MOC shipped from US to Ireland and then on to me. Had no problems with customs :D
Jimi
 
Jimi Woolley said:
Not sure if this would be feasible due to shipping costs but if you know someone in Ireland you could get it shipped to them & they forward it on to you. Ireland don't have our Customs fee's so you'd avoid that but obviously you would have to pay to get it shipped from Ireland to you.
I had a MOC shipped from US to Ireland and then on to me. Had no problems with customs :D
Jimi
Click to expand...

Was just reading this and not clear. Are you saying you can buy items from the states post them to Ireland and all you have to pay is postage? from the states. And no import tax or custom fees? Will it matter if the items are new or second hand?
 
yoda said:
Was just reading this and not clear. Are you saying you can buy items from the states post them to Ireland and all you have to pay is postage? from the states. And no import tax or custom fees? Will it matter if the items are new or second hand?
Click to expand...

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, you would avoid paying customs fee's but you would have to pay for 2 lots of shipping (US to ireland then Ireland to UK)
I'm not sure on the details but it may be worth googling.

My only experience was this....
I commented on a for sale post on Facebook based in the US. Someone in Ireland I had previously bought from PM'd me saying the seller was a good friend of his, was trust worthy & if I wanted he would act as a go between so I could avoid paying customs fee's. I went ahead with it and everything went fine. No custom's fees paid 8)
 
Jimi Woolley said:
yoda said:
Was just reading this and not clear. Are you saying you can buy items from the states post them to Ireland and all you have to pay is postage? from the states. And no import tax or custom fees? Will it matter if the items are new or second hand?
Click to expand...

Sorry if I wasn't clear. Yes, you would avoid paying customs fee's but you would have to pay for 2 lots of shipping (US to ireland then Ireland to UK)
I'm not sure on the details but it may be worth googling.

My only experience was this....
I commented on a for sale post on Facebook based in the US. Someone in Ireland I had previously bought from PM'd me saying the seller was a good friend of his, was trust worthy & if I wanted he would act as a go between so I could avoid paying customs fee's. I went ahead with it and everything went fine. No custom's fees paid 8)
Click to expand...

Ok thanks that's good to know. I have family in the north and south of Ireland. The north has UK postage fees. If it worked for you and its that straight forward and saves anyone having to pay unnecessary fees I could try and help. But as I said I am not familier with the process.
 
Having family in the North and South of Ireland is win-win, particularly if they are close to the border. You could get it shipped to the South (no UK customs), then get them to pop over the border and post in the UK mail for the normal Royal Mail costs. I presume there's nothing stopping you doing that :D

If someone on the forums would consider relocating their family to over there, that would be a great gesture for the rest of the guys on here :lol:
 
Lee - get it declared as art - specifically hand made art. This attracts a much lower import cost - no duty and 5% VAT I think.

It doesn't have to be original art (painting or whatever), as hand pulled prints attract lower duty too. This is basically a hand made multiple sculpture if anybody questions it.

Give it a quick google to get the code to use.
 
maxf said:
Lee - get it declared as art - specifically hand made art. This attracts a much lower import cost - no duty and 5% VAT I think.

It doesn't have to be original art (painting or whatever), as hand pulled prints attract lower duty too. This is basically a hand made multiple sculpture if anybody questions it.

Give it a quick google to get the code to use.
Click to expand...

Is this the code Max?

IMPS05200

Can it be insured to $300??

Cheers bud

Lee
 
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