Custom's Charges

[Sirstoaf]

I recently did a flight to calais, and on our return was greeted by Immigration control, which in itself was no problem. But I was somewhat surprised when my club then invoiced me for a £15 'customs fee'. I have searched the net to see if this was a legitimate charge, but have found nothing so far. I would be interested to know if anyone else knows the answer or has had the same issue...:confused:

[Mariner9]

Crikey! :mad:

Never experienced that before.

From the AIP:


9.4 Charges are payable for the attendance of HMRC staff outside certain authorised hours for any duties other than the acceptance
of inward report of the aircraft, and the clearance of passengers and their baggage. Details of such charges are published in Customs
and Excise Notice No. 112 (January 2004) or they may be obtained from the HMRC National Advice Service (NAS). Tel: 0845-010 9000.
A charge may also be levied if attendance by Immigration staff is required; contact the local Immigration Office for further information.

(My bolding)

[BackPacker]

Any chance that this is the clubs charge for faxing the GAR form onwards? Bit steep for that, I know, but in aviation nothing comes cheap... Who knows, maybe the club even offered the officials a cuppa?

[effortless]

Ask the club what for. I have never been charged except once when customs had to drive all the way out to meet me after a forced diversion. Even then they were top blokes.

[modelman]

Don't forget your fuel duty drawback-it may lessen your pain:)

MM

[ifonly]

This occurred at a club I was with a few years ago. I spoke to a local customs man who assured me they did not charge anyone. It turned out it was a fee imposed by the airfield for faxing the GAR. The customs man told me that in law it is the responsibility of the pilot to report, but that if an airfield wanted to make it part of their conditions of use that was up to them....... I moved to another airfield and send the GAR myself !

[Sirstoaf]

Thanks for your thoughts on this peeps. Unfortuanately I did'nt pick up any fuel MM, so no pain lessening there! I questioned it today, and evidently, it turns out to be a fee charged by the tower for dealing with the flight plan and faxing off to customs.So you guys were right! The funny thing is, I have done a few trips involving flight plans and customs, and have never come across this one before. It must be a CAA approved fax machine! :rolleyes:

Cheers

Stoaf

[Mariner9]

I did'nt pick up any fuel MM, so no pain lessening there

Drawback is available on your entire departure (from the UK) fuel, not fuel picked up overseas. Surely you departed with some fuel?

[BackPacker]

it turns out to be a fee charged by the tower for dealing with the flight plan and faxing off to customs.

I once was charged 60 eurocent for the telephone call that the A/G operator made to open my flight plan. That's reasonable. But 15 UKP for sending two or three faxes?:eek:

[dublinpilot]

Learn how to do them yourself. It's much easier, and you know it has been done.

If you get stopped by customs/special branch/immigration and they claim that they never got your notification, they aren't likely to accept the "The guy in the tower was supposed to do it!" defence.

They will point out that it is your responsibility to ensure that it is done, and not the guy in the tower.

Even if the guy in the tower does it correctly, and customs/special branch/immigration lose the form, you have no way of proving it was sent.

If you do it yourself, you can keep a copy of the fax confirmation page with you and politely wave it in their face while asking for an apology or their managers name. ;)

dp

[Sirstoaf]

Ok, so Mariner9, no-one has explained this fuel drawback stuff to me before. Perhaps you could enlighten me? I knew you could claim something back if you re-fueled outside of the UK. I have to admit, the phrase 'stitch-up' keeps popping into my head....:{
And dublinpilot your advice is being heeded!!

[justinmg]

What ever is in your tanks when you make your final departure for abroad is what you can claim for. If you did not fuel out there you must have been full when you left. That will eaisily be more than £15 back!

[Mariner9]

Just to expand a bit on Justin's reply:

You are allowed to reclaim the duty paid on all fuel in your aircrafts tanks on departure abroad from your final airfield in the UK. The current rates are 30.03 pence per litre of Avgas, or 50.35 pence per litre for Mogas. So, say for example you depart with 160 litres of Avgas, you can reclaim £48.04 (160 x £0.3003)

You have to sumbmit form HO60, available somewhere on the HMCE website (or I can email you a copy if you PM your email address) HMCE will then post you a cheque.

More information on the HMCE website (http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000203&propertyType=document#P48_3469)

Edited to correct duty rates (Thanks Champ :ok:)

[BackPacker]

Search PPRuNe (or Google) for terms like Customs and Excise, or the HO60 form. It's been discussed here before.

No duty, so no drawback, on Jet-A though. Only on Avgas 100LL and mogas.

The only time I ever checked this out, about a year ago, I called HMCE about this. They posted me the HO60 form because apparently it is (was) not available online. At least not officially. And the other thing is that they can *only* post you a cheque. Cashing that cheque here in the Netherlands would have cost more than the cheque itself would be worth... They don't do bank transfers, credit your credit card, paypal or any other "modern" way of transferring money.

[ChampChump]

I think you'll find the current rate is 30.03p per litre.

Claims processed fairly painlessly, although there's no feedback or indication of progress; you just sit and wait and hope the cheque arrives. About a month or so....

[ifonly]

"You are allowed to reclaim the duty paid on all fuel in your aircrafts tanks on departure abroad from your final airfield in the UK."

Not strictly true - if drawback has already been claimed on some of that fuel it cannot be claimed again. So if you take the aircraft abroad immediately after it has returned from abroad, and the previous occupant has claimed the drawback, you can only claim on how much you put in.