Import duties
 

I have ordered a new exhaust from USA for my Vans RV6, which has been finally delivered via USPS to customs. According to the Post office they are holding the item and sending me a letter with details of how to pay the charges. I have never had to pay anything before from parts bought from USA. Is it something to do with the value or what. I have bought bits from Aircraft Spruce and they just came to the house in the usual way, via UPS or Fed Ex !

I believe the customs web site has a list of items subject to import duty - you may be able to avoid this by having an end use number.
Virtually all goods will be subject to 20% vat.
You are lucky if you have avoided this in the past. ;)

Imports into UK from outside EU are subject to Customs Duty and to UK import VAT. In the past the process for intercepting inbound mail and collecting these taxes was ad-hoc; hence most of the time people did not get charged.


The system has now significantly improved, and most imported goods of any size / value will get held until all taxes are paid. You need to factor those costs (in addition to postage) when thinking of buying something mail-order from abroad.


Take a look at the HMRC site

There is a set minimum for these duties. Under that minimum customs simply doesn't bother. In the Netherlands there's actually two minima. Under 22 euro you pay nothing, above 22 euro you only pay VAT (at 6% or 21%, depending on the product) and above 150 euro you pay VAT plus import duty. Import duty varies heavily by product and the import duty % is mainly a political decision - to a large extent influenced by the desire to protect our own internal market.

Don't expect that you just have to pay the VAT and import duty though. The post office/shipper will want to have some money off you as well for the handling/invoicing of the VAT/import duty. In NL, this is around 7.5 to 12.5 euros from memory.

Oh, and everything is based on the "declared value" as listed by the shipper.

On the bright side, if Aircraft Spruce did things right, they have invoiced you tax-free.

As others say you might have ordered parts from within EU before, then you do not have to pay anything extra, or you have just been lucky.

Here in Norway which is outside EU we allways have to pay when ordering from abroad, and all the fees makes things very expensive when buying medium-priced items(40-100EUR). When buying expensive (>100EUR) items the fees constitute a smaller share and the main extra cost is the 25% VAT.

Abolishment of import duties is one of the things that TTIP is trying to establish. However, from what I can see, VAT will still be an issue in transatlantic trade.

https://www.government.nl/topics/tti.../benefits-ttip

Ah yes, I usually find I have £1 duty to pay and an £8 administration charge. Will we have the same to look forward to for European goods if Britain votes 'Leave'?

I guess that would depend on whether Britain would be able to negotiate a trade agreement with the EU, with regards to import tariffs and VAT-free invoicing.

If Britain were to leave the EU outright, without some sort of replacement framework of trade agreements and such in place, then the answer to your question would be "yes".

Madness to have a referendum when nobody can even set out what the alternatives involve. Sorry to draw the thread off topic.

All very boring and annoying ! I received the letter from Parcel force and the amounts are Customs duty £37.70, Import VAT £225.71 clearance fee £13.50.

So, adds up on the cost of the $1500 new exhaust.

You should pay VAT on light aircraft parts. Not duty. Royal Mail always get it wrong and if you query they hit you with 6 weeks plus delay to 'send back to HMRC'.

The £13.50 charge is more expansive then Fedex. Shipping with Fedex is more expensive however you can track and they ship out to you straight away. Rather then send you a letter about charges.

Saying that Fedex are not always 100% correct.

End-use number helps but not always. The last time I used Royal Mail they charged duty saying I had not put end-use number on parcel. When I collected it the number was in large font on every face of the parcel!
DON'T USE ROYAL MAIL or PARCEL FORCE for imports. Domestic they don't know what they are doing international imports.

Within the last few weeks HMRC have change the rules on duty free aircraft parts import. You can do up to three a year. More and and you need end-use number - which they expect you to have VAT account etc also...

I just imported $1450 worth of aircraft parts to the US (the other way around), and no tax or duty was payable (zero). Civil aircraft parts are exempt from US duty, and no sales tax is collected.

Having obtained an export certification I'm now trying claim back VAT paid initially because I collected the parts from the factory in Germany. It's really a ridiculous time and money wasting situation with VAT and duty in most European countries. Several times I've had stuff shipped from Europe to my US address, to avoid VAT, then hand carried it back across the Atlantic for use in Europe.

You do realise that you've just publicly confessed to tax fraud, don't you!

PDR

I don't believe that's the case, but don't care much either way. The goods were imported to the US, used in the US, then carried to an EU country for use on a trip, then re-exported to the US. It surely would have been easier to drop ship locally, and then export to the US after two weeks, but it's too much hassle to reclaim VAT that way.

All that is required is for the package and shipping docs to specify the correct commodity code and the shipping company to fill in HMRC form C88 (SAD). Vans Aircraft and Fedex get it right every time.

Hmm... I seem to remember a colleague trying to claim sales tax back on something purchased in Florida. I don't think she managed either.