import vat and duty payment?

[lockys96]

i recieved a letter in the post that they are holding my package until i pay the customs vat and duty, and will charge a storage charge until its released.

 

thing is, the declared value was 21,212 yen, which is around £90.

 

they have a letter saying amount due £88?

 

the letter was from fedex, but the thing is, they have allready cleared the package at stansted (in-out same day), and delivered to my door on the 18th december.

 

this letter was dated 20th dec. so i cant make much sense of it, im telling myself just to ignore it.

 

????

[SUPRASUZUKI]

Sounds like they've sent a letter to you that should have got to someone else mate.

If the value of your goods is £90, how could you owe £88 in VAT & duty?

 

I'd be inclined to ignore it until you get a reminder.

[lockys96]

thats what i thought, and is what i will do.

[hogmaw]

Sometimes they also charge vat and duty on the cost of the shipping too, plus their own 'clearance fees'. It all adds up.

[peter richards]

fed ex are total a*seholes , they send their demands for import tax out a few weeks after the delivery , ok ive had debt companies sending me court proceedings , because fed ex cant be bothered to tell the company ive payed the bill, ive had to fax the debt company the bank statement showing ive payed.

any contact from fed ex nope w@nkers , oh but they were quick enough to contact me to say i owed them the money

[Supra-Dupra]

got the same ignored it, parcel delivered, that was 6 months ago.

[mr lover]

I had the same thing from DHL about a year ago, I forgot to pay and never heard a thing.

 

Let them chase, I bet they don't.

[mwilkinson]

Same problem here in a manner of speaking.

 

Recieved a parcel from RHD Japan. Including postage the items cost me £430. However RHD only declared 38,000 yen approx which came in at around £172, this included the postage charge.

 

The parcel arrived on the Thursday, no problems there!!

 

On Sat I got a call from a female who said that she was from Fedex and that I owed £387 on duty!! I told her this was a mistake as this was (as far as she was concerned) double the value of the goods + postage. She became confused at my refusal to pay so I asked her if she could prove who she was as I would be unwilling to hand over card details to a stranger on the phone!!

 

She became even more confused and stated that she would need to send a letter or email, so I opted for the email.

 

The email confirmed she was from Fedex, but then a 1 week battle ensued where I asked for them to rectify their calculations, based on a conversion rate of 222.89 yen and VAT at 17.5%, followed by 3.5% duty and 2.5% Fedex admin. Eventaully a bill of £80 was agreed, although this was still in excess of 50% of the declared value + postage.

 

The issue was with customs, The goods +postage is used to calculate duty with a VAT conversion fee of £7.19. In addition to this because of the parcels size I was charged additional freight charges. These combined spiraled the costs up!!! Damn penny pinchers.

 

For ref I got my wife involved who is a Chartered ACCA and CTA accountant and Tax Advisor, she informed me that these later charges were well within HMRC's remit to impose.

 

Still even with duty I saved myself in excess of £300 on UK prices, a 2 row Greddy FMIC, Greddy diversion plate, cusco master cyclinder brace, greddy upper rad pipe and greddy oil cap for £430, not bad at all

[lockys96]

seems the same as mine.

 

why should i have to pay extra handling fees, if fedex damand a cost to postage in the first place from the shipper.

 

what was the total weight of the package?

 

mine was 34kg.

[SimonB]

why should i have to pay extra handling fees, if fedex damand a cost to postage in the first place from the shipper.

QUOTE]

 

They do it because they have to pay the duty and then wait for you to pay them. The charge is supposed to cover their admin in having to chase you up to pay for it and the fact their money is tied up until you do.