anyone get charged VAT on Chinese vapemail?

[phtumshk]

Sounds like a scam to me.
All the stuff Ive had from china (FT Focal Evkoo) has been with royal fail so its more likely they would put a card through your door.

[glen]

Little tip I just remembered, if possible if you can get the sender to put GIFT on the customs declaration, its very rare that you would get a customs charge, exclusive info from my old royal mail days, also try and get he sender to put nominal amount in the value of contents on the customs form, used this myself on non vape related stuff from the usa

[Deleted]

I think most already do that, if you look at FT's declaration, it's usually gift and nominal amount, whether the item is or not.

[glen]

I agree, never had a problem with fasttech etc, its more anything from usa etc, I think customs sniff round usa imports more than others

[lairey]

We get deliveries from China via DHL and they do leave recorded messages asking us to go to the website to pay the duty, but obviously, these are fairly large commercial deliveries. They will normally, if we don't go online to pay, just turn up at the shop with the delivery, and ask for either cash there and then (with an invoice) or for us to go online and pay the VAT and Duty, then calling HO to confirm receipt of payment, before they hand it over.

I have placed many personal orders direct with China and have never been charged, although to be fair, only one order has been shipped via DHL. US orders on the other hand...

[jed2705]

Just been charged £4.05 on a $30 transaction by DHL because it was marked as goods rather than a gift. Got a text message on the landline and like you thought it was a scam, DHL website even has a warning on it about people being scammed. Strange thing is that it didn't show up in the tracking information I had to locate the e-payments page and enter the tracking number to get any more information.

[GunJack]

import duty is payable on goods over about £15 in value, so I think the majority of us have just been very lucky thus far with our vapemail...... FastTech do help by usually putting no more than $18 as the value on the customs declaration, usually described as tools/toys/electronic components.

[buggritt]

It's the other way round. VAT above £15. Import duty starts after £135.

[GunJack]

Apr 30, 2015 7:07:22 GMT buggritt said:

It's the other way round. VAT above £15. Import duty starts after £135.

yup, quite correct, checked after posting

[buggritt]

Apr 29, 2015 18:18:07 GMT thatguy said:

The uk courier company should be the ones who contact you if VAT or customs is due. Royal mail for fasttech/focal/gearbest etc. Last I heard you got a card through the letterbox similar to one for a missed delivery detailing the fee due (including royal mails £8 handling charge - what a ripoff. £8 for a card through your letterbox tut tut).

If another UK courier is responsible for your deliveries, contact them directly and ask.

The people you should be annoyed with are HMRC. VAT is payable outside the EEC as above. However, even if you know this you can't pay it in advance to them, if you're not doing it as a business. The charge is to pay the people who are collecting, then accounting to HMRC, and it's not unreasonable. They aren't just putting a card through your door.The unreasonable bit is that you can't avoid it by paying up front. Not only that, HMRC is letting millions slip through their fingers by not having such a system as loads get through without being checked.

[Bobsbeer]

You will soon know if it is being held. Your parcel won't get delivered. So if you have everything you ordered, I would ignore it.

[phatfil]

Gotten to the bottom of this.. The X mrs Phatfil was round here yesterday and after many many years encouraging me to stop the smoking i was bending her ears about the wonderful world of vaping and was browsing the site angelcigs drooling over www.angelcigs.com/geyscano-50w-mechanical-mod-rda-black.html
While i went out on her chore (reason she was round) she bought one for me.and after listening to me whinge about the fasttech order and slow filling and shipping, got it with DHL delivery... so thats what the vat charge is for !! phew.. was bugging me..

[glen]

The question is who's gonna pay the vat

[phatfil]

i will, gladly..

[glen]

And thats the right answer