Shipping to UK from US, Import AND Export duty?

I just shipped a lens to the UK and the buyer was hit with a duty fee of 96gbp. That was this past week.

I checked my bank account today and UPS hit my account with an unknown fee for $200+ referencing the very same tracking number.

Do we both have to pay duty in the range of $200/per person to send something to the UK? Something seems awfully wrong here.

looks like they have charged it to you, did the buyer refuse to pay.
Only one of you should pay, usually the guy importing it.

Yeah it looks like you were both charged the same amount. something wrong

Well, originally when I received an email from the buyer stating that he was charged the duty, I wanted to help him out so I refunded him $100usd.. now I'm down $300usd. He's been really good on communicating so hopefully we can come to an understanding before monday.

I hope I didn't just pay for shipping and duty to the UK.. that kind of makes my sale pointless.

Hi guys.

I was the buyer & whilst not sure of the exact rules etc. I did feel that there may be a chance that I would personally get hit with value added tax (VAT) & import duty (which came to £96 or around $190).

Charles was fantastic in his response to this & refunded me half the duty via Paypal. This was something that I didn't either ask or expect Charles to do & can only commend him on his actions.

As I said, I am in no way an expert on Customs & Excise, however I cannot see why UPS should invoice Charles for anything other than the original shipping costs.

I shall do some digging this side of the pond & see if I can come up with the correct answers (I wasn't even sure if I should have been due to pay the £96 that was requested as the VAT & duty when the guy delivered the lens, as it is second user equipment that I have purchased from a private individual).

It was in fact UPS that I had to pay the fees to obefore the delivery guy would release the parcel.

If the $200 fee is correct, I shall go halves with Charles without any hesitation, although I do feel that there is a mistake somewhere along the line.

If anyone can chip in with some advice for both myself & Charles it would be most appreciated.

I have just looked at the UK Customs & Excise website (link below) & from what I have just read, it would suggest that I am the only one that should pay any duty (which makes sense).

http://customs.hmrc.go​v.uk …CT=true&id=HMCE​_CL_001454

Tiesse wrote in post #3750213
Hi guys.

I was the buyer & whilst not sure of the exact rules etc. I did feel that there may be a chance that I would personally get hit with value added tax (VAT) & import duty (which came to £96 or around $190).

Charles was fantastic in his response to this & refunded me half the duty via Paypal. This was something that I didn't either ask or expect Charles to do & can only commend him on his actions.

As I said, I am in no way an expert on Customs & Excise, however I cannot see why UPS should invoice Charles for anything other than the original shipping costs.

I shall do some digging this side of the pond & see if I can come up with the correct answers (I wasn't even sure if I should have been due to pay the £96 that was requested as the VAT & duty when the guy delivered the lens, as it is second user equipment that I have purchased from a private individual).

It was in fact UPS that I had to pay the fees to obefore the delivery guy would release the parcel.

If the $200 fee is correct, I shall go halves with Charles without any hesitation, although I do feel that there is a mistake somewhere along the line.

If anyone can chip in with some advice for both myself & Charles it would be most appreciated.

I have just looked at the UK Customs & Excise website (link below) & from what I have just read, it would suggest that I am the only one that should pay any duty (which makes sense).

http://customs.hmrc.go​v.uk …CT=true&id=HMCE​_CL_001454

Hi

I import lots of stuff

the person in the UK is liable for TAX & VAT on any import into the uk above a value of £18. You have to pay even it it is second hand, because tax & vat have not been paid on the item in the uk before.

in some circumstances if the buyer refuses to pay or the sender has ticked a certain box on their shipping forms saying they will pay the tax, that sometimes happens. the seller should get a full refund from shipping company.

It looks like it is a mix up that you have both been charged. Only the UK buyer should have been charged. I think lenses are 6.7% Tax & 17.5% Vat on the whole amount inc shipping, + brokerage fee from shipping company.

when buying from USA factor in approx 25% for lenses tax & vat and you wont be for wrong.

Not camera related - but I had a similar experience when buying a coin from Perth Mint in Australia. The coin itself was worth $30 Australian - I paid a total of about $45 Aus (incl shipping via FedEx). When it arrived in the UK, FedEx charged me about £22 (about $55 Aus) for taking delivery! This included their 'handling fee' and a bit of duty/tax. Not only had Fedex charged me a handling fee in the UK, but they had actually charged Perth Mint about $70 to ship the coin. All in all a very expensive lesson for me in propping up FedEx. I will ensure that I never use them again. Seems such a rip-off - on both sender and receiver.

Just got off the phone with UPS. Here's what happened.

I shipped the package out from UPS with a weight of 7lbs. UPS Store weighed it and shipped it out. When the item was being evaluated at customs they changed the declared weight of the box to 18lbs based on the dimensions of the box. They refunded my original shipping charge and re-charged me based on the new weight.

UPS and all the major shippers will ship on either the volumetric weight or the actual weight, which ever is the larger - the reason is that airplanes have a finite payload and a large but very light item takes up more than its fair space.

The formula UPS use is (length x width x height ) / 6000 where L, W & H are measured in centimeters. Therefore you have to be careful with your packing, especially on very light items.

The carrier will take the package through customs and reserve the right to charge you for paying customs duty on your behalf and to reclaim this from you.

There shouldn't be any additional fees at export apart from a periodic fuel surcharge depending on how close they are to revising their fees.

ventowtf wrote in post #3760516
Just got off the phone with UPS. Here's what happened.

I shipped the package out from UPS with a weight of 7lbs. UPS Store weighed it and shipped it out. When the item was being evaluated at customs they changed the declared weight of the box to 18lbs based on the dimensions of the box. They refunded my original shipping charge and re-charged me based on the new weight.

Charles

It was very well packaged! Could you let me know if the new costs are much more money? If so, I'd like to help.

Email me the new details.

Regards

Tony