UK VAT/Duties Question - Mailing Wedding Album

I have a wedding album i've done for a customer that needs to be sent to the UK. It will have a declared value of perhaps GBP1000 and be marked as a gift. Does anyone know if there will be duties, VAT, or anything else for them to pay?

Sorry, at that value, yes.

HMRC page

Thanks DW. Doesn't matter too much, the customers pays the charges before the album gets delivered, just an annoyance really. Well an annoyance and a GBP100 or so bill.

UK VAT is 17.5%, so (on GBP1000) they'll get a VAT bill of GBP175.

Plus they may be charged duty as well which could be another GBP80-120, and most carriers will make a service/admin charge of around GBP18 to add insult to injury.

That's quite a bill out of the blue.

So far as the duty/VAT goes it would be better declaring your replacement cost, rather than 'retail' value ...however the couple may then question their cost of the album.

Rob

I don't want the customer to know the cost to me, since they of course paid a good markup - i'm not sure but 2-3x. I don't want them to pay more than they need to in vat or duties too. I'll figure out a middle ground.