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How to tell where your package is in customs?

Bought clothes from the USA, they arrived. Now DHL have sent me a bill for customs duty. Do I have to pay pay?

  • I'm not sure what the law is these days (hence why I'm asking), but I was under the impression that if you accept a package from the post office or some other delivery company and they don't ask you for the money owed on it before they hand the package over then they're screwed... Only, I bought a nice specialised jacket from a US website a while back. Cost me about 90 bucks inc. DHL express international postage. I was expecting there to be duty on it anyway since the shop I bought it from said they don't put down any money for duty and that it needs to be paid by the customer, but a week or so later the DHL delivery guys knocks on my door, I sign for the package and he leaves. At no point did he say anything about any extra charges... I just assumed I got away with it, or perhaps I'd ordered something that didn't get charged. Anyway like I said I got a bill through from DHL now, explaining everything. Which is all fine and dandy... But if they didn't ask for the money before they handed the package over I kind of feel "that's their fault". I expect I'll end up paying it just because I'm a nice guy but, hey, I figured I'd ask just in case it turns out I don't have to for whatever reason. The only other thing that bothers me about it is, the value of the goods was listed "for VAT purposes" as being £55 - the duty I have to pay is basically £9 worth of VAT (+ about £1.50 of DHL's "Administration fee" which I find somewhat of a cheek). This isn't going to break the bank, but it is wrong. The goods should have been valued at £49, because that's how much I paid for them at the time (it says so on my credit card statement). The $90 or so bucks I forked out got converted by my credit card company to £49 so surely at customs the value should in no way be £55! I don't know which idiot decided to add six pounds to the value of the order when it went through customs but I'm not letting that one pass, even if I DO pay for this which like I said I likely will, I want to pay the correct figure. By my calculations it should be about 9 pounds + DHL's admin fee. Not 10. Is there any particular way to go about this? Do I contact DHL and tell them they paid too much for the duty or should I go directly to HMR&C and get them to give me my quid back?

  • Answer:

    If you live in the UK and you buy goods from America, you will always get fleeced by customs/charges. The value of the goods is as it states on the paperwork - the paperwork will have been raised by the company you bought from. And of course the value of the goods depends what exchange rate was used. There will be a clause in the terms and conditions you accepted when you bought the goods that explains the DHL delivery. Customs do not have the space to store thousands and thousands of items until money has been collected/disputed, so they have to do delivery this way. You will easily spend a pound in phone call charges ringing around trying to get this one pound back! False economy.

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You paid £49 because your credit card company used it's own conversion rate. No doubt whoever valued your $90 item used a different conversion rate and got the figure £55. I suspect the "value of goods for VAT purposes" is worded as it is, and not as "what is the exact amount paid when converted at a rate of XX.XX for this every reason - because converting money from one currency to another can be slightly vague. Your bank, the customs lot or even DHL is they're involved probably use compeltely different figures. It could be that the HMRC's exchange rate changes once per year, and not daily like your credit card's exchange rate probably will. http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&propertyType=document&resetCT=true&id=HMCE_CL_001454 Also bear in mind that you may have to pay customes duty AND VAT. They are different things!!! $90 at todays rate on one website comes out as £52. If customs used a rate similar to this they only added £3..... or none at all if their rate was different still. Also, you've probably spent a quid on electricity typing that out!!! Give HMR&C a ring - on here you'll get a load of people that know nothing about tax telling you what to do. It's the blind leading the blind!

The Frog and Sausage

You have to pay. I have lots of goods sent from the U.S. sometimes I am asked for duty-sometimes not. Each courier seems to charge different admin costs,and the customs value is an approx cost put on by the vendor. some couriers ask for payment before delivery(Parcel-force are one), some such as DHL deliver the goods first then bill you after. The downside with the Parcel-force method is that it takes longer for the goods to get from their depot to you than from the US to here. With the pay after method,DHL are getting the goods to you ASAP

The Bricklayer

if they did not ask for you to pay before they gave you the package you should not pay them.

linda101

Don't pay. You are well within your rights not to.

keenybops1888

I was in the bank the other week and a girl in front owed £41 going up every day for being over drawn.The guy told her he would get the form for her to appeal.She told him with all the e-mails telephone calls etc it would cost her more.Plus the headache so she'd pay it.But for a £1.Well if they get away with that .How many other £1's are they nipping?Get a loan from the bank and take them on.

You do have to pay the duty but only on the value of the goods as shown by your payment. Your duty was first worked out at payment on the card. The DHL is calculated on the exchange rate at a later date. Send a copy of your card statement, blank out the number, and send it with your cheque for payment based on the payed amount. Add a covering letter to explain what you have done.

ANF

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