What items are VAT exempt in the UK?

A question about UK import tax/vat on items purchased from the USA?

• If I were to purchase a relatively inexpensive item of fishing tackle from the USA worth no more than £15.00GBP, would this be liable for UK import tax/vat on entering the country?

• Answer:

  there are some hideously complicated rules and regulations on what is and isn't liable for duty on import; I had to look into them when buying some software from the US. I rather lost the will to live over this and ended up phoning a nice man at the inland revenue who had the answer (which was 'no duty payable'). a quick google search reveals that the duty payable might be about 3.5%, but you'll need to research further. What the nice man at the revenue said was that if duty is payable, the post office collect it from you when they deliver the parcel. Seems almost sensible if it works!