waiting for customs chargers/duties!

[denkyembuda]

i order 10 small size video digital cameras from taiwan as a gift to my familys in Africa through my resident address in England a value of 200 to 400 usd dollas,now the parcel is at customs waiting for charges for about a week now.pls can u tell me how many days more i am,i going to wait for my charges to come out,and how many amount will they charge me for that 10pcs cameras?Or will they cofiscate the items?Hope to hear from u soon.Thankx.

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

It's difficult to do the sums accurately because the HMRC website gives the rate of duty as 4.9% to 14%.
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebAp p/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_page Label=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD_0099 89&propertyType=document
Without knowing the exact specifications of the cameras, it's hard to be sure what rate of duty will be charged. However, I understand that the higher rates only apply to cameras which can accept an external video input (allowing them to be used as video recorders). I'm going to assume that the 4.9% rate applies.

Further, since you've given the value as US$200 to US$400, I'll assume that the total value of your consignment is roughly 10 x US$300 = US$3000.

So, you've got 4.9% of US$3000 to pay in duty, which is roughly US$150.

Then you've got VAT to be added on. This is 17.5% of (value of goods + duty + carriage). I'll ignore the VAT on the carriage, but 17.5% of US$3150 is about US$550.

So that brings the total bill to US$150 + US$550 = US$700. There's also a customs examination fee to be paid but that's fairly small.

[Buenchico]

So, if the cameras are worth an average of US$300 each (and I've correctly assumed that the lowest duty rate applies), your bill will be in the range US$700 to US$750. (About �350 to �375). However, if the cameras are worth more (or if higher duty rates apply), you might get a bill closer to US$1000 (�500).

If the cameras were sent with the correct documentation, there's no reason why they should be confiscated. Any delays will simply be due to the time it takes HMRC (or, more accurately, their agents, Parcelforce Worldwide) to determine the correct rate of duty or, of course, due to the current postal strikes. (Even if you've used a courier service to deliver the cameras, HMRC's demand for duty might still be stuck in the ordinary post).

If the cameras were sent without the correct documentation (but with no intent to defraud HMRC), they'll be delayed while HMRC determines the correct values to be used for their calculation. (Instead of using the price you paid for the goods, they'll base their calculations upon the maximum ex-VAT price that the cameras would sell for in UK shops).

If the cameras were sent with deliberately falsified documentation, they may well be confiscated and you could face prosecution.

Chris