I have just been charged £14.60 on a £43.70 controller from the usa for customs duty,that is close to 30 percent,i expected maybe 25% if i was unlucky,im starting to wish id bought a proper ezee controller now this is my second controller due to the first not performing how the old one did,i am now up to £90 to replace a £125 controller and have lost the use of the power meter,now i have to find space for a bigger controller.
Customs charges
- Thread starter fishingpaul
- Start date
25% would only be £11,it did mention a charge of £1 extra for administration or something, but still a little more than i was expecting,i purchased my other controller from hong kong and paid zero customs, if you were buying a battery or other expensive item you could face a rather hefty extra bill.
That's really unlucky Paul. I've bought a number of chargers one at a time from Powerstream in the States, plus several other items from other companies and have never once been caught for any duty, VAT or anything else. Others who have imported the same chargers have been caught occasionally, so I must have been incredibly lucky.
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Ouch! That's a very harsh amount. The most recent charge I had was something like £21 for a £140 package from Hong Kong about 6 weeks ago.
I absolutely detest having to pay import duty - ,makes me feel like the government are nothin' but bunch of fricken theives
I absolutely detest having to pay import duty - ,makes me feel like the government are nothin' but bunch of fricken theives
There is an carrier clearance fee of around £7 pounds which explains it.
Best to always make sure the item is marked less than £18 or I think you can get away with a higher value if it is marked as a gift. Note though if it is higher value and insured this will cause problems if a claim is made. I would not recommend this on an item worth a lot of money.
Also note once you pay more than a certain amount of duty you get charged customs duty on the full amount including postage.
Its all here
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_028719&propertyType=document#P4_64
Jerry
Best to always make sure the item is marked less than £18 or I think you can get away with a higher value if it is marked as a gift. Note though if it is higher value and insured this will cause problems if a claim is made. I would not recommend this on an item worth a lot of money.
Also note once you pay more than a certain amount of duty you get charged customs duty on the full amount including postage.
Its all here
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageVAT_ShowContent&id=HMCE_PROD1_028719&propertyType=document#P4_64
Jerry
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I detest tax evaders who try to sneak stuff past customs so they don't have to pay the correct duty, lumbering the rest of us law abiding subjects with the shortfall.Ouch! That's a very harsh amount. The most recent charge I had was something like £21 for a £140 package from Hong Kong about 6 weeks ago.
I absolutely detest having to pay import duty - ,makes me feel like the government are nothin' but bunch of fricken theives
worth also remembering on a forum like this you just don't know who else is reading.
I was once a Civil Servant, and was actually discreetly asked whether I wanted to transfer to HMRC as there were going to be budget cuts in my Department and they thought I was a chap with a good head for figures and good investigative skills.
I turned down this offer, but many others wouldn't. (This sort of thing is of course nothing like what you see in the films and telly and is boring, tedious and ultimately soul destroying, more so the "interesting" bits which involve covert work).
However a lot of Civil Servants enjoy cycling and are very knowledgeable indeed about bikes (the cycle to work loan scheme was first tested out in Whitehall before being rolled out to civillians).
on another (non powered) cycling forum a few people mentioned there are lots of HMRC staff who know loads about bike components and what duty should be paid on them and are willing to take that knowledge to work..
Also lots of small parcels from the Far East are currently being opened and checked on pre-emptive strikes because they do not contain "gifts" or battery chargers or gadgets or bike bits at all, but kilos of various white powders which are the new rave drugs that the law hasn't quite caught up with yet (although HMRC can sometimes detain them on mislabelling or health and safety grounds).
Of course if the customs officer finds instead dutiable goods without duty paid he or she will of course take appropriate action..
I considered the VAT and other taxes I paid (directly or indirectly) on my Wisper to be part of my contribution to public funded transport infrastructure, and a counterargument to such motorists who incorrectly say "cyclists evade taxes"...
I was once a Civil Servant, and was actually discreetly asked whether I wanted to transfer to HMRC as there were going to be budget cuts in my Department and they thought I was a chap with a good head for figures and good investigative skills.
I turned down this offer, but many others wouldn't. (This sort of thing is of course nothing like what you see in the films and telly and is boring, tedious and ultimately soul destroying, more so the "interesting" bits which involve covert work).
However a lot of Civil Servants enjoy cycling and are very knowledgeable indeed about bikes (the cycle to work loan scheme was first tested out in Whitehall before being rolled out to civillians).
on another (non powered) cycling forum a few people mentioned there are lots of HMRC staff who know loads about bike components and what duty should be paid on them and are willing to take that knowledge to work..
Also lots of small parcels from the Far East are currently being opened and checked on pre-emptive strikes because they do not contain "gifts" or battery chargers or gadgets or bike bits at all, but kilos of various white powders which are the new rave drugs that the law hasn't quite caught up with yet (although HMRC can sometimes detain them on mislabelling or health and safety grounds).
Of course if the customs officer finds instead dutiable goods without duty paid he or she will of course take appropriate action..
I considered the VAT and other taxes I paid (directly or indirectly) on my Wisper to be part of my contribution to public funded transport infrastructure, and a counterargument to such motorists who incorrectly say "cyclists evade taxes"...
Gosh I feel well and truly chastised
PS Ok now I am sounding bitter and twisted lol
The points being made are valid. What is probably most frustrating and it has happened to me, is when you purchase something for say just over £20 and get hit with a £10 charge becasue of the admin fee.
Regards
Jerry
If only all the money was actually spent on that instead of Polictians expenses.
PS Ok now I am sounding bitter and twisted lol
The points being made are valid. What is probably most frustrating and it has happened to me, is when you purchase something for say just over £20 and get hit with a £10 charge becasue of the admin fee.
Regards
Jerry
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or much worse, wars killing both our young citizens and foreigners, bringing hate and anger back to our streets and destroying decades of positive progress, but then again the same wars are trying (ultimately in vain) to secure the oil to feed our consumer desires (including bringing our new e-bike or components to these shores!)Gosh I feel well and truly chastised
If only all the money was actually spent on that instead of Polictians expenses.
All that said, I do think there needs to be a better, more transparent and less complex way of being able to purchase small quantities of goods from foreign lands.
The HMRC sites are complex, the couriers sites don't give much help and even qualified accountants and other finance professionals have trouble interpreting the rules.
TBH if I can't buy British I tend to keep most of my purchases within the EU and find that whatever VAT is paid is rarely excessive, but it is of course not always possible if no EU country makes the goods you desire.
Someone posted up a "duty calculator" a while back (I can't find the link unfortunately). Anyone know how accurate it is and under what category e-bikes and parts come from?
Its here
I have some stuff (Tongxin motors and bits) coming from China (I hope) and used the link to try and calculate what it will cost me.
When it arrives I will see how accurate it is.
Regards
Jerry
if customs think that a false decleration has been made, undervalued any item or it marked as a gift, that is not a gift, then they can confiscate the goods and fine impossed.
give a thought for the genuine importer or distributor who has to pay import duty and VAT, pay for a warehouse and staff, then make a profit and have to stand by their products if they stop working....support the importers like wisper and others, without these people there would be no Ebike market...if you buy locally it least you have someone to talk to when things go wrong.
VAT is chargeable on shipping (on VAT rated items or a consignment with > 50% such items) as shipping is usually from a service industry registered for VAT - unless the shipping is carried out entirely by the Royal Mail Group and the person shipping it makes no extra profit over and above the cost of the postage - this IMO seems fair for as long as Royal Mail Group remains in public ownership..
Well i picked it up from the sorting office today,£6.58 vat and £8.00 royal mail handling fee was the breakdown of costs, so not such a high percentage as i had first thought just the handling fee bumping up the cost,so a higher value item would not be so bad.
I hope Barnowl's comment will not lead to a reopening or diversion into this thread here: http://www.pedelecs.co.uk/forum/electric-bicycles/703-interesting-encounters-6.html#post9738. The mathematical propositions and equations taxed my brain beyond its limits, but I think we all more or less agreed in the end that heavier cyclist/bicycle combinations do travel faster downhill, because, unlike the feather and the lead ball, they do not descend vertically, and there is possibly also some centrifugal advantage supplied by the wheels.
We are lucky!
Take it a step further forward.
If you were to buy a non electric bike that had been made in China.
If the cost of the bike was for arguments sake £100.
Cost £100.00
Dumping levy, 48.5% = £48.50
New Cost £148.50
Duty 6%, £8.91
New cost, £157.41
VAT, 15% £23.61
New cost £181.02
If income tax is paid at 25% you would need to earn £241.36 to pay this cost and if you were employed your employer would have paid <12% on the £241.36 they paid you, we must assume you make your employer that extra tax so it is actually paid by you.
The £100 bike would actually cost you £309.41 with at least 209.41 going to the tax man.
Oh and if the importer actually managed to make a profit on the sale after all his hard work in getting the product to you, that would be taxed too, plus the VAT on the profit!
If you really want to terrify yourself do the same calculation on a tank of petrol!
Oh to be in England................
All the best
David
Take it a step further forward.
If you were to buy a non electric bike that had been made in China.
If the cost of the bike was for arguments sake £100.
Cost £100.00
Dumping levy, 48.5% = £48.50
New Cost £148.50
Duty 6%, £8.91
New cost, £157.41
VAT, 15% £23.61
New cost £181.02
If income tax is paid at 25% you would need to earn £241.36 to pay this cost and if you were employed your employer would have paid <12% on the £241.36 they paid you, we must assume you make your employer that extra tax so it is actually paid by you.
The £100 bike would actually cost you £309.41 with at least 209.41 going to the tax man.
Oh and if the importer actually managed to make a profit on the sale after all his hard work in getting the product to you, that would be taxed too, plus the VAT on the profit!
If you really want to terrify yourself do the same calculation on a tank of petrol!
Oh to be in England................
All the best
David
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