Customs Charge on Books!

[Coinery 1,148]

Furious!

3 second-hand books delivered from the US today...£8.66 VAT charge, AND £9.00 charged by RM for handling!

Firstly, I never realised we paid duty on books and, secondly, does this mean it's impossible to import a book without incurring a Royal Mail Handling Fee of £9.00?

[Colin G. 147]

Furious!

3 second-hand books delivered from the US today...£8.66 VAT charge, AND £9.00 charged by RM for handling!

Firstly, I never realised we paid duty on books and, secondly, does this mean it's impossible to import a book without incurring a Royal Mail Handling Fee of £9.00?

Don't you just love daylight robbery!! Those charges are so infuriating when you are on the receiving end

[Rob 3,152]

There's no VAT on books. Not sure about import duty.

[HistoricCoinage 146]

As far as I'm aware there is no import duty on books. Were they sent as commercial sample or goods, rather than gifts?

[Justin 0]

I have recieved books from the US before and paid nothing extra. I think it may depend what was written on the customs label?

Duty calculator

Looking HMRC and a few others I would be more than furious!

[bagerap 706]

Furious!

3 second-hand books delivered from the US today...£8.66 VAT charge, AND £9.00 charged by RM for handling!

Firstly, I never realised we paid duty on books and, secondly, does this mean it's impossible to import a book without incurring a Royal Mail Handling Fee of £9.00?

AFAIK, there is still no VAT on printed matter. As for being charged £8.66, this would indcate a base cost of £43.30 somewhere,was that the declared value of the books? £9.00 sounds like the standard P.O. customs clearance charge (for which they pay around 47p) All in all it was probably down to a misdeclaration as to the nature of the goods which attracted the attention of the Duty boys. VAT can be charged on dutiable imports and the cost of clearing them.

[Coinery 1,148]

I'll know more tomorrow about the finer points, as the wife has had to travel to the mother-in-law's to collect them from the PO...she's back tomorrow!

I honestly couldn't believe it when she texted it was duty/VAT, I thought the sender had pulled a fast one and not paid full postage!

[HistoricCoinage 146]

I'll know more tomorrow about the finer points, as the wife has had to travel to the mother-in-law's to collect them from the PO...she's back tomorrow!

Sounds like you should pay import duty on your in-laws, Stuart! It takes a day to get to your in-law's place?

[Coinery 1,148]

I'll know more tomorrow about the finer points, as the wife has had to travel to the mother-in-law's to collect them from the PO...she's back tomorrow!

Sounds like you should pay import duty on your in-laws, Stuart! It takes a day to get to your in-law's place?

True enough, it's a 2hr+ round trip, so she generally stays over with her mum (with our son), kills 2 birds with 1 stone...I always get 2 full days to function au naturale when this happens, which is always my most productive time, so covers the fuel costs, mostly! As long as I don't stray down to the local (which I didn't this time)!

[TomGoodheart 400]

Well, I think it's possible to challenge import duties.

However AFAIK, that won't get you back the £9 or so the PO charge for collecting said erroneous charges, since that's admin and nothing to do with HMRC.