Thread: New UK Customs Tariffs

Originally Posted by blueprinciple

Having also been arse-bitten by HMCE, what REALLY racks me off is that: you firstly pay any import duty levied, THEN you pay the Royal Mail a 'handling fee' (utter garbage as the sender has already paid for the goods to be delivered!) THEN you pay VAT on the lot - goods, import duty, insurance (don't forget that little slice of the cake!) and handling fee.

You pay duty, THEN VAT on the value of the item (with the duty added). The handling fee is not for the delivery of the package as that had been paid for, but for handling the customs charges on your behalf, as it is the importer's (the recipient's) job to handle this.

Originally Posted by blueprinciple

And this, by the way, is the reason I only take honing work from EU countries - otherwise I may well have to pay import duty on something that isn't even mine (unless I jump through the HMCE regs as to 'letting me off paying') but then the PBC (poor bloody customer) may well be faced with import duty to get their own property back! Governments? Ah, don't get me started..................

With the proper paperwork, you can temporarily import or export goods without charges, like for repairs or, in your case, honing a razor. But that's admittedly rather tedious given the low value of the goods.

The rattle is now here in Finer Things
http://straightrazorpalace.com/finer...y-rattles.html

As regards the subject of the thread, I firmly believe that any customs charges are nothing short of theft. Personal imports are such a small proportion of the total that all the duties do is further overtax the populace. Bleeding inept bureaucrats justifying their existence by picking on the citizenry at complete random. Apologies Mr Bigspendur, sir, for this assault on your former profession but this rant is now over

Originally Posted by Spike J

As regards the subject of the thread, I firmly believe that any customs charges are nothing short of theft. Personal imports are such a small proportion of the total that all the duties do is further overtax the populace. Bleeding inept bureaucrats justifying their existence by picking on the citizenry at complete random.

Ah the joys of living in a country where the government proudly boasts in TV adverts that if you don't pay your £100-odd annual road tax ( a tax that can and should be absorbed into the grotesquely high tax we already pay on fuel) they will gleefully confiscate your car worth tens of thousands and crush it.

Tax and fairness rarely go hand in hand.
YouTube - Car Tax Commercial