i bought a turbo and fuel pump about 6 weeks ago from Canada. i wasn''t charged any import tax, so i'd assumed i'd gotten away with it. the company had agreed to sent it as a gift but i couldn't find any sign of this when i got it.

now i've just received a letter from DHL asking me for £93 for import VAT and/or duty invoice. it says "this money was paid by DHL to customs on your behalf in order to expedite clearance and delivery of your goods"

why would they pay this without my permission? are they just trying it on and if i just ignore the letter will i get away with it?

if i knew it was going to be another 100 on top i wouldn't have fucking bothered. someones fucked me along the way (probably the company that sold it to me for not marking it as a gift)

 

You've got to pay mate

 

ya mate,, gotta pay,, i dont think a big company like "DHL" tries it on

 

Only thing about having stuff imported you can never guarentee not being taxed.

 

Marking as gift does not exhonerate you from import duty - and it ain't a new trend - this has been being done for years.... Customs are like insurance companies - they know a shit load more about it than you or than you give them credit for

But if it was me, I'd ignore it and when someone comse knocking I'd say that you never gave any authority for payment to be made and that if you had been told when it came into the counrty that you'd have to pay XX you would have retunred the item, so not your fault they paid it and not your problem....

But thats just me, and it will probably land you in court

 

Tell them you sent it back coz it was fooked and send a knackered one in its place and get a receipt.

 

i could do that

won't it cost me more to send a turbo to canada than i owe? i think the postage the 1st time around wasn't far off £100

 

as long as the goods are less than 145 pounds then no import tax or vat applies

 

I used to work for DHL and they probably would try it on. Total cowboys!

 

thats not totally true, i imported some stuff and the manufacturers forgot to include parts , when the forgotten parts arrived (which i had already paid for on the original shipment) , UPS gave me an invoice for the import tax and vat (plus their £10 fee to raise their invoice), when i questioned about the invoice stating "no commercial value", they replied
"ye everyone tries that on, so we went on the insurance value of $50"
oh boy did i kick up a fuss,
i dont mind paying my dues but not twice ,
companies like dhl and ups are a law unto themselves as far as duty is concerned, i got a £300 import duty bill for some parts so i tried to contact ups because they had calculated the charges wrongly, its a friggin answerphone in their customs dept and no one ever gets back to you.
cheers nomad

 

Marking products as "samples" also negates the import tax I am led to belive?