Urban Art Association

LOL, that happened to me once. I explained that to insure the package it needed to be declared at full value, and may be subject to VAT, customs and whatever other fees the UK imposes......... prior to shipping. Dude said no problem. Dude got hit with a load of fees and was going to send me a paypal invoice to pay for it. I reminded the dude of our conversation regarding the possibility of the fees and told him......NICELY......To take a hike.

Wonder if it was the same dude? It was really well scripted as far as I can remember. It was a number of years ago. I would NEVER have paid it.

Replete,

The US doesn't charge customs or taxes (in most cases). I think US to UK is where VAT and customs comes into play. to kronopus' point, you need to declare it for the full value if you want it insured.

the problem with the us postal insurance system, you can't disclose a different value from what you disclose on the documents

here in the uk, we can insure an item for x & put a different value on the customs label (this benefits swiss customers from past experience)

your system was probably set up to benefit the uk government

a lot of people from the us tend to think that marking an item as a gift excludes the recipient from duty, this is not the case

a value of $50 or preferably less would have to be disclosed on the documents too

therefore, if a uk customer doesn't want to pay duty, they would have to accept liability before the sender discloses a -$50 value & marks the item as a gift

if a uk customer wants the item fully insured, the full value would have to be disclosed leaving them open to duty

we can't have it all unfortunately

Duties and VAT are buyer's responsibility because both depend on import rules of buyer's country.
In most cases we know the import rules of our clients and can give advice and support to them. Also we prepare correct customs documents so that import procedure for the client is without friction.

Right! But it requires commercial invoice and delievery bill from sender's side and a customs declaration on buyer's side. In most cases carriers like FedEx or UPS support the import procedure on buyer's side.
More info: www.cbp.gov/

Notice: Receiving art from outside of EU isn't free of VAT.

Next step will be that customs office wants to see a credit card bill or a printed copy of the ebay auction or the email correrspondence between you and seller to ascertain price you have paid for the Nick Walker. On that basis customs will calculate the VAT for your Nick Walker. There is no alternative unless you deny acceptance.

i've never been charged vat @ 5% on an art piece even when the correct code has been applied to the documents

customs tend to slap the full % on everything & let you deal with the difference, knowing a lot of people won't because it's a pain in the arse & time consuming

don't let them get away with it, make sure you claim

Gents,

here is a link to another thread with a lot of info to help

urbanartassociation.com/index.cgi?board=ebaychat&action=display&thread=17538&page=1#62071

basically limited edition prints produced by the artist and originals are charged VAT at the reduced rate of 5%. All other artwork is charged at the higer VAT rate, now 15%. There are also customs duties to bear in mind, however for limited editions and originals the customs duty is zero. You will also end up paying a processing fee to Parcel Farce or whoever it was shipped by.

amin, if someone buys a print from the US and imports it to the UK they are liable for any VAT, after all they couldnt buy anything in the UK and expect the shop owner to pay the VAT so why would it be different for items shipped in from overseas. If you get some idiot insisting you pay it then i would politely tell them to 'bugger orf'

Pupster, if you bought the NW print from someone in the US as a private sale then you should not be liable for VAT and should claim it back from HMRC. However if the print was originally bought in the US and no VAT was paid on it then HMRC might have a case that VAT should be paid. If the guy you bought it from bought it from the UK online and he paid the same price as everyone else then he will have paid VAT, in which case VAT has already been paid on the original item to HMRC and they have no case to demand VAT from you for having it re-imported to the UK. Unfortunaltely it's up to you to send them the evidence etc to make your claim. As with all UK govt depts it's a case of shoot first ask questions later.

hope that helps.