UK Import Duty - Calculating Import Taxes For Goods Imported From the USA to the UK
July 4, 2008
UK Import Duty - Calculating Import Taxes For Goods Imported From the USA to the UK
By Andrew Gardner
Why Buy from America?
Many people travel to America, particularly New York, with the sole intention of shopping. The reasons for this are clear: wider choice and cheaper prices. In many cases, the savings made will actually pay for the trip. Strangely, those very same people may be unwilling to buy the same items online from the comfort of their own home because they are concerned that the import duty and tax will make the item more expensive than buying locally within the UK.
The purpose of this article is to explain the UK import duty charges and show that you can buy goods from the USA and still make considerable savings over UK prices.
Will I be charged?
Not every package will be charged - commercial consignments under £18 or gifts less than £36 are free from import duty and VAT. Also, some suppliers will deliberately label a package as a gift or under-value the contents to fall under the taxable threshold. Bear in mind that you, as the importer, are responsible for ensuring that this information is accurate. Worst case scenario - the goods can be confiscated if is felt that you tried to deliberately avoid paying import duty. However, it’s not very likely that this will happen.
Calculating the charges
- Determine the import duty for the product type you are importing. You can find this information from the TARIC database (Integrated Tariff of the European Community) e.g. Sunglasses have an import duty of 2.9% (US to UK)
- Combine the product price and delivery charges together to give a total price
- Convert dollars to pounds - use a currency converter site.
- To this total price add on the % import duty
- To the price obtained from Step 4, add on 17.5% VAT
- Add on an administrative charge applied by the carrier to process the item through customs (currently Royal Mail charges up to £8)
Worked Example
A £100 pair of sunglasses, with £15 delivery charges would have a total cost of £115. To this you would add 2.9% import duty of £3.34 to give £118.34; add 17.5% VAT to this figure which gives £118.34 + £20.71 = £139.05. Finally, allow up to an £8 charge by the carrier to give a final total of £147.05. Having paid the initial £115 to the supplier, you would then pay £32.05 to the carrier on delivery of the item.
Conclusion
By using the procedure detailed above, you can calculate the final price after import duties have been applied and then compare that price with the cheapest UK online stores. With all these charges being applied, it may seem hard to believe that it can be cheaper to import an item from America - but believe me, for many items it is much cheaper. Not only do you get to save money, but you open up a whole new marketplace that previously you may have ignored.
Resources
1) Find the import duty for your product category at the TARIC database.
2) Convert dollars to GB pounds at a currency converter site.
(c) Copyright - Andrew Gardner. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
About the Author
“Like designer sunglasses but not prepared to pay sky-high prices?”
Buy authentic designer sunglasses for half-price at http://www.apairsunglasses.co.uk if buying in the UK or http://www.apairsunglasses.com if buying in the US.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Gardner
http://EzineArticles.com/?UK-Import-Duty—Calculating-Import-Taxes-For-Goods-Imported-From-the-USA-to-the-UK&id=1240882