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+--- Thread: Shipping Charges & VAT from the US (/showthread.php?tid=1770)
Shipping Charges & VAT from the US - PJ Grady (Europe) - 01 Aug 2008
Hi all,
I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I recently got a Fedex invoice for a small parts order I placed with DMCH. The total order came to about £100 ($200) which include the shipping.
I get a bill from Fedex for £35 VAT + £6 service charge.
My guess was that they'd got confused between USD and GBP (as VAT on £100 should be £17.50).
However after talking to the Fedex rep, it appears that VAT is actually charged on WHAT IT COSTS TO SHIP the goods here - NOT WHAT YOU ACTUALLY PAID.
So, despite me paying DMCH £30 shipping - Fedex decided that the shipping costs were more like £80 and taxed accordingly.
I don't think this is Fedex specific - although I haven't seen it with UPS.
So if you are ordering from the US - make sure youhave some money set aside for the following VAT invoice - which won't necessarily by 17.5% of what you paid.
Darren
P.S. I get the last laugh, as I'll claim the VAT back as business.
- Chris Williams - 01 Aug 2008
mmm, I have had this also. if you put up a fight they will charge you the correct amount (the £ value) but you have to be ready for a fight! but it still takes the wee charging the extra £6.00 to take your money to give it to the taxman
Chris
- Barson - 01 Aug 2008
huh?
So did DMCH pay fedex £30 or £80 for shipping?
"Fedex decided that the shipping costs were more like £80 and taxed accordingly"
presumably they asked DMCH for more money to cover the additional cost? :?:
- PJ Grady (Europe) - 01 Aug 2008
I paid DMCH £30 ($60) for the shipping.
Fedex wouldn't have asked DMCH for any more money.
From what I can gather - the cost of VAT on shipping isn't based on what you paid - it's based on some other arbitrary amount set by C&E (which may or may not be in line with what you actually paid).
For the sake of £20 I didn't bother to argue.
Darren
- Barson - 01 Aug 2008
right.
this doesn't make any sense. I'm gonna phone em next week...
- Darren C - 01 Aug 2008
Darren is quite right, I had the same problem. £20 worth of parts, £20 to ship, and a Vat Bill on £70 + handling charge!
You can't get around it, unless the seller marks the package as a gift. But Customs can still charge you if they suspect your pulling a fast one!
Some times it cheaper to get a flight with two empty suitcases, and fill em up :wink:
Best Regards
D
- BELFAST BOY #1458 - 01 Aug 2008
yep, me too! money grabbing bar stewards :evil:
- Barson - 02 Aug 2008
Darren C Wrote:Darren is quite right, I had the same problem. £20 worth of parts, £20 to ship, and a Vat Bill on £70 + handling charge!
You can't get around it, unless the seller marks the package as a gift. But Customs can still charge you if they suspect your pulling a fast one!
Some times it cheaper to get a flight with two empty suitcases, and fill em up :wink:
Best Regards
D
yeah, but was that becuse of an underdeclaration (or absent declaration) of the goods or was it because of shipping charge issue that Darren experienced?
- Darren C - 02 Aug 2008
In my case, DMCH always put the invoice in a plastic zip envelope, attached to the outside of the parcel. Customs can see clearly the contents and what I paid in $ for shipping.
They then calculate what the shipping would cost in UK and NOT what I paid. Add that to the parts value, + their Handling charge, and calculate VAT on the new amount.
That's why they have no mates.
Best Regards
D
P.S dont know what issues Darren at PJ Grady had, but I expect it's the same.
- PJ Grady (Europe) - 02 Aug 2008
Same issue.
Only peanuts money, so not worth getting into an argument with them over, but I imagine if they do that with everybody, it must add up to a tidy sum!
Darren
- Dan6457 - 04 Aug 2008
I had the same thing too, phoned up and the woman agreed with me and said a new invoice would come to me. 3 weeks later some soliciter phoned me up moaning that I hadn't paid my bill. I checked with fed-ex again and they had no record of my first phone call and explained how they calculate the tax and then I had to pay up :evil:
- stunned_monkey - 04 Aug 2008
Steve Wynne once told me that us international customers benefit from the amount of business they do domestically. FedEx then give DMC a healthy discount on their international shipping, so it stands to reason that FedEx do know what the shipping could otherwise be.
That said, this is unfair as the point of Duty is to discourage importing goods (basic economics) - in other words is a tax on money leaving our economy.
Somewhere along the line, FedEx are probably profiting from this as I'm sure there's nothing to say they should tax the true cost of the shipment. They're taxing money that never left the economy. The more I think about this, the more dodgy it seems.
- Barson - 04 Aug 2008
exactly, taxing a service that is non existent!