Customs charges

[SA-80_DUDE25]

Right i know theres been alot of discussion on this subject already, but im gona keep this question nice and simple.
For those who have bought RIF's from abroad, eg hong kong, how much did customs charge you?
Please state how much the gun was, either in dollars or pounds, and how much customs charged you for that RIF, again dollars or pounds.
Thank you

[MarcusLee]

Re: Customs charges

I haven't imported one yet but try this site, it has an airsoft rifle option under sporting then shooting.

[HuntR]

Re: Customs charges

I got charged £25 today. For a stock, sling point, mag catch and some silicone oil. My order only came to £72 shipped

[SA-80_DUDE25]

Re: Customs charges

I haven't imported one yet but try this site, it has an airsoft rifle option under sporting then shooting.

That was very helpful thank you.

[wedge75]

Re: Customs charges

6% import duty plus 20% Vat

[HuntR]

Re: Customs charges

I put my custom fees, and gun repair fees before my phone bill. All because i'm a boss

[caffin999]

Re: Customs charges

plus if you get it from the likes of ehobbyasia it will go via parcelforce - they add on £13.50 handling fee. You also pay the VAT on the full value including shipping.

Recently I bought a gun for approx. £500 and got charged £116 fees in total (I think the value declared on the shipping note was a little under the £500)

pretty much every courier adds a handling fee

and majority of retailers won't mark down a rif as its worth a lot. It gets lost and its not insured for full value then thats all can be claimed. They seem more inclined to mark it down on less valuable items

[Panoptes]

Re: Customs charges

Remember folks that you are not obliged to pay the ParcelForce handling fee before they release your item. See: Parcel Force Charges - the rub

[guard-sniper87]

Re: Customs charges

Guys please note

The import duty is not a fixed ammount It varies from and depends on what commodity code the customs officer clears the item with

Also if the item is over £18 inclusive of shipping from retailer and the item states this it will be having the vat ontop 20%

I got stung with 170 from customs until I got onto them after a two day battle with codes and false labelling the fees were recalculated to 124.80

Mine did add upto over £640

Remeber VAT is 20% fixed
import depends on what commodity code the item has

[BioSniper]

Re: Customs charges

^ This.

What I tend to do is add approx 21% (or used to before VAT went up) to account for VAT + Customs then + £15 to account for handling charges depending on the shipping company used. Obviously £15 is much higher than the actual fees but it never hurts to over-calculate by a fair bit.
UPS, TNT and the like are more expensive on their handling fees and sit around £25 for each of the orders I have had through them.

My last significant order from a HK retailer had 2x P90's, and a load of other stuff (parts etc) and totalled out about £275 after shipping.
Parcel Force charged £62 in handling and customs fees or there about.
I've found that importing guns really only works if your order is large or you are splitting and order between mates. For single item's it's hardly worth it after all the hassle.

Depending on what you are ordering, it can work out cheaper to just source a UK retailer that has a reasonable price.
So what if it's £10 more expensive for a whole gun? You have the peace of mind knowing you don't have to faf with fees and can send it back easily in the event of a breakage or DOA. You also support the Airsoft industry in our country, so you get a nice warm fuzzy feeling (ok, maybe not..).

Parts on the other hand almost always work out significantly cheaper from abroad.

[Ali]

Re: Customs charges

Depending on what you are ordering, it can work out cheaper to just source a UK retailer that has a reasonable price.

Parts on the other hand almost always work out significantly cheaper from abroad.

100% agree with this. I used to import a lot, but the £/$ exchange rate, VAT increase etc have made it largely pointless (and you can be waiting up to 6 weeks for Customs to release it from confiscation)

I source most of my parts & accessories from HK though.

[No1_sonuk]

Re: Customs charges

pretty much every courier adds a handling fee

I'm in a running "battle" with TNT over this.
I received a bill for £33.71, £18 of which was their fee (+VAT)!
I submitted a query online, and heard nothing about it for a few weeks, so I submitted another. Both basically said "Why am I being charged a customs deferrment fee when I already paid for an international service?"

A couple of days after sending the second query, I received an overdue notice, which hinted at the possibilty of legal action.
I wrote a check for the customs fee only (£15.71) and sent it with the payment slip amended to £15.71 and a note written on it that said "Customs fee ONLY - Deferrment fee subject on online queries" and the reference numbers.
That was a couple of weeks ago - No response yet...

[Archer1963]

Re: Customs charges

I'm in a running "battle" with TNT over this.
I received a bill for £33.71, £18 of which was their fee (+VAT)!
I submitted a query online, and heard nothing about it for a few weeks, so I submitted another. Both basically said "Why am I being charged a customs deferrment fee when I already paid for an international service?"

A couple of days after sending the second query, I received an overdue notice, which hinted at the possibilty of legal action.
I wrote a check for the customs fee only (£15.71) and sent it with the payment slip amended to £15.71 and a note written on it that said "Customs fee ONLY - Deferrment fee subject on online queries" and the reference numbers.
That was a couple of weeks ago - No response yet...

A Deferment Fee is the cost to a customer for use of the Importing Agents Deferement Account ( also known as a DAN)

This is a financial Bond between HMRC and the relevant Agent that allows swift processing of the entries.

In otherwords, a sum of money is lodged with the Bank of England for the account of HMRC which then allows an agent to then pay Duty & VAT very quickly indeed.

The alternative is paying the money up front on an Entry by Entry basis which is not only horribly time consuming, it's also massively , hugely expensive.

For example, i used to do 25-30 entries per day.

At least 50% of those went on our companines Deferment Account.

Imagine the time involved in chasing those up and getting the money up front ?

No, me neither !

Everytime a Customs Entry is raised with the DAN being used then,no matter what the cost of Duty & VAT, a fee will be charged.

This varies from Agent to Agent and can either be a flat fee (say GBP50.00 or on a percentage of the total amount of the Taxes paid)

In this instance, TNT have cleared the goods into the UK on your behalf using their DAN and are charging you for that.

Its nothing to do with "International service"

It's a cost that is/should be levied for any goods entering into the EEC.

I used to charge £50.00 for using our DAN - not based on value of cargo etc. Just a simple flat fee.

[guard-sniper87]

Re: Customs charges

And that's why everyone hates customs as they are thieving teats and only inform you after they have done it

[Almasy]

Sent from my iPhone 4...