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We've all seen the listings proclaiming
"No Duty/Taxes to pay"
"NO VAT"
From sellers in Hong Kong, the USA, Canada, & Singapore.
The way they work is:
They send the goods by courier; Fedex, UPS, DHL.
These companies deliver the goods, and damn fast too. So far so good.
What they don't tell you is.....
The courier turns up at your door & you sign for it. Wow! Not a whiff of import duty or VAT.
Brilliant! Leave positive feedback for the seller right away. Oops!
BIG mistake.
A week to 2 weeks later, the courier sends you an invoice for the import duty & VAT.
Ouch!
And if you think you can get away without paying it, think again. They'll engage a debt collection agency & you may end up with a CCJ and zero credit rating!
Plus a deferment fee (read admin/handling fee).
In the case of Fedex, this is either £4.50 OR
2.5% of the total import duty & VAT
- whichever is the greater.
True, there is no import duty on digital cameras. However they still attract VAT at 17.5%. So bear this in mind when shopping 'abroad'.
And under NO CIRCUMSTANCES leave feedback for at least 3 weeks.
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