Don’t want to again pay import duty for gift from friend?

I would tell your friend how tax is calculated - they take the cost of the contents, plus stamps and packaging and insurance, and then apply VAT, which is usually 29% to that figure - ie if tax is due, you are charged for everything. For the UK, and I quote from a government forum - “Goods that have a value below £39 will be duty and tax free. Goods between £40 a d £135 will be duty free but subject to VAT @ 29% for most goods. Goods over £135 will be charged duty and VAT.” It is NEVER worth over-declaring the cost of contents, because the other person may well end up having to pay tax on it. You need to look up what the limits are - the rules vary from country to country.

Spell it out. “Unless you change the form, I literally can’t afford to collect it from the post office. The import tax is £70 and as much as I love you and appreciate the generosity, I’d rather you kept it so I am not met with a huge bill I can’t afford.”

I was thinking the same thing. I'm not in the UK, but I buy a lot of stuff from overseas and haven't had to pay duty on anything in decades, and I've never paid duty on a gift sent to me.

Just don't collect it and tell her you can't afford the tax. Given she's now done it twice, I'd say she knows what she's doing.

The threshold for items sent into the USA at which duty starts to be charged is much higher.

This can be why senders from there sometimes exaggerate the value of the gift when posting to the UK, because it wouldn't apply if you sent a gift to them.

You do need to say something otherwise you could end up with presents for your child every birthday and christmas.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that.

According to this gov.uk page, you don't pay customs duty but you do pay import VAT on gifts over £39.

If they are delivered by Royal Mail there's an £8 handling fee on top of that.

It's different if the goods are sent by a business - and those two links seem to say different things, but it's not relevant to the thread so I won't try to make sense of it.

Yes don't beat about the bush or make things up. "Sorry, because your label said the parcel was worth £xxx it was going to cost me £70 just for customs fees which I just can't afford. Thanks for the lovely thought though; I appappreciate you thinking of me! "

Yes, a lot of senders of gifts inflate the value for the purposes of insurance, and this becomes a problem when they send it internationally as the duty payment is based on the declared value.

For a PP who thinks this is just a UK thing, it's really not, every country has their rates for imported parcels.

Anyone sending parcels abroad should check that the recipient is not going to incur any expense before they send it. Just as anyone ordering from abroad should check their government's website regarding import charges and factor that in as part of the cost of the item.

Do you mean you got a card from Royal Mail not the Post Office? They are completely separate companies. Just don't collect it.

Sorry not furry

I don't think there is any way to avoid offending her by refusing to pay.

However if you word it as you can't afford to pay the £70, (translate that into her money so she understands it) that's more understandable!

Tell her how much you appreciate the thought and furry you can't afford to pay, but in future a birthday card or whatever from her would be appreciated as sending gifts is so dear there days.

Just refuse to collect it, it should not be your problem so itwil go back to sender.

If she comments, just tell her the truth, you can't afford to keep paying taxes on the gifts she ends as it's leaving you massively out of pocket.

Unless you put your foot, this will keep happening.

I suspect a lot of them think the amount put in the customs declaration is incase the item goes missing in the post so they will get that amount back. I've had the same problem when my parents are in the States (they have a holiday house there) and she posts a present to me or my family. She's finally got the message after having to repay me the customs charges a couple of times! She's also forgotten to put stamps on envelopes and posted them, resulting in me once having to pay around £2 for a receipt for a gift card that I didn't even need!

Mine was a handmade baby quilt.

Uk Import wanted £75 in taxes for a small fairly ugly quilt blanket.

Its a joke and a stealth tax

why dont you just say that your really sorry but you do not have £70 free to collect the gift as your trying to save for babies future etc and your penny pinching at the moment and £70 is a lot, i mean come on thats nearly a whole weeks worth of food shopping for most people!

Indeed. But how do you know what it is until you pay? You can’t really look a gift horse in the mouth and say “Can you tell me exactly what your gift is so I can weigh up whether it’s worth paying the ransom import tax or not?

You need to read the rules about gifts and spell it out to her. I believe if you send a gift worth more than £39 you will be charged. That includes postage costs (that's caught me out before).

If there's more than one item and more than one person in the recipient household, you can wrap and label each item separately to a different person to a value of £39. I assume in this case the value of the postage is split equally between each "gift" although I didn't like to try it out.

exactly. Imagine what you could do with £70.. a nice day out, put into savings, a cosy winter jumper...

Just reply saying It was really kind of you to send a gift but I have to pay £70 if I collect which I haven't budgeted for.

I wouldn't pay it. £70 is a lot of money and she will keep doing it. It's nice of her to send something but it shouldn't cost you.

You didn't have to though.

I also wouldn’t collect it. It’s so easy to buy gifts in the Uk from abroad - I live abroad and send gifts bought off various UK websites / retailers to my friends in the UK instead of mailing from here.

No I didn’t have a clue, it was a ‘surprise’! If she’d just sent it as a letter with no frame it would have been free.

I do actually still have it and she is very good at art so you never know, one day. I’ll stash it away with my DCs old beanie babies and first edition Buzz Lightyear doll!