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

[sah89]

One of my oldest friends is from abroad (and lives there now), but was in the UK as a kid/teen when we met.
When I got married she sent us a present for which I paid over £100 tax/duty because she made a mistake with converting currencies and filled out the form like it was a goods purchase. Initially the post office card arrived here when dh and I were on our honeymoon and missed the payment date, so it got sent back to my friend. I apologised for missing the package, said there was a fee to pay (didn’t say how much) and asked her gently to check if she needs to correct the form because the gift she mentioned didn’t warrant such a tax. She sent it again without correcting, I gave in and paid the fee (didn’t say anything). Just to add, it seems usual for her to convert stuff the other way or add several more zeros just through our conversations when she mentions rent/salaries/prices.

Fast forward a few years, dh and I recently had a baby, and my friend wanted to send us a baby gift. In these couple years she also got married, had a baby and got a divorce. As a friend group we supported her as much as we can, including ordering her baby stuff off local to her places. She’s a single income household now with no child support from ex and a massive gender gap in salaries.
When she offered to send something I felt bad for her spending money (since she’s been highlighting how expensive everything is), I said maybe when we go out to visit her on holiday we could do something together with the kiddies instead. And at the back of my mind I didn’t want to do this potential back and forth with the post office again, quite honestly..
also we just moved house as I fell pregnant so for dh and I there have been a lot of expenses with the mortgage/deposit/furniture/baby etc (yes, our choice but still it just feels exhausting)

anyway, today I got a card from the post office referencing my friend’s country. I asked her if she sent something and she said a couple of toys and baby blanket. Again, the fee is like £70…… I don’t know if it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back but I feel so divided on this… I appreciate her gesture and sympathise with her general situation… I’m also fed up literally paying for her maths errors… I’m not going to ask her to foot the bill.. what would you do?

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.

Sorry not furry

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

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.

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! "

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

I'm astonished at the stupidity of people who put in the customs declaration amounts that result in import duties of £46 for a cheap plastic frame, or who consider the number of hours it took to make a blanket when calculating its value for customs purposes...

Message and say gave you sent something it's asking for £70 to collect it??

See what she says.

You need to be honest with her. Let it get
sent back. I think you can actually contest the cost by showing that the contents aren't worth the amount stated though. It's too much to pay, especially if she is just making up numbers. You need to be savvy when sending from abroad, tick the box that says it's a gift, and not go over the amount. Send her the instructions from Royal Mail website because they have a stupidly low threshold.

Just be honest with her though. Tell her you won't pay and she needs to correct it. Why do you need to gently suggest? Just say it outright.

Is she generally a 'ditsy' type? It seems to be particularly useless to not understand the currency of a country you used to live in.

Do you think there's any deliberate incompetence/helplessness going on?

I only live in Europe, but if I want to send something to relatives or friends in the UK I got to a UK website, whether John Lewis, an independent shop, a florist or even the dreaded Amazon and order from there. Often this comes with free delivery and no tax or vat to pay.
Of course this process is much more clinical than choosing something locally, wrapping it, packing it etc., but at the very least you are 99% certain that the good will arrive.
It is a shame that your friend, although acting kindly, didn't think this through very well.

Yes this happens with PILs. They send stuff from Australia which may or may not be taxed. There is no consistency to them being noticed by the authorities.

Anyway we just tell them not to put over £39 because that's when the checks kick in for gifts. It's not much money to be fair before import duty is applied and often their gifts cost more than that and they panic and put the price on to be covered for insurance. Then we get a £90 bill.

We just tell them. It cost us x to get your gift (usually same or more than they originally spent). It certainly sours the gift.

They are better now at using John Lewis or Amazon.

You should ask your friend for future gifts to use a UK webshop. We have a friend in Canada, and when we send her something, we just order it via a Canadian webshop.

Don’t collect it. She needs to grow up and understand what she’s doing ! These days there’s no need to send stuff overseas. Use the internet like everyone else!

@MissScarletInTheBallroom I used to buy reusable nappies from a US website, send them to my friend's house. They removed the labels and sent it as used clothing, no charges incurred.

I don't think it's just about just ticking a box. Since bl...y Brexit I've had to send gifts to my DGs via Amazon De. I did this recently but decided to also send two books. I declared them as childrens' books and as gifts. They cost £28 and DS had to pay £15 duty. I curse anyone who voted for Brexit every birthday and every Christmas.

These days, many businesses which export their products include the import fees in their pricing and pay them on behalf of the end purchaser - you are still paying them, but painlessly. 🙂