Duties & Taxes

Duties & Taxes

When you are sending shipments around the world, they are subject to the laws of the Country that they are being sent too.

Each Country will have their own laws and agreements with other Countries in place that defines whether or not any import duty and taxes will be charged and at what value.

If you are sending goods within The European Union or EFTA Countries, they have a free trade agreement that allows goods to move between these Countries without incurring any import duty or taxes. However as soon as you are sending goods outside of these free trade zones, the situation changes.

Local customs departments will assess goods when they arrive into the destination Country according to the following criteria:-

1, Who is the sender of the goods.

This is to confirm if they are they being sent from an individual or from an organisation.

2, What is the reason for the shipment.

Is the reason that the shipment is being made for a commercial reason or a person reason such as a gift or sending home personal possessions?

3, What are the goods within the shipment.

A detailed description of all the goods being sent is needed. To avoid goods being wrongly classified, the customs departments of all Countries work from a list of international commodity codes for all products. You can look up the commodity code for any item here:-  www.gov.uk/trade-tariff

 4, What is the value of the goods

An accurate value for all goods sent is needed, as import duty and taxes are usually charged as a percentage of the declared value of goods.

Using this information, a destinations customs department will check if import duty or taxes are due. Usually low-value gifts or shipments of personal possessions will not incur any import duty or taxes however it is important to check to avoid any nasty surprises.

Once you have all the above information you can check with the customs department of the destination Country who will be able to advise if any import duty or taxes are due for allowing your shipment into their Country. Alternatively, there is an online website www.dutycalculator.com where you can check the information online.

I hope that this explains what information is needed and how to use it to check if any import duty and taxes will be due on any shipment that you send. Unfortunately once a shipment has been submitted to a customs department for clearance, none of the information declared can be changed, so take the time to check and complete the shipping information properly so that you and your receiver do not have any unexpected charges through.

If need any further advise or help, the UK customer service team are here to help, just let us know. 

 

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