I hate the Government - again

[JCB]

Right - I'm into K-Swiss trainers and found on the K-Swiss website that you can buy 'pesonalised' trainers for $65 (£35) - bargain, K-Swiss retail at over £55 in this country...so naturally, set about designing and ordering myself a pair....

Once I'd completed my design, went to the checkout...and it told me that shipping charges to my front door were $38 (£20) - OK I thought, thats now the same price as a 'standard' pair in the shops, and these are 'personalised'...I carried on...

At 'confirmation of your order stage', it said - "your currier will collect any relevant Duties / VAT etc upon delivery"....so rang HM Customs and Excise and they said that on a £35 pair of trainers from the US, I'd have to pay Excise Duty at 21%, and VAT at 17.5% - and worse than that, they calculate the taxes on the product + the shipping charges.......

Why do they charge duty on shipping charges???????

So a £35 pair of trainers would cost me in all £86.18 (inc £10 for FedEx to clear the items through customs)




And in case anyone's interested....

[Bainie]

Ohhh , like that idea,

I reckon they are just covering themselves with the Duty/Vat bit. I have ordered a heap of stuff from Japn / USA and have never been stung for tax yet ?


PS>>>> Give us the web addy ....

[JCB]

www.kswiss.com

then click on "My*KSwiss" in the top left corner and follow the destructions.....

[The Doc]

Ask them to wrap in in present paper and you should be cool!

Love them trainers!

[Bainie]

Yep, mark as a present, I get a lot of presents me *lol*

[Caterman]

YUP, i've bought a number of things from overseas and they have been marked as a "gift" Never been charged import duty. I think it is more for industry as the firm i work for imports a lot of spares from the USA and get hammered for duty.

[paulieg]

I have done the presents thing when buying off ebay from the US and never had any probs. the missus now wants to personalise her own trainers

[blr123]

"You hate the government AGAIN"............I just hate the government ALWAYS ........liars, cheats and thieves the lot of them .........and if any are reading this.........so sue me

As for importing lots of stuff comes in from various places on a certain other forum with no problem and the value is considerably more than £85

As has been said above mark it correctly and it should fly through......and that is SHOULD

Bryan

[Bainie]

I have done the presents thing when buying off ebay from the US and never had any probs. the missus now wants to personalise her own trainers

Yep I made the same mistook, showed them to the missus, she doesn`t really care about the import tax, she wants a pair ...

[pogo]

im thinking about getting a new pair ofc kswiss trainers for my holidays but ill just go to original shoe company buy them,then go to stationary box and buy a marker pen 99 pence later ,personalised trainers hee hee