How to declare and prepay excise duty on cigars ordered from abroad

[DeadBase]

See you next Tuesday Parcelforce

Cool, glad it all worked out.

I hate Parcelforce, I import fairly often, it really irks me when I need to pay the ?13.50 clearance fee on ?4 duty. They seem to have a really tidy contract in which they pick up what feels like 90% of items coming in, plus it tends to add at least another 2 days onto your package arriving. Once upon a time I'd often have a knock at the door with someone who would take the cash for the duty owed, with no extra trimmings.

Although, how you're pleased with paying ?105 ontop I'll never understand! That'd leave an unpleasant sting for me.

The Parcelforce charge is completely unjustified it should be no more than ?4.00 on any transaction. Yet there is no way to challenge it - It's simply a tax on import parcels they receive.

Parcelforce are animals. I'm still trying to get a package from them from before Christmas. They wanted to charge me ?19 worth of taxes plus their handling fee on a package of ?11 worth of soap!!

They seem to have carte blanche to do whatever they want with your parcels and charge you for the pleasure. You have 10 days to respond but if you wish to contest they can take 6 months (and counting) with their thumbs up their arses.

If I was as incompetent at my job I wouldn't expect to be able to turn around to clients and say "There's an extra charge of 122% of the original work due to me not knowing my arse from my elbow. Ta"

[Reuben]

Just wondering how you escaped the 26% customs duty on the cigars. Did you buy from a retailer and send it to yourself?

[Burner]

The Parcelforce charge is completely unjustified it should be no more than ?4.00 on any transaction. Yet there is no way to challenge it - It's simply a tax on import parcels they receive.

[gt3911]

Yeh, that's to nice of a haul to loose! I'm just tight!

I guess the value wasn't accurately declared!

Enjoy

[Lascaux]

Re: How to declare and prepay excise duty on cigars ordered from abroad

Beats a letter saying up yours they've been destroyed

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gt3911]

Cool, glad it all worked out.

I hate Parcelforce, I import fairly often, it really irks me when I need to pay the ?13.50 clearance fee on ?4 duty. They seem to have a really tidy contract in which they pick up what feels like 90% of items coming in, plus it tends to add at least another 2 days onto your package arriving. Once upon a time I'd often have a knock at the door with someone who would take the cash for the duty owed, with no extra trimmings.

Although, how you're pleased with paying ?105 ontop I'll never understand! That'd leave an unpleasant sting for me.

[Lascaux]

ok...


Customs form was filled out,

500g of tobacco weighed... so excise should have been about ?86.

Got my notice to pay through today:

Excise Duty: ?73.14
V.A.T: ?18.72
Parcelforce clearance fee: ?13.50

Total: ?105.36

For 25 109 size cigars that isn't too bad I thought. Don't know how they came to ?73 on excise... but im not complaining

One annoyance is the ?13.50 handling fee... when nowhere on HMRC does it give this figure.
They just seem to charge what they want. Worked ok in this case, but for anyone else doing the same... check that the weight of the cigars is correct and that the excise duty is reflective of this

BIG thanks to mercer cigars of merida for helping me get this box through legitimately and safely! I fully recommend mercer cigars. Fantastic service and communications

[moppy]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzexJVnrflA

About 7:40 in, he mentions that 50 of the same cigars have to weigh a certain amount for reasons of quality control.

[daverave999]

Hand made item Dave. Weight would vary by a few grams from box to box of the same brand same cigar.

Yet they all cost the same price from the tobacconists here!

Anyone in the trade know how it works? Is there a list of agreed average weights that is used to calculate duty in the UK?

[EDIT] If so, do HMRC work from this list? If not, why not? Would be quicker and easier than manually weighing them I suspect.

[moppy]

Hand made item Dave. Weight would vary by a few grams from box to box of the same brand same cigar.

I thought part of the quality control of cigars were that that a bunch of 25 cigars or whatever had to weigh the same (within a few grams or whatever) as the next 25 of the same cigars?

I saw a video with something about this, will find it and post it.

[tippexx]

It would be helpful if Habanos SA actually printed the net weight on themselves.

Hand made item Dave. Weight would vary by a few grams from box to box of the same brand same cigar.

[daverave999]

It would be helpful if Habanos SA actually printed the net weight on themselves.

[Lascaux]

that sounds right mate,

cigars can only be seized and destroyed if the customs slip on them doesnt declare them as cigars or if there is no slip on them.

nowhere have I seen the option for the sender to calculate taxes... or for the duty to be prepaid. i dont think the option is there. It just means take extra caution making sure the customs office see the NET weight of the tobacco only, and not charge an excess in excise duty!

[macker89]

I recently received a 25 box of HdM Epi 2's from abroad for roughly ?90 with contents and value correctly marked on the box. I can't remember the cost breakdown but I know the total bill for customs and admin etc. was ?65.

As for prepaying the customs charge to avoid having them seized, as far as I'm aware, as long as the package you receive is correctly labelled there is no reason for it to be seized and the appropriate agencies can just apply the relevant charges. If the customs declaration on a package misrepresents its contents in any way then that is grounds for a seizure.

Good luck with the forms though...I'm watching with interest

[gt3911]

Lovely - From previous imports and information I've gained to be as I'd expect unfortunately, all in all.... 83% tax

You need to make yourself some friends in the exporting country!

How does the process of calculating this before hand work? I seem to get a random bunch of couriers when importing once the item hits the UK, parcel force are particularly unkind with their "handling / clearance fee's" If parcel force pickup your item and you get that nice letter to say fee's are due to be paid before you can get the item, and you've already pre paid... Are you given some form of unique number you can quote to the courier so they can say ah yes, righto, we'll get it moving along?