Extra customs/tax charges levied after purchases.

[Woodrup]

A couple of times recently I have bought things on Ebay.UK. I pay postage, and "Tax". Ebay say all of these charges are the responsibility of the Seller to highlight at the Ebay checkout.

Yet, when La Poste deliver the item they want several euros in addition, "TAV" it is called.

The UK seller tells me he conforms to the Ebay rules and it's French Import or Customs at fault because the parcel states a code number that proves tax has already been paid at purchase.

Has anyone experienced this annoying nuisance?

[DaveLister]

are you sure you don't mean TVA ?

[Woodrup]

Yes its showing TVA on my French Ebay purchase details, is the extra payment La Poste are charging something different?

It says this on Ebay - "If additional tax applies to your eBay purchase, it will be indicated on the Item Page and the tax amount will be displayed on the purchase completion page before payment."

The Seller says the code number on the parcel proves all taxes/Customs duty are pre-paid at Ebay checkout under 'Tax'.

[DaveLister]

La Poste is charged with collecting TVA on all items purchased from outside the EU. That is in addition to any custom duty that may be owed. It is possible for the seller to collect the TVA in advance and for a code to be placed on the parcel to reflect this. However the system has been known to fail and La Poste advises that anyone who thinks they've been over charged to dial 3631 and contest the payment which, if successful, will then be reimbursed.

[Harnser]

This happened to OH a couple of weeks ago who ordered items from M&S france.

It states on the website for M&S france:-

"Do I have pay to any customs and/or duty charges? No, there is no additional customs duties or tax to pay now the UK has left the EU"

A week or so after the delivery by Fedex she got an invoice in the post from Fedex demanding €17

She referred it back to M&S who said it should not have been charged.

 

[betise]

Often the delivery service adds an extra handling charge, for their time and effort involved in processing non EU items.

Edited December 11, 2023 by betise
grammar

[Woodrup]

23 hours ago, DaveLister said:

La Poste is charged with collecting TVA on all items purchased from outside the EU. That is in addition to any custom duty that may be owed. It is possible for the seller to collect the TVA in advance and for a code to be placed on the parcel to reflect this. However the system has been known to fail and La Poste advises that anyone who thinks they've been over charged to dial 3631 and contest the payment which, if successful, will then be reimbursed.

Thanks Dave Lister. Looks like this is a license to print money by French couriers.

I'll defo give the number a call if La Poste insist I pay.

[ssomon]

I buy car parts fairly frequently from an English company whose prices are shown without VAT to anyone logging in from outside the UK, so since Brexit they send my order at these prices, i.e. without charging VAT.

Before the goods are delivered I receive an email from La Poste offering the choice of paying the import charges on line, with a reduced handling charge of €2, or paying the facteur or at the PO by cheque or cash, with a handling charge of €8.

I usually pay on line; my last order cost me £25.63 in the UK, including postage, and a total of €7.00 import charges.

When I buy through Amazon UK, however, the price shown includes any French TVA and import charges, and La Poste simply delivers the goods, usually straight into our letterbox. So presumably they use the system mentioned above by DaveLister.

On one occasion the facteur rang the doorbell and asked for a payment for a second hand book I bought from an Amazon seller. The amount was over twice what I paid for the book, so I refused to accept the package or to pay anything. The facteur simply said OK, and left.

I phoned the seller, who said I should not have been charged, that he had to pay to support the system and would contact Amazon about it.

It all depends on whether a seller in UK chooses to 1) pay whatever it costs to join the export scheme, 2) register with HMRC to sell VAT-free and generate more paperwork, or 3) simply charge UK prices and leave any import charges to be paid by the buyer.

 

 

 

[Woodrup]

On 10/12/2023 at 20:18, DaveLister said:

La Poste is charged with collecting TVA on all items purchased from outside the EU. That is in addition to any custom duty that may be owed. It is possible for the seller to collect the TVA in advance and for a code to be placed on the parcel to reflect this. However the system has been known to fail and La Poste advises that anyone who thinks they've been over charged to dial 3631 and contest the payment which, if successful, will then be reimbursed.

I just collected my Jiffy Bag from the post office, I had to pay €9 Customs charge in addition to the £4.40 VAT stated on the Ebay checkout for the item. I'm a bit peeved that Ebay don't highlight this when they state at checkout "Any supplementary tax will be indicated prior to payment".

I did call 3631 before going to La Poste, but was kept on hold too long on 'Option 5 Customs enquiries', not that it would have made any difference in the end.

Lesson learned - Don't use Ebay UK in future.

[Woodrup]

3 hours ago, ssomon said:

I buy car parts fairly frequently from an English company whose prices are shown without VAT to anyone logging in from outside the UK, so since Brexit they send my order at these prices, i.e. without charging VAT.

Before the goods are delivered I receive an email from La Poste offering the choice of paying the import charges on line, with a reduced handling charge of €2, or paying the facteur or at the PO by cheque or cash, with a handling charge of €8.

I usually pay on line; my last order cost me £25.63 in the UK, including postage, and a total of €7.00 import charges.

When I buy through Amazon UK, however, the price shown includes any French TVA and import charges, and La Poste simply delivers the goods, usually straight into our letterbox. So presumably they use the system mentioned above by DaveLister.

On one occasion the facteur rang the doorbell and asked for a payment for a second hand book I bought from an Amazon seller. The amount was over twice what I paid for the book, so I refused to accept the package or to pay anything. The facteur simply said OK, and left.

I phoned the seller, who said I should not have been charged, that he had to pay to support the system and would contact Amazon about it.

It all depends on whether a seller in UK chooses to 1) pay whatever it costs to join the export scheme, 2) register with HMRC to sell VAT-free and generate more paperwork, or 3) simply charge UK prices and leave any import charges to be paid by the buyer.

Thanks ssomon.

Would've liked to hear about any Ebay UK purchases you have made. It seems Amazon cover the VAT and Customs import charges at checkout, whereas Ebay, or my particular seller, has only included VAT at checkout not Customs.

Did your Amazon seller refund you everything? Presumably with you not accepting the item they had to pay postage both ways?

 

 

 

[ssomon]

My Amazon seller gave me a full refund. I think I bought the book elsewhere.

Yesterday I received a package of 3 books bought on Ebay UK. The books cost £8.35  and the delivery charge was £15.19

I asked if customs clearance in France was included, and also why the individual delivery cost for each book was being charged rather than a the cost of a combined shipment.

The seller told me

"We take care of all charges and you do not have to pay extra. However, if for some reason you are asked to, you can let us know before taking any action.

The shipping price is mandatory on all of the items, unless it's free.

At this time we cannot offer discounts on multiple orders as eBay does not make it possible to do this in an easy and efficient manner via checkout. We have therefore set low, flat rates of postage instead which are almost always the lowest rates that can be found on any site and are accurate in terms of the increasing postal charges we pay on heavier items we send"

 

They were in my letterbox yesterday morning. There was an export sticker on the package with the value of each book and its customs code. I have not been asked to pay anything but am keeping the packaging and label for a few days.

[DaveLister]

35 minutes ago, ssomon said:

I have not been asked to pay anything but am keeping the packaging and label for a few days.

Sounds very sensible 😉

[Woodrup]

That's interesting, sounds like the seller is responsible in my case for not warning me of French Customs charges at Ebay checkout (I too will make a point of asking in advance next time). Although the jiffy bag has a Royal Mail Customs Declaration CN22 sticker completed by seller, it just gives details of the item, no payment was made.

I have contacted him, awaiting reply. But I'm putting it down to a loss as the item was only £12 it will not be worth paying postage - and maybe reverse Customs to return it.