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Importing to the uk vat question
 

vat charges are payed on the declare value when it arrives at the country of destination. if i am importing £1000 worth of products i will have to pay £200 vat but some people reduce the amount on the declare value to maybe £200-£500 to pay less vat. however sometimes custom officers can ask for proof of payment to make sure you are paying the right amount of vat and ask for your bank statement. if you lowered the value declaration can you get into trouble or you will just have to pay the right amount of vat once the custom officers find out?

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Yes you can get in trouble. Will you? Who knows, either way don't do it

You don't always pay 20% though, it will depend entirely on what you are importing.

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Male sure you never go along with your Chinese seller's idea of declaring a lower value on items.

HRMC are not stupid.
They know values of everything!

Be careful there.

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

the products are used mobile phone handsets and also used mobile phone accessories so im guessing they are 20% vat charge

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Dont guess, work it out :)

You can use websites like THIS to work it out

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Wow, 20% tax for nearly everything imported into EU? I hadn't realized how lucky I am to deal with USA customs.

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Not branded I hope...

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

That link just shows what you would pay VAT wise when selling goods if you are VAT registered, so would not apply to importing.

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

Point taken and misinformation removed ;)

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

there is no problem importing branded used mobile phones into the uk all the government cares is that you pay the tax

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

So long as they are not counterfeit then yes that is correct.

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

You pay vat on the total cost. Product+shipping+import duty+insurance+transaction fees and whatever

Think phones have 0% import duty though.

They don't check the value is correct in the UK very often. They'd normally just tell you to pay the correct amount the first time atleast

Re: Importing to the uk vat question
 

you are right but i am planning on opening a limited company to bring around £40000-£50000 phones and because of this HMRC will really care about paying the correct tax