Customs Declarations

We are filling out our customs forms for our container that is due to arrive next week.  As we were completeing the section where you detail items possessed for less than six months we wondered what others have put down.  We basically have owned everything for more than six months but bought some items prior to leaving like duvet, sheets, pots and pans, small things.  Wasn't sure how specifically honest we should be and what experiences others may have had with regard to inspection of goods, duty paid, problems with customs paperwork etc.

Thanks for any input

Kathy

I can only quote our experience going the other way, into the US.  We didn't declare anything as "new" unless it was still sealed (we had the orginal boxes for many things that we used to ship them, but they clearly weren't new) in its original box.

Honestly, there are hundreds of immgrants shipping things into the UK every day and British Customs are not going to turn your container upside down looking for $50 worth of bedding that you should be paying £5 of VAT and £3.50 of duty on.  

Whatever you decide to declare, good luck!  

We declared nothing as having been owned as less than 6 months (even though some stuff was.) Everything was strictly for personal use.  Customs didn't even break the seal on our container, much less search through our stuff.  That was our experience in Oct. 2002.

Stephanie