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Topic: What to declare...how does it work?  (Read 1397 times)

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What to declare...how does it work?
« on: January 19, 2003, 06:38:32 AM »
We are preparing for out move in June and have already decided packing.  We are aware that there will be a customs/duty on anything we haven't had for at least 6 months.  What is the charge if there are things younger than 6 months?  

Also, I am a very law abiding citizen and would never dream of being anything but absolutely truthful (wink, wink) but is customs going to care that I have a new set of dishes or weight bench?

Would appreciate your help.  We are basically think about shoes or clothes etc.



  • LisaE
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Re: What to declare...how does it work?
« Reply #1 on: January 19, 2003, 10:10:22 AM »
When we moved, we brought things two different ways. In containers, packed by a private company, and the fragile hand things we brought on the plane with us.

Besides the list that we gave for insurance reasons, the packers never asked what was recently purchased, and they took everything through customs, delivered it to us, etc, so we personally didn't speak or declare to Customs. I don't know what procedures they went through. There were a few very smallish items, like a couple of towels, as I recall, that had been newish, but since the tags were off and they had been used, they weren't questioned. Nor did I know whom to make the declaration to. Nothing on the forms indicated I had to declare anything, no one asked, etc. Customs do go through things, or at least they say they do...I didn't have an indication that anything was hand searched, so I don't know if everything is scanned, and only a few are hand searched, whatever. (They were tagged as having gone through customs, but of the few boxes I noticed, before the movers unpacked them, they were still sealed as when they left my house.)

The items we brought by hand we knew would be under scrutiny, so we went through declarations and explained it all to the customs officer. Certain items were antique, and fell within the non-taxable rules. Other things...well, this puzzled me, but maybe there was a rule about it I didn't know. We were quite open about everything. He let us pass, no problem, no paperwork, no extra tax. But we did explain it was part of the first time entering as a 'resident' and that other things were coming by container. There were questions about age of antiques, value of other things, total value that we carried. Trust me, it was well over the normal 'tourist' allowance, and I think it was important that we did say it was part of a move.

This was my own experience. And this was several years ago. Regulations could be increased due to the tense times.

I do know the latest thing when I crossed the Atlantic last month is that they are now asking everyone to unlock, and keep unlocked, their check-through luggage. I also noted our bags, as we collected them at Heathrow, came through with a green sticker. Signs on the wall identified those labels as being okay to take through 'nothing to declare'. Other stickers were shown in red, etc. telling people if their bags had those stickers to take luggage through declarations.

Frankly, we brought back lots of things that we'd bought on the trip. We'd fully expected to go through declarations. (Much of what we bought was for business and although we would have paid tax on them, we would also have claimed the VAT back...to us it would have just been paperwork.) My point is that we were prescreened and that may be a new policy. But, this is starting to get away from your question.

I can't answer for today's rules, but the above was my own experience. We were open about everything, and didn't have to pay any extra.
Married to Graham, we run our own open-source computer training company in beautiful Wiltshire out of our 1814 Georgian Regency home (a former lodging house and once featured in Antiques Roadshow)


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Re: What to declare...how does it work?
« Reply #2 on: January 19, 2003, 05:49:07 PM »
I have only done the opposite journey to you, but I wouldn't worry about anything, unless you arrive with everything sealed in brand new packaging nobody will pay any attention, in fact it is highly unlikely that anything you send in a shipping container (whether yours alone, or shared) will be inspected by customs.  Our shipping agent reported that the seal on our frieght container was intact when it was delivered to his facility in Baltimore, and this was after 9/11!

One other thought; there are 260 working days in a year and there are hundreds of thousands of immigrants into the UK every year.  Now I know that not all immigrants have a house full of things, but many will, so you can be sure that there are hundreds of other people having things arrive on the same day as you.  As they have limited staff, customs will not be doing an inventory of your things against a packing list, at most they'll turn a sniffer dog loose on the keyside as your things are unloaded.

Breathe easy and don't worry! :)
Richard


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Re: What to declare...how does it work?
« Reply #3 on: January 20, 2003, 02:29:18 PM »
We had our household goods shipped via container through a moving company.  We didn't declare anything, except a few bottles of perfume (I was following the law to the letter!) The container arrived at our new home with the seal intact, so it wasn't opened by customs.  

We didn't declare anything in our luggage upon arrival, either, and we weren't stopped or anything.  Just walked right through the lanes marked "Nothing to declare."  That was in October 2002.

HTH,
Stephanie


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