FedEx our computers, asking about insurance and duties

My local FedEx shipping guy said if we insure our computers he has to put that value in the tax and duties section.

Is that going to get us stung?, was wanting to put insurance at 3k. 2 gaming rigs and 2 x 24" monitors.

He knows to mark them down as personal items so I'm a tad confused.. Do I have to risk not insuring them?

Hi,

When importing these products into the UK, you will need the paperwork to show a value for them regardless if there's insurance or not on the cost of 'shipping' them.

When the units arrive here, either all of some of these - Import Tax, VAT or excise duty will apply. The agents will look at the values given from which to base their calculations.

don't be tempted to deliberately declare a purposely 'low' value - it's one of the oldest tricks in the book and HMRC officials aren't stupid ! they also have access to pricing lists of pretty much anything you can buy to 'check up on pricing' - so don't write the 3K gaming rig as a $250 computer.

If you 'don't' include insurance, and the package goes missing, you won't be able to claim. If you decide to take insurance and write down the value (please don't!) if it goes missing, you'll only be able to claim the amount you wrote it for.

Personal items are subject to the above taxes, regardless if they're new or 2nd hand and there's no such thing in reality as being 'stung' for the taxes as they can be looked up and found out about very easily - http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document#P28_2966

I import quite a bit from the US and more so in the future, so I'd suggest fully insuring your items and calculating the landed costs from the above info. The only 'real' way to reduce that landed cost, is to find a cheaper shipping fee in your case, or, perhaps forgo the monitors and get ones from here.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

There's actually a special section on HMRC's website for moving to the UK:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/arriving/moving.htm

and

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageLibrary_PublicNoticesAndInfoSheets&propertyType=document&columns=1&id=HMCE_CL_000282#P160_19509

It says you shouldn't have to pay anything but there is a special form you have to fill out.

Hi,

LeisaB - thanks for that link about the possible relief from the duty etc. I need to 'update' my knowledge for that as well! with the items I/we've imported, it's always been new and the only 2nd hand item was a Ford F150 truck in 2004 - I can't remember if we were allowed any reliefs though.

Cheers, DtM! West London & Slough UK!

Thanks for the replies.

We decided to take the risk, money back was less an issue than the contents of them anyhow. Given the joyful news that our container was heavier than expected and extra will be due for that we are trying to balance costs.

I knew they should be exempt from tax and duties due to the fact they were personal belongings and we have just been through all the forms with the container. FedEx contacted me today to get the customs forms. Interestingly they let the monitors through but held towers back.

Morkai - I'm curious, how much did it cost to ship your computers via Fedex?  (Don't feel like you have to answer if you don't want).  We have a couple of towers, a monitor, games console etc so I think we'll have to go this route too.  Do you feel happier shipping the computers this way rather than with your other belongings?

Heh, actually I don't know, he reckoned about $500, it was the day before we flew and pretty much a case of whatever it takes. We did not want to wait 6-8 weeks for them to come in our container so this was pretty much the only choice.

He still has our weapons to ship so hasn't charged us yet, he wanted to see how the computers went through customs as far as the whole personal belongings thing. He quoted me approx 1k for all of it and I told him that was okay.

I've used the guy several times in the past and he is a good guy, I knew he wouldn't scam or screw us.