Getting gifts from the US

Here's another import duty question for you. My sister decided to cough up on the international shipping and to buy christmas gifts on Amazon and just have them shipped from the states. Will I have to pay import duties, though, when they come?

Tell her to buy them from Amazon.co.uk and you won't.

so if she's already placed the order, I _will_ have to pay import duty?

I shouldn't think so. I've never been charged import tax when I've recieved something from home.

I've been charged VAT on purchases from US websites (amazon, etc) upon delivery. I'd get a postcard saying how much was owed upon delivery.  

So instead, I've taken to delivering stuff to my parents house and then bribing them to send it along to me under the guise of "gift". (Like my 10 dvd Muppets set!  )

Otherwise, on the smaller US online companies I've ordered from, they have kindly put a lower value on the items for the customs form and sent as gift as well just to be sure.

Bad me, I know.

I've been charged VAT on purchases from US websites (amazon, etc) upon delivery. I'd get a postcard saying how much was owed upon delivery.  

So instead, I've taken to delivering stuff to my parents house and then bribing them to send it along to me under the guise of "gift". (Like my 10 dvd Muppets set!  )

Otherwise, on the smaller US online companies I've ordered from, they have kindly put a lower value on the items for the customs form and sent as gift as well just to be sure.

Bad me, I know.

In the future buy from the UK sites. It'd probably be cheaper for you.

My question was not about if I myself bought from Amazon.com. My sister, who is in the US, has bought something from Amazon.com for me, and is using Amazon.com to ship it here to England. I was wondering if I had to incur import duty upon delivery even if I wasn't the shipper.

I do usually buy from UK sites first but sometimes the items "that I so desperately need"   are only from the US.

Before I moved and sent items from the US to the UK via large websites (ie: vermont teddy bear, amazon, etc), the recipient was also charged VAT even though I had already paid for the items and any US tax.  I forget what the justification was of this when the recipient inquired but it was something along the line to discourage people buying things from other countries that were available in the UK already...or something like that.

Hopefully, you'll get lucky and avoid the VAT! Fingers crossed!

Thanks Lynn! I think I will hit my sister up for the Vat since this was her good bloody idea...

It depends on the value of the item, gift or not. My mother sent me some curtains, put gift and $100 on the value (doh), and I had to pay some £18-20 duty on delivery. Not sure what the cut off level is.....

Customs and Excise website says about merchandise:

Customs duty and VAT (if due) is payable on goods that you buy over the Internet and import into the UK from countries outside the EU unless their value is below £18.

Doesn't say about Gifts specifically.

As I said, maybe you'll get lucky...and hopefully you will!!!  

When I sent the teddy bear as a gift from the US, I think they didn't put 'gift' on the customs form (which is was) and that caused VAT to be paid when rec'd in the UK.

A lot of the smaller webshops will put gift if you ask nicely, though as they're usually shocked at the 17.5%!

We sent our friends a gift las year that we insured for $100 (it was a piece of original art and expensive) and they paid 30 pounds on it, even tho it was marked "gift".  When they complained they were told Customs would be really cracking down.  I could well be wrong, but I believe you're allowed like 30 pounds worth of stuff per person per day...so maybe you'll be lucky and your sister won't have spent much on you.

Sorry I didn't understand from your first post that she had already purchased the items...and I hope for your sake she didn't buy you DVDs or videos!

noooooo! she DID buy DVDs. why is this bad?

noooooo! she DID buy DVDs. why is this bad?

DVDs you buy on Amazon.com are American, that is, they are formatted for Region one viewing.  England is not region one, so your DVD player would read a different format (this is to thwart video/DVD piracy, since most things are released here first).

Maybe your DVD player is formatted for region one, but if not, I hate to be the one to tell you that the DVDs will likely be unviewable by you.

(If you go on Amazon, it will tell you what region the DVD is formatted for, and I believe you can click on a better explanation than mine).

Has the item shipped?

Oh, I thought if I was getting DVDs as a gift I'd have to pay a higher percentage in VAT. Our DVD player is formatted for region one, so that's ok.