UK Duty on gifts

If you go onto the Gov.UK site they have info on VAT and duty payable on goods coming into the country.

Here is the link:
www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad

When my son sends anything from NZ they undervalue it on the form on the back of the parcel if it’s worth more than the duty quota Obviously if it’s precious and went astray you wouldn’t get the proper price back but it worked for us so far ever since he sent me a watch and I paid nearly half as much of it’s worth in duty

In future , why not order the gifts on line from a UK supplier? Then you pay in your currency and it gets delivered with no problems.

I’m surprised that you want to circumvent the duty and that some people lie about the contents value!

I recently had to pay when I was sent a parcel from Australia. I'm in England. The notes accompanying the demand for payment said 1) Items valued over £135 will attract import duty, 2) Gifts valued over £39 will attract VAT (20%). In addition, a Royal Mail handling fee of £8 applies.

Could you send your gifts separately (hopefully with each parcel being less than £39 in value) so that no charges apply?

Oopsadaisy these items were not available in the UK

It is only recently that a duty has been put on such a low value. I an understand a charge when it is a commercial transaction but not when it’s a genuine gift.

Notnecessarilywiser, that may be an option but I would need to work out cost of extra postage against duty. It may be much of a muchness.

If the gift is posted from Northern Ireland then duty wont have to be paid. From what I hear, many items don't get picked up by customs, we have neighbours with family in the USA who frequently send gifts. Be careful sending perfume. I sent some internally in the UK , well packaged etc and got loads of earache about it! Apparently it was classed as dangerous.

Thanks for the link Marydoll