The_Late_Peter_Cook

Some good and bad news.

Good :)

A Run For Your Money, the rarely shown 1949 Ealing comedy which stars Alec Guiness and Joan Greenwood makes it debut on DVD next month.

Bad

Not only is it a R1 release, it's also available only as part of a box set (the others being The Titfield Thunderbolt, Passport To Pimlico, Whiskey Galore and The "Maggie"). The reason I say it's bad news is that Run is the only movie I require as I already have the others on DVD and video and if I'm to get it I'll not only have to pay out for films I already own, I'll have to pay inport duty on top of that.

Steve Crook

Do you (or others) often have to pay import duty?
I buy a lot of stuff from the States, especially with the pound/dollar exchange as it is, and I only get hit for import duty on about 1 in 20 or so items, if that.
It seems to make no difference what the sender puts on the customs declaration. They can say it's expensive & valuable or a free gift, still some of them get stopped & opened by the customs. Of those, a few get import duty imposed. But the bigger expense is that charged by the Customs for opening the item!

Steve

smudge

The opening charge is made by Parcelforce/Post Office Steve, not Customs.

Rule of thumb is that under £18.00 value = no duty. That value is calculated using CIF (Carriage, Freight, Insurance) and not just the net value of the disc/s.

It IS galling when you've only just tipped the duty band and the duty and VAT aren't so bad, but the P Office charge is £4.oo for opening a small parcel !!! Arrgh !

The figures are on the declaration ; why they just can't calculate it as a paper transaction and reduce their charges, I'll never know.

My experience is that if it comes via Mount Pleasant SO (London) you'll get charged, but the local Hub at Coventry is much more hit & miss...

Swings and roundabouts !

You should also realise that even if the seller (ie on an EBay) makes a declaration of GIFT to try to help you out, if you've asked for it or not, you are the one who is liable to offence action once it hits these shores.

In the early days it seemed that nothing with an Amazon label was being dutied, as it was assumed they were all books.

SMUDGE

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

The_Late_Peter_Cook

Smudge is right, the limit is £17.99 and anything over it is liable to income duty (and I think that the Post Office also tends to charge a couple of pounds on top of that)

There's a couple of sites where the company pay s the duty on your behalf (and it's included in the price you pay) but the likes of Amazon and Play don't do that and whenever I've bought stuff over the limit from them I've usually (or, to be accurate, my dad as I'm usually at work) had to go down to my local Post Office and pay around £8.

Steve Crook

I must be just lucky then. As I'm in London I'd guess most of mine come through Mount Pleasant (just down the road from Sadler's Wells).

I've bought all sorts of things from the States and other countries. They were rarely given a detailed description on the customs declaration form. Quite a lot of them are of value way in excess of £18. Some are obviously so if anyone cared to look, some are even declared to be so on the declaration. I've bought from Amazon but also from lots of other companies and lots of individual sellers. I've bought videos, DVDs, cassettes & LPs, books, photos, posters.

I've rarely had to pay any extra charges.

Maybe I'd better just keep quiet about it

Steve