Comment · Fri, May 29, 2020
heads up for UK peeps
What they were answering
caybabes · 3 points
I think the tax charged was correct, but the change you described in the way mail is being handled could have been the cause.
We get charged 20% tax on all items arriving from outside the EU declared at £15 or over, see here - https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty. Royal Mail then charge a flat £8 fee on top of this for collecting the tax from you.
I bought 3 items in my last order with the standard DHL shipping, which was valued at $30, so I should have been charged the equivalent of $6 in tax and the £8 handling fee.
I was pleasantly surprised when it wasn't checked by customs, so I wasn't charged any additional fees. In my experience, standard international mail gets checked by customs far less than express mail.
Consequently, it would be better if you declared items at 5$ each for us UK customers, as we could then buy 3 items with a guarantee of no import tax, instead of just 1. This is what all the Chinese eBay/AliExpress/Wish sellers normally do for us as well to get around the limit. (My current phone was declared by the seller at $10 lol)
Edit: didn't need op's breakdown of what they were charged, looks like it was wrong after all. The point about lowering the value you declare items at still remains though :)
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Let me speak to the team about that. That could be a possibility with the $5 per item.