Do you import items and want to work out what the VAT and Duty will cost? A friend pointed me to a useful site today which will calculate the costs for you. Duty Calculator will figure out the tax due when importing an item based on the costs and the country you’re purchasing from.
If you’re buying from an eBay site you can simply enter the eBay item number to get the tax calculated for you.
There’s a free option which allows you to perform up to 10 import duty calculations per month with paid plans available if you import on a regular basis.
Next time you’re making a purchase from overseas Duty Calculator is a great site to find out how much tax you’ll have to pay and to make sure the tax man doesn’t spring any nasty surprises when the item is delivered.
15 Responses
I’ve imported before, and Parcelforce gave me a import Tax bill. This website will come in handy.
tax on an import is one thing but when the buggers charge for a buyer returning an item its a bit annoying
even moreso when they treat dollars as pounds and the sender has marked the item as twice what they paid for insurance
I import quite a lot, mostly english antiques, so no duty and VAT at 5%. Royal Mail and Parcelforce usually get it right, the others not so often. The handling fee is £8 for regular services but more, I think £14.50, for express services.
Avoid Fedex like the plague, they always charge maximum whatever, add duty and VAT at maximum rate even when all the paperwork is correct. Their handling fees I recall are slightly more too. Fedex also charge 5% for insurance against loss only on many items, that’s 5% of the value of the goods not the shipping charge. So you can easily end up paying more in insurance just for them to do what they have contracted to do, or you think you have contracted to do unless you have read volumes of small print.
Same exporting via Fedex, my customers in states in the USA where there is zero taxes/duties on antiques still have been charged by Fedex. When one of my customers found out and queried a year old charge Fedex said they couldn’t so anything about it because the transaction had been deleted from their computer! Dealing with complaints with them is like any call centre/email correspondence, wasting time with irrelevances and repeats on purpose hoping you’ll give up. Airsure is a better service and insurable up to £500, just have to work around the 2Kg weight limit if it’s possible. Instead of Fedex think Defex, one of the ugly faces of corporatism.
So again, like sending I find receiving is best by Royal Mail despite what the management has done to the business the workers still try to and mostly succeed in providing great service.
Hi,I always use DHL for importing from China.No probs,except through customs.
Insist on an EORI No,otherwise no probs.
Sorry for being a bit thick but i import sometimes and try and keep within the limit for charges
But if i wanted to import more from say dealextreme (china) how do you know/select which carrier you might get.
One little tip, I have found is ask the supplier (in the country of origin) to arrange the shipping & then pay them.
On several occasions we have found the Chinese branch of say DHL, charge alot less than arranging it via the UK DHL.
Thanks for mentioning our site. We also have a service especially for eBay items, where you just have to enter the eBay item ID to get an estimate of import duties and taxes: https://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-cost-calculation-for-ebay-item/