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    Default UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Do you have any experience buying a pen from the UK and having it sent to the US?

    Are there any import fees, taxes or other expenses incurred or does it simply arrive?

    I’ve bought a few pens from Japan and not had any issues but I’m considering a purchase from the UK and it would be my first.

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    FPG Donor ♕ Chrissy's Avatar
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    It's unlikely that you would have to pay anything but it depends on the price. I think the import level before you would be charged any import tax is $300. Below this level it would simply arrive.
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Yikes. The pen is just over $300. 🤔

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Dillon View Post
    Yikes. The pen is just over $300. 🤔
    Presumably you'll only be liable for %s over the tax-free value?

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Rather better than going in the other direction...
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Deb View Post
    Rather better than going in the other direction...
    Absolutely right. Much better in fact. We can import £15 worth of goods before taxes and duties are added. Not much can even get mailed here for that.
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Why not ask the seller to declare the value on the shipping label as just under $300?

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Thanks to everyone for your replies.

    I’m going to reach out to the seller and begin a conversation.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Blue Note View Post
    Why not ask the seller to declare the value on the shipping label as just under $300?
    The value of the item for tax purposes is determined by the customs official, not by the receipt from the seller. Otherwise everybody would falsify their receipts. If the customs official decides it's worth $300
    then that's the value he uses to calculate any duty. Whether you paid $3 or $3000 is not relevant.

    Here in the UK import duties on low value items seem quite arbitrary and are determined by the whims of customs officers. I've bought lawnmower parts from the USA for up to £100 which have escaped any duty,
    yet used cameras bought for £80 from Japan have attracted £16 duty plus a £15 collection fee from the Post Office. All the cheap stuff I've bought from China has so far arrived without import duties, and quite often I've bought very cheap items (below £3) which cost less overall
    than they would cost to post within the UK. How is that possible? And have our politicians stopped to wonder why we are overrun by cheap Chinese goods which rarely comply with our safety standards.

    And while I'm on the subject, until very recently we were members of the European Union. We could import or export goods entirely tax free and without any effort from anywhere within the EU. Not any longer. We could also also choose to visit or live or work or study anywhere in the EU. Millions of us did those things and greatly enjoyed it, and millions of Europeans came here and greatly enriched our culture. But as a result of Brexit all of that has stopped. We inflicted this upon ourselves. Utterly astonishing madness!!!!!
    Last edited by emver; January 30th, 2021 at 06:25 PM.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by emver View Post

    And while I'm on the subject, until very recently we were members of the European Union. We could import or export goods entirely tax free and without any effort from anywhere within the EU. Not any longer. We could also also choose to visit or live or work or study anywhere in the EU. Millions of us did those things and greatly enjoyed it, and millions of Europeans came here and greatly enriched our culture. But as a result of Brexit all of that has stopped. We inflicted this upon ourselves. Utterly astonishing madness!!!!!
    You could never import and export goods as a personal buyer entirely tax free in the EU pre-brexit. The tax is paid in the country that sells you the product. Now post brexit for certain goods you can claim the tax back if you shop on the continent and take it back to UK, also now for online purchase the VAT is removed if you buy from UK and ship into EU which then adds its VAT rate dependent on the country. You could benefit from the pound to euro exchange rate but that is a seperate thing.

    Apologies for cutting the quote down by the way.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    For him to break the law?

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Linger View Post
    For him to break the law?
    I’m not comfortable to ask that but the price is just over 300 so I’m going to see if they are open to an offer just under.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Dillon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Linger View Post
    For him to break the law?
    I’m not comfortable to ask that but the price is just over 300 so I’m going to see if they are open to an offer just under.
    I would guess that he is much more likely to agree to write the value as $300 than to agree to actually sell it to you for less. The value of an item does not necessarily have to exactly match the price paid for it. It can be what it is worth. However, what he writes will need to be the insurance value.
    That's not breaking the law.
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Chrissy View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Dillon View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Linger View Post
    For him to break the law?
    .
    I would guess that he is much more likely to agree to write the value as $300 than to agree to actually sell it to you for less. The value of an item does not necessarily have to exactly match the price paid for it. It can be what it is worth. However, what he writes will need to be the insurance value. That's not breaking the law.
    One thing to think about when requesting a lower value is, as Chrissy has noted, that value becomes your insurance value — if the pen gets lost or damaged, the declared value, not the purchase price, will be all that the courier will reimburse. If the difference is big enough, you could be out of pocket as well as out of pen.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    I've bought two pens from Mr. Pen in the UK - - no taxes/duty in either case. Ditto my Conid Bulkfiller from Belgium and some Omas pens from Singapore. But . . . several years ago I bought a Nettuno Docet from a seller in Italy and did have to pay a small duty - - about $20.00, if I recall correctly, on a $500.00 pen.

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert View Post
    I've bought two pens from Mr. Pen in the UK - - no taxes/duty in either case. Ditto my Conid Bulkfiller from Belgium and some Omas pens from Singapore. But . . . several years ago I bought a Nettuno Docet from a seller in Italy and did have to pay a small duty - - about $20.00, if I recall correctly, on a $500.00 pen.
    Excellent!

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    I've purchased a few pens from Grandmia and never had to pay any taxes. Things might change if the US leaves the postal organization that I can't remember the name of.
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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Well, I guess with vintage pens you do have a valid point: price does not have to equal value.

    However, declaring a lower value than the price received, in this context, which is the assessment of import duties and taxes due, seems to me a clear case of tax evasion (and not tax avoidance).

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Quote Originally Posted by Linger View Post
    Well, I guess with vintage pens you do have a valid point: price does not have to equal value.

    However, declaring a lower value than the price received, in this context, which is the assessment of import duties and taxes due, seems to me a clear case of tax evasion (and not tax avoidance).
    Our C&E form doesn't ask for the price received. It asks for item value. Your C&E may be different. OP is buying an item from the UK, so our export rules and his import rules will apply.
    Our C&E doesn't especially care what someone might have paid for something. They just want a general assessment of value as written on the form by the sender. I have personally spoken to our C&E. They advised me that an assessment of value can be the original value, or the wholesale value, or any value that the sender wants to write on there for insurance purposes.
    If the OP said to me will you sell it to me for less than $300 or value it at $300, I would be happier to do the latter than the former.
    As an example let's say I sold a bottle of Parker Penman Sapphire ink for a high price. I can value it at the original price Parker sold it for, or the price I paid for it, or what I sold it for - if I want to insure it for that amount. Any of those could be my legal assessment of value. None of them is tax avoidance or tax evasion.
    Last edited by Chrissy; September 23rd, 2019 at 02:18 AM.
    Regards, Chrissy | My Review Blog: inkyfountainpens

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    Default Re: UK to USA: Import or Taxes?

    Thanks Chrissie, for an extensive answer. I would still argue that the actual price paid is a very good indicator of the real/current/fair/etc. value of the good - in these circumstances. But if your customs officer accepts a lower amount for the assessment of taxes and duties due - go for it. Bytheway, that the declared value also holds validity for the insured value does make a case stonger (or weaker...).

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