Montana Smith said:
I think the limit is only around £8, and if you break that you get the customs fee and the Royal Mail £8 sting.
Link
This is the Customs and Excise link for all you curious UK fans out there. Looks like (
as a rough rule of thumb), you are likely to get caught with anything having an intrinsic value of £18 or more (
it's unclear whether shipping fees are included). This limit is for "commercial items" arriving from outside of the EU - whereas "gifts" have a limit of £40 (
check the customs form - they are marked differently). It gets a little more complex after that point. Now, you should only have to pay Import VAT on your item (
it's not subject to excise as it's not tobacco, alcohol etc) - and this is charged at the regular VAT rate. However, if Royal Mail decides to pay that for you (
you have little choice in the matter in reality) they enforce an additional charge for 'doing you a favour'. This is where the real sting is - Royal Mail state "Any package assessed by HM Revenue and Customs as being liable for Customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8".
So, for example, an item with a value of £20 will potentially cost you:
£20 (item cost) + £3.50 (Import Tax @ 17.5%) + £8 (Royal Mail handling fee) = £31.50
Trust me, I've gone through this many times before
However, you could be lucky - Customs don't pull
every package. Sometimes you forget that the EU and the rest of the world are actually engaged in a trade war...