What are people's experience with customs and importing Spat Armour?

I'm going to be ordering 3 sets (2 regular, one recon), for me and my airsoft team, but would rather know as much as I can about the "unknown quantity" in the cost so I can give them and myself an estimate. I mean, have people had varying experience with this and added duty on import?

The other option is to get it sent to one of my company's US offices, and get them to forward it as company property between branch's. I assume logic would suggest that would come under a different category?

3rd option - fly to NY and pick it up when its done!!!

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
SFC Steve "Fireball" Parsons - A08/TQ1.0.52150E1
69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homers Heroes

Even picking up yourself can mean you still get charges

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPort ... ROD_008654

That's the most succinct guidance you'll get.....Generally, anything more than £50 in value and/or bigger than a small jiffy bag will get duty assigned to it.

Something the size of Spat's armour will almost certainly get looked inside of- even if they decide it doesn't require import duty (rare!) you'll have to contribute to the Compulsory Parcelforce Beer & Cakes fund to the tune of £17....Or their standard release fee as it's more commonly known..

My general advice to anyone importing and considering attempting to evade Customs Tax:
Tax evasion is a crime and one that's painfully easy to get caught for: Famous gangster, racketeer and murderer Al Capone was only convicted of one crime- Tax evasion....Think on

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2nd Lt Jon "Jaylo" Lopez
A11/TQ1.0.72144E1
USCM Quality Assurance Division- Aerospace and Space Products- Earth
"Checklists Save Lives- No Service Stations at 30,000ft"

I also find that it depends a lot on how its sent every item I have had priority mail gets stopped where 1st class has not I even had 2 of the same items sent over priority one got charged

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

But my with my armour I was charged £35 including the £8 parcelfarce ransom fee

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

I list the armor as "Plastic Replica Display Armor". Which should knock it into one of the lower VAT category. I know that (from experience) when I used to list it as a "Costume", it would get taxed as if it were clothing, which is one of the highest categories.

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-Spat

Well that's really not that bad, I was thinking it was going be horrendous. Thanks for the replies tho guys, and the link demoncase. Seems its a slight lottery, but just part of the deal eh.

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
SFC Steve "Fireball" Parsons - A08/TQ1.0.52150E1
69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homers Heroes

All items imported into the UK (from outside the EU) are subject to Custom Duty and VAT.

Doing some quick math, just to give you idea. (Rounding up to make the math easier)

Two sets of standard armour at $650/£440 and one set of Recon at $250/£190

So that's a total cost of £1070.

Custom duty is normally between 5 and 9 percent of the total item cost (according to the HMRC website) so going with 7% that's going to be £75. Though, depending on what category your item gets put into it, it could be as much as 85%.

Then you will be charged VAT. At 20%, that works out as £214.

I can't remember if VAT is charged on the Custom Duty as well. Knowing how much they like to rip people off, it probably is.

So yeah, you could be looking at import costs of nearly £300.

And then there's Royal Mail's charges on clearing the package from customs for you.

It's for you to weigh up the chance of having to pay those charges (and it's getting more and more unikely that they will get through without them), or eat the cost of shipping and have them sent as three individual sets and hope the lower value on the custom form lets them slip through.

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"You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water."

Vicky the cost will not be anywhere near that amount ,as i said i was charged in total £35 but remember i do import alot of things as your aware from my facebook rants lol, you pay customs duty or excise duty not both then the vat on top excise duty is normally for tobbaco or booze also items are given a 'commodity code' This tells you what the Customs Duty rate percentage is for that particular product. so its not solely based on its value


http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/customs/post/internet.htm#1

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

You can claim the Royal Mail/Parcelforce fee back as they are supposed to ask you for your consent to release it from customs.
They never do as there would be a huge back-log of unreleased mail.

Your supposed to have the option to go to the customs building and pick the item up and/or contest the customs charges if you feel they have over (or under...) charged.

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AKA: Simon

I know it's unlikely to be that much but that's what it could be. It depends on what category the item gets put in. As far as I know there isn't one for 'plastic armour for people that like to dress up as characters from a film'. You might have been lucky and been charged 0% for Custom Duty.

Import VAT is charged on the item's value.

From the HMRC website (bold type is my emphasis) -



A package valued at $1000 on the custom declaration is going to get a lot of interest from the inspectors.

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"You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water."

But again its not so much the value as the type of item, you will pay more on say £1000 of car parts than you would £1000 string and i have had good well over £15 that have not had any charges at all oh and i believe its £17 now

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

Oh yeah, it definitely depends on the category your item gets put under as to how much custom duty you pay. Thing is, there are no hard and fast rules (apart from things like alcohol and cigarettes) so it depends on the inspector. If they're having a good day they might let the whole thing through without any charges. It's the risk you have to take when buying things from abroad.

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"You know, you blow up one sun and suddenly everyone expects you to walk on water."

What she said

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SSgt Kris "Bloodsucker" Kobus, VAS.
A09/TQ2.0.12136E1

"If they're having a good day" - Pretty much what I expected. I'll just stop pussyfooting about and get it ordered then...!

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
SFC Steve "Fireball" Parsons - A08/TQ1.0.52150E1
69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homers Heroes

Avoiding tax is a crime


VAT is charged on the Declared value on the packet

Don't forget they charge VAT on the cost of shipping too!

At no point did I suggest I was trying to avoid tax - the question was what can I expect to pay on the items, imported to the UK, based on everybody else's personal experiences.

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
SFC Steve "Fireball" Parsons - A08/TQ1.0.52150E1
69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homers Heroes

I didn't say you were ( disclosure for anyone who might think that I would endorse such behaviour)

See point two from personal experience

Edit: This website is good for deciding what code you goods fit into [url]gov.uk/trade-tariff/sections[/url]

He means declaring a £1000 item as worth £300 will mean one of two things:

1. You get the VAT & customs charges based on the declared £300

2. The custom officer knows it's actually worth £1000 by looking at the x-ray and you get in the shit.

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AKA: Simon

1, I'll have number 1 please.

Of course the down side would be if the parcel were to get lost then the insurance on your £300 item would be £300

That would indeed suck, MASSIVELY!

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Si vis pacem, para bellum
SFC Steve "Fireball" Parsons - A08/TQ1.0.52150E1
69th Regt. 1st Batt. Homers Heroes