Import Duty on Returned Items.

Gassage

A mate of mine is a well respected artisan cricket bat maker- one man band, very good craftsman, lifestyle biz making great, bespoke bats, low vol, high quality...like Jayden or @Felineguitars on here.

Some kid in the US has been so obnoxious about his bats not being right (and believe me, this is endemic from 16 year olds in cricket who just blame their bat for their ongoing crapness) and was so rude to my mate on a global cricket forum, he's taken the bats back as returns.

He's now lumbered with having to pay import duty for his troubles which is a total pisstake.

Does anyone know if there's legislation or legal rules or protocol for this?

Ta
James.

Sporky

I had this happen with a pedal once; I wrote to the Customs people, explained what had happened, provided the original email order and the proof of postage and they refunded me.

I suspect there's also a "proper" way to do this, and I don't recommend trying it if you're not legit with your taxes.

FelineGuitars

As Sporky said there should be a proper way to take back returns or goods under warranty  without paying import duties...

ThorpyFX

It's called a HMRC bor286 form....

ThorpyFX

Also, if he is vat registered he can get the customer to write "warranty return" on the package and his vat number, as well as mark it as zero value on the customs form (legitimate as its broken) it can still be insured to the full value though.

ArchtopDave

On a slightly different tack, I've had to refuse to accept a purchase recently (music software upgrade on a USB) from Canada. The Courier here in the UK was insistent that I owed another £48 on a purchase that initially cost me the equivalent of £100. Fortunately I can download this particular upgrade, though it will take me 16 hours or more (4 evenings) to do so.

Flink_Poyd

ArchtopDave said:

On a slightly different tack, I've had to refuse to accept a purchase recently (music software upgrade on a USB) from Canada. The Courier here in the UK was insistent that I owed another £48 on a purchase that initially cost me the equivalent of £100. Fortunately I can download this particular upgrade, though it will take me 16 hours or more (4 evenings) to do so.

Its not the courier, its the Government. We have to collect it on their behalf plus a fee for doing all the dirty work and paying the fee so it gets to you faster. Id love to know what will happen if we vote out of the EU, I could be explaining this about 30 times a day.

https://www.gov.uk/goods-sent-from-abroad/tax-and-duty

Wazmeister

"Warranty Return" written on has always worled for me

ArchtopDave

I was just being brief in my comment. I was expecting to pay a Customs charge, but the £48, which pretty much equates to 48%, is a lot more than just Customs. If I read that Tax link right, I should have paid VAT plus a bit to the Courrier for doing the 'paperwork'.