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Group Ordering USA to UK


Jay2

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There are great group orders from Europe into the UK, and I hear about a group grading order too, but does anyone do any group ordering or arranged deliveries from the USA to the UK?

I keep hearing about their near-spot purchases & below-spot junk, and it would be brilliant if there's some way to arrange it to save participants money collectively.

 

I assume the major problem would be customs interception. Would that only apply to silver, for VAT purposes? And is import duty / VAT charged on all kinds of silver even if it's government minted with face values?

I suspect I'll just have to stick with GS.be orders for silver. As for gold, still shopping around to find a good place for Sovs, until my local antique shop gets some in.

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Thanks, Fin. So the only workaround would be to riskily undervalue your delivery as a cheap gift.

Not too wise, considering some of the manhandling at customs I've heard about.

I notice that 'gold investment coins' are VAT exempt even if ordered from overseas. I guess that's something, at least.

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Numismatic silver coins and medallions - [which in my book is anything much above spot metal value] should be charged at 5% VAT. This is covered at length in this thread.

i have only once been charged VAT on a couple of medallions from China which i did not dispute as the VAT was a very small amount compared with the actual value of the silver medallions.

The parcel will either pass through with no charges or you will get hit for 20%. I have received quite a few parcels from outside the EU and only got extorted once.

There are some super buys in the US in silver, not so much gold. These are especially when it comes to silver bars where the variety and prices cannot be beaten. These will get 20% VAT if customs get hold of the parcel. There is also the shipping which is not cheap which can make the whole exercise nonviable unless of course there were a big buy 

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When I first started collecting I bought all my gold and silver from the states the company I used has  a brilliant customer service almost worth sticking with over the European companies selling silver with rubbish cc and delivery was within a week 95% of the time once it shipped it was with me within 2 days before 12 dinner it's mad I know on every order I received small silver bars and stackers also coins vat was 20% gold was 0%

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Cheers, @sixgun will have a look. And yeah I was thinking of very big buys in this case.

If the rate of customs extortion is really low it could average out worthwhile in the long run.

So long as delivery doesn't negate the premium saving it might be doable after all. I might get a friend in Oklahoma to start sending me silver then.

 

@Silverhunter what company?

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I have ordered coins from the USA in the past and been in a business that imported lots of goods from the USA.

All goods have to be declared for their proper value or you and the shipper are committing an offence so there can be penalties if the authorities decide to investigate.
Under-declaring PMs exposes you to the risk of theft, loss or damage.  If you import $1000 value of silver coins with a declared value of $100 then you will be covered for $100 maximum loss when submitting paperwork.

Everything hitting these shores is hit by 20% VAT on the package value including freight and possibly another handling fee which can be around £10 or a percentage of the VAT amount for larger value shipments. There is a reduced rate of VAT for numis of 5% but in most instances you have to make a claim to recover overpaid VAT.

Do your calculations carefully as what appears on first glance as cheap sometimes doesn't work out the deal you imagined after adding freight, VAT, fees and currency conversion with transfer fees etc.
 

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1 hour ago, Pete said:

There is a reduced rate of VAT for numis of 5% but in most instances you have to make a claim to recover overpaid VAT

Be wary of couriers such as FEDEX who will try to charge you something like £40 -50 for the "extra administrative work" involved in recovering the overpaid VAT. Unless the package has the correct code for just the 5% tax, they regard this as "not their fault" and will try it on. Best way with this lot is to refuse to pay any of their collection charges as you didn't give them permission or entered into a contract with them to act as your agent in these matters.

Items delivered by Royal Mail are straightforward as you claim the overpaid VAT direct from customs.

Profile picture with thanks to Carl Vernon

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22 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

Be wary of couriers such as FEDEX who will try to charge you something like £40 -50 for the "extra administrative work" involved in recovering the overpaid VAT. Unless the package has the correct code for just the 5% tax, they regard this as "not their fault" and will try it on. Best way with this lot is to refuse to pay any of their collection charges as you didn't give them permission or entered into a contract with them to act as your agent in these matters.

Items delivered by Royal Mail are straightforward as you claim the overpaid VAT direct from customs.

As I regularly have lots from US auctions I would say that from my experience, FedEx causes more issues than any other courier and everything usually gets stopped. I have Heritage combine lots from multiple weekly auctions so I only have to have one 'discussion' on delivery instead of several, other auction houses seem to be happy to use whichever courier you wish. I have never had to claim tax back as I have always queried it before payment and paid the 5% or zero for gold (along with their fee even after the customs code was proven to be correct?) - they usually want to see the invoice though!

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13 minutes ago, SilverTanner said:

I have always queried it before payment and paid the 5% or zero for gold

Yes that is the key. However, many dealers/suppliers don't seem to have the flexibily to use the correct customs code.

As an aside, I have tried several times to persuade the Perth Mint to use the correct 5% customs code for numismatics deliveried to the UK and the EU in general, so far without success. Perhaps if others tried also:)

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4 hours ago, sovereignsteve said:

As an aside, I have tried several times to persuade the Perth Mint to use the correct 5% customs code for numismatics deliveried to the UK and the EU in general, so far without success. Perhaps if others tried also:)

I've never ordered from the Perth Mint but all Aussie coins bought privately or through eBay-AUS, despite the 5% numi code being declared, have been charged full 20% VAT.
Every appeal however has resulted in a refund but only when you can show the shipper used the correct numi-code and the coins qualified.

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There should be no problem if the package comes via the RM but the PM use FEDEX. My last one had the wrong code on and I was charged 20%. Upon querying this with FEDEX and pointing out that "numismatic coins" was clearly the description, they refunded the extra VAT but warned that next time they would levy an extra admin charge if the wrong code was used.

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Nice of FedEx to warn you that they will charge you for them doing the right thing. What a nice company. Not.

Yeah people should get onto Perth about their code labelling protocol.

Do they even sell anything that would be rightfully charged 20% ?

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Oh, yeah if the bullion has no face value and arguably zero numismatic value I guess that's a 20% item. Can't you say the changing patterns and years, with a mintage, counts as Numi?

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1 minute ago, Jay2 said:

Oh, yeah if the bullion has no face value and arguably zero numismatic value I guess that's a 20% item. Can't you say the changing patterns and years, with a mintage, counts as Numi?

No the mint sells these bully coins from their bullion department. nobody outside Aus would dream of buying these from the mint, too expensive, the numismatic coins are a different matter though, if you can get the free postage and the vat right, it's cheaper to buy direct. can be a pita though.

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On 24/07/2017 at 18:15, sovereignsteve said:

No the mint sells these bully coins from their bullion department. nobody outside Aus would dream of buying these from the mint, too expensive, the numismatic coins are a different matter though, if you can get the free postage and the vat right, it's cheaper to buy direct. can be a pita though.

The Japanese whisky man will do USA group ordering for you :) you still haven't submit you August ordering yet , you have 3 days left to decide 

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