Import duty and Vat from Australia

[Lucylucy]

Can anyone help please.

I wish to buy a coin from Australia on EBay at a quoted price of about $700 Australian Dollars but I am totally confused

about the additional costs that I may incur. Will the vat be 20% on silver?

There is a lot of information on the Forum, Google and Ebay which I find a bit confusing.

Can anyone help or advise?

Thank you

 

[sovereignsteve]

1 minute ago, Lucylucy said:

Can anyone help please.

I wish to buy a coin from Australia on EBay at a quoted price of about $700 Australian Dollars but I am totally confused

about the additional costs that I may incur. Will the vat be 20% on silver?

There is a lot of information on the Forum, Google and Ebay which I find a bit confusing.

Can anyone help or advise?

Thank you

 

Yes there will be VAT + the carrier's collection charge. Royal Mail is about £8 I think but people like Fedex and similar charge a lot more.

The VAT will be payable at 20% of the stated value plus the postal charge, so the obvious route is to try to get the seller to be "creative" with the stated value. Some will but many won't.

The other way is to get them to describe it as a numismatic coin and put the appropriate UK/EU customs code on. I can't remember the code but it will be easily searchable. Level of VAT using this code is only %5

[caloundracats]

As @sovereignsteve  said, the seller may or may not be open to being 'creative'. 

Otherwise use the  numismatic code - on the government website if you can trawl through all the pages. Plus customs charges which Royal Mail are obliged to pay ontop of postal charges.

If you know someone is Australia,  it might be worth sending it there for them to send onto you - just a thought.

 

 

[Kookaburracollector]

Try commodity code 7118900010  ..but please DYOR.

54 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

Yes there will be VAT + the carrier's collection charge. Royal Mail is about £8 I think but people like Fedex and similar charge a lot more.

The VAT will be payable at 20% of the stated value plus the postal charge, so the obvious route is to try to get the seller to be "creative" with the stated value. Some will but many won't.

The other way is to get them to describe it as a numismatic coin and put the appropriate UK/EU customs code on. I can't remember the code but it will be easily searchable. Level of VAT using this code is only %5

The above summary is spot on, so best work on this...our customs people can quite easily ignore the code on the packet!

Not sure here... but if the coin is gold I don’t think there is VAT payable and no import duty..if it is silver you are on thin ice!

The problem the dealer has is that they have to declare on the customs document the value of the item they are sending for insurance reasons..if they put $100 and not $700 and the parcel goes missing they are out of pocket.

You might get lucky with the seller, they do know the score, and one or two of the bigger ones I know might ‘accidentally’ put $20 on the declaration..but best of luck!

 

 

 

[Lucylucy]

Thank you everyone for your help.

The coin on offer is the 10 oz Perth Lunar horse coloured which I need to complete a set.

It is a rare beast(!) and I have not seen another advertised but I don't think I will risk Ebay and the extra costs.

Thanks again

 

[Pete]

I am afraid you will incur 20% VAT on the declared value plus shipping plus a handling fee depending on the courier.
If International Post it will be £8.

What you then do is fill out an online form to HMRC ( Coventry from recollection - check VAT claims for imports on the web ).
You submit a claim to reduce the VAT to 5% using code 97 05 00 020 backing up your claim with a data sheet ( make one up if necessary ) describing the coin and making a case that it is a collectible / numismatic item. Normally you will be refunded in about 10 working days. You will not avoid the postal fee though.