Other Buying from Ali Express/Outside of the UK/Customs charges etc

So I'm probably going to be buying something above the £135 limit for vat/customs charges from Ali Express next month if all goes to plan...

It's £165 posted... What can I expect to pay? I'm guessing 20% vat then whatever royal mail or the courier want to charge me ontop which I've read is around £8-12 then what about any other charges?

I've never done this before.

Thanks!

 

Anything over the £135 limit will be chargeable by customs for:

- VAT
- VAT on the shipping
- Duty fee - this is based on the total price (incl shipping and VAT) and is usually in the region of 2%. However this depends on the 'commodity code'. These can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff
As to what the sender will actually list the code as... I have had varying success.
- Handling fee. About £8 - £12 is right. Sometimes it is a percentage of total cost again, this time total being all of the above.

 

So what'd you reckon they'd nail me at worst come worse? It's £165 with free postage, so I've budgeted for £230ish? Just to be safe?

 

All the purchases I've made from AliExpress recently (admittedly none over £135 but around 20 separate items) have had the VAT charged when payment was taken.

 

On AliExpress you pay the VAT up front now. If you go through the checkout it’ll get added to your cart.

 

I got my Fanatec gear last year from Germany and had to pay the import duties.

Worked out at about 23-24% of the total amount.

The joys of being out of the EU.

 

Yes, take back the power!!

 

I think once it's over the £135 mark they leave the vat off and charge it on import. I've had FedEx and DHL give me some heavy charges on top of the VAT.

 

cheers mate, I think i'm going to leave it, knowing my luck it'll be faulty or fail not long after as I get terrible luck and then will have lost loads of money.

 

I’ve bought loads of delicate stuff from AliExpress over the years and if you send them a message to double bag it or add another six layers of bubble wrap, they will no bother!

 

cheers guys. I think I'm going to leave it I have too much bad luck and the idea of a random brand mobo with a soldered in cpu is rather risky if 1 fails the other does.

 

Things from Aliexpress will be pre-charged for VAT. Even small things. So no worries on customs/tax front.

I've bought a £188 item online, thinking it was cheaper than £210 from Amazon. But was charged £53 by DHL. Luckily the seller partial refunded me £30, making it similar price and lesson learnt.

The lesson was, if customs tax isn't pre-charged at checkout, you may get stun by a large bill. So buy local if at all possible.

 

yeah that's what I'm thinking and I'd rather support known brands/uk businesses selling it vs dodgy scumbags on ali express hence never using them before after hearing horror stories lol.

 

I'm really not sure they always charge VAT upfront, the last two expensive things I purchase there (microscope and Voron printer, £250/£360) in 2021 don't list tax on the order invoice whereas cheaper items all do.

 

That's interesting. I don't buy expensive items from there because there's very little recourse.
May be tax calculation on checkout is recently introduced?

 

It’s definitely a gamble importing stuff these days. Last thing I ordered from that far away was a DE-10 Nano FPGA devkit and I ended up avoiding any extra charges, duties, or VAT. But that was direct from the manufacturer in Taiwan, rather than AliExpress in mainland China, and I did pay nearly $60 in shipping to FedEx.

 

yeah I'm just gonna leave it I think mate. Rather give someone over here my money second hand or it to scan than some scumbag in china then get bent over for delivery!

 

Quick way to check is add something expensive the cart and go to purchase, it's missing the tax section which is there on cheaper items.

I think it's a toss up whether they open the parcel at customs if it's coming via the standard shipping method on there. I would factor in VAT and shipping fees for sure if they are using FedEx or DHL.

One trick I did learn about the other day is to set the site to dollars and a pay with a fee free card. Works out a fair bit cheaper that way due to the site's default currency conversion fees. I've just been using PayPal/GBP the whole time so probably overpaid for a few things, but I don't really get much from China now if I can help it.

 

Exactly, you'd think that brands will put extra care on packaging as the trend of ordering stuff online grows, but nah, the risk that your fancy table will arrive with a little piece missing from one corner remains the same. At least getting clothes via dropshipping is a tad more reliable, though that has much more to do with the nature of the stock than anything else. Plus, getting (partial) refunds on damaged goods is rarely not a nightmare...