Hi, I have seen a mobile phone on ebay what is being delivered from China, it's £160, it says free postage but wonder if I will need to pay a import tax to receive it, what are the rules on buying from China, I have seen the same phone on Ali express £10 cheaper but I've never edited ordered from China before and quite worried I will be billed more, how can I tell if I will need to pay and how much?

Thank you in advance

I could be wrong but I think you will have to pay VAT and duty on the value of the phone. It will probably work out about the same to buy it in the UK.

20% import vat, and an admin charge from RM or the courier to collect it iirc.

Yes, small items are put down as gift or under the value in which import duty takes effect, you might get away with it, but it's the chance you take.

I ordered smart bluetooth scales from China for £30 and ended up having to pay a lot more in duty, plus you have to pay the couriers processing fee which is usually about £10. It is very random though, it often depends how it's shipped and how honest the seller is on customs forms.

*IF* the package is stopped you'll pay VAT on the value of goods over £15 in value - so add 20% to the invoice / declared value

Goods under £135 in invoice / declared value there is no duty to pay.

Goods between £135 & £630 you have to pay 2.5% of their value as Duty.

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

So, in your example of £160 you'll pay £32 in Vat Charges and £4 in duty

The delivery agent will usually charge an 'admin fee' or "handling fee" for collecting any duty & vat and dealing with the customs on your behalf, for the Royal Mail its usually £8

So for your £160 phone

£32 in VAT
£4 in Duty
£8 Royal Mail Handling Fee

Total £44 in additional charges.

So that's at least £32 extra, think I will give it a miss. Cheers

HMRC seem a lot more proactive at checking parcels the last few years, and thanks to the wonders of the internet can quickly check actual selling prices these days if the seller lies about the value these days.

I get around 40 - 50 packages a week from China and HK. Roughly about 6 in every 10 seem to get the charges applied, although that is based on delivery to a commercial address and a business purchaser so the odds may be slightly better for domestic purchases.

Deliveries by the Royal Mail (China Post / Singapore Post / PostNL) all seem to have better odds of passing through without charges, compared to DHL / Fed Ex / TNT which pretty much all seem to get customs attention.

Look for the same phone on Aliexpress and sites like Banggood, often they have delivery from EU or UK warehouses, which offer cheaper prices (than Ebay) without the additional charges added by Customs.

How can I tell where they ship from, Ali express has the same phone but not sure where from, so do gearbest but are they in China?

My last phone was £170 and it was delivered by dhl. It arrived china-Germany, I got an email from dhl asking for £12, paid via paypal. Then the order processed to my doorstep, uk.

I should have a new phone arriving next week, £210 including £18 expedited delivery and £5 no quibble insurance. Being delivered by dhl again, I will repost how they ask for when I get the email. I hope it is only £12 again

Gearbest and Ali Express are both in China.

Aliexpress is a trade portal not a vendor per se. So it doesn't really matter where they are based, its more important where the Vendor ships from.

Some Vendors on Aliexpress have the facilities to ship from their bulk drop shippers based in other Countries - in fact a growing number are doing shipments from multiple warehouse locations now. One example

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Orig...714619338.html

You'll see an option to ship from United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, Spain etc.

Prices may vary slightly as you are effectively buying from a middleman of the Vendor, not the Vendor in China but its often far cheaper than risking VAT and Duty, quicker delivery too. Some Vendors may not have a drop shipper, but may use a forwarding service in the EU. But even in that instance, it is still effectively reshipped from the location of the forwarder, not its origin in China. Either way you wont be charged VAT and Duty. I've Used this option myself many times, and never had duty or VAT charged.

Banggood has a similar facility on some products. Click the orange arrow on the bordered 'Ship From" option to toggle between CN (China) and EU (European) - one example below

http://www.banggood.com/CUBOT-S208-5...l?rmmds=search

I suspect that this will become the norm over the next few years, as more and more Chinese vendors want to establish themselves in the lucrative market in Europe.

And many of these AliExpress retailers tell lies about where they ship from

Your link claims 5-15 days shipping when you choose the UK option (which coincidentally is China Air Mail time).


Agreed, Banggood does have an EU presence, I've bought torches and batteries from them, however the EU price is always a fair bit higher than from China.

My latest update is that it has gone from hong kong - east midlands uk. It has been released by customs, with what appears to be no tax

Next Step:
Unless there is an adhoc exam or a stop by another regulatory authority the shipment will proceed to delivery.

I purchased from gearbest, with expedited delivery. Hopefully it will arrive tommorrow They issued the tracker number Wednesday, picked up phone in HK, on Friday, delivered by Monday??? Not bad.

As I clearly said on my original post, the vendor can sometimes ship from China to an EU destination, then turn the goods around at a forwarder. The important aspect in relation to customs is that the journey to the UK is done from an EU shipping point which means that shipment Country is an EU one, not China or HK. I've highlighted that bit from the original post since you failed to read it the first time.

Some Vendors may not have a drop shipper, but may use a forwarding service in the EU. But even in that instance, it is still effectively reshipped from the location of the forwarder, not its origin in China.

So yes, in this instance the delivery time would be similar to China, perhaps a bit more as its being routed and effectively reshipped from an EU country. Let me clarify

1. You place the order
2. China sends the order to a forwarder in an EU Country - usually one with no duty or a lower import duty / more generous value allowance than the UK
3. Forwarder removes all China Shipping Labels, and repackages it, sending it to the UK by an EU service.
4. As far as the UK Customs are concerned, this is a delivery from an EU Country to the UK, so it doesn't qualify for VAT or Duty.

So in this case, yes the Shipping time is the same as buying from China, because the item is being shipped from China, the point is that it doesn't qualify for Duty or Vat which was the entire point of my post.

Of course, you could buy the item from Ebay, then find out that the vendor isn't in Warwickshire or London and that *shock* *Horror* they were in China.


I honestly think you wrote that with sincerity, in that you really didn't think that I already knew that.

I thought it was too good to be true, phone got to Aberdeen, then status changes to being held, waiting for payment. At this point you have to search dhl e-payments, enter your tracker number, then pay up. £19 for me

Don't know if I will get delivery today or not. Only got the status change 20 mins ago.