Does anyone know if duty has to be paid on a parcel sent from the us to the uk, or other way around, is it the contents ?

You are supposed to put on value of the items etc. When I get stuff from overseas I get the poster to write on that its a gift and put the value as really low.
Bit naughty but you do avoid duty that way. I have been found out on one occasion and had to go to the posty to pay up.

I was told if you put GIFT, thats means its a new item and you pay duty on the other end, i was oncew told if you send it as used clothes there's no duty to pay, i did learn a lesson though,i mailed my sister some over the counter cold medications, it was opened on route somwere and cost her more than it was worth, i sent it as used clothes and put a jumper in the parcel, but i have a feeling the dogs at the aitport got a sniff of it as drugs.

If they ask if there is a letter in the parcel at the post office, say no - as they charge more if there is a letter in there :loopy:

Originally posted by ncrossland
If they ask if there is a letter in the parcel at the post office, say no - as they charge more if there is a letter in there :loopy:

I thought it was the other way around, they charge less if their is a letter in it.

they charge you less if theres a letter inside it to my knowledge, and I should know I spent enough time sending parcels and letters to my g/f who was in south africa for a year ;) plus numerous penpals in america and japan!

if you tick the gift box and dont price them up too much they/you wont get charged tax, tax is generally only applied to expensive commerical goods... your average parcel goes un-noticed... a box full of electrical equipment wont :P

So far I haven't had much luck with receiving a package from overseas... Been waiting for it since September 9th (after originally placing order in June!) and is apparently lost in transit :(

Many years ago I once bought some CDs from America and they were much cheaper than in the UK. I thought I had got a good deal until I had to pay this charge to retreive my goods from the collection office. :mad: