You used to be able to gift something up to the value of £36. So say your relation in the USA wants to send you something over to the value of £30, the parcel can be marked as a gift and there is no charge payable. Looks like i'm a bit out of date on my legislation :p

the b4 went in as a kit and came out built, hurt like hell comin out the other end tho lol

thought that would be the easy part for you mark :D :D :D

(sorry could'nt resist)

As illegal as it is mark, i look up to you:D

After what i have just been taxed this week on my wages right now i hate gordon brown:wtf:

On payroll you actually get your taxable allowance which for most people is £5225 tax free, then your next £2230 charged at 10% and the following amount of £32370 at 22%, if your lucky enough to earn more than £34600 you get to the dizzy heights of 40% tax, but at least you pay less NI then. Oh and NI is chargeable after you start earning more than £5225 and thats another 11% off your wages.

Trust me the VAT office is worse than most for deciding what you can and can't do, I have to deal with them nearly every day of the year and most of the time it just depends on how good or bad a day the person is having as to what the answer is.


Easiest way is not to worry about the charges, it will be cheaper than the UK whether you get caught or not.

it isn't illegal, if you get the sender to declare the goods as scale model replica kits or spares, they are outside the impost duty bracket no matter how much they cost. u will pay vat but no import duty, trust me i know this to be true and legal, and thats from a guy that deals with import duty

Or you could Create a ltd company in which you pay just over £100 a week as a directors fee in which your NI and tax @22% comes out of and the rest is all taxable at 20% (corporation tax) minus expenses;)

Saves me a fortune!!

Thats the advantage of being a director and not an employee, I suppose you take the rest of your earnings out through dividend's and directors loan accounts?

Exactly! and split the dividends between and the Mrs so i can earn twice as much before i hit 40%

I reckon it saves me about 20k a year in total

Not me :D

as a shop owner i clearly have have issues with people buying from america etc, however i live in the real world and accept that you have the choice and why should you pay more just to feed me, that said major importers like cml,horizon etc don't get the opportunity to defraud the vat by declaring the large container of parts from associated as "gift". i accept that you order the items and if they get through without a charge thats not your fault, however if you deliberatly declare the goods as something there not to avoid the charges due that is clearly wrong.

as a second point how can you come onto a forum and explain how you avoid charges whilst carrying a shop name in your signature line. if your supported by that shop in your racing surely you should be supporting them back. telling people how to get goods cheaper from somewhere else does not seem the way to do it.

I agree with that, you cant ask the company to mismark the package. However, many times over have i received a Parcel from the US, Switzerland, and Hong Kong, and unbeknown to me, they have marked the value at stupidly low prices.

How can we stop that? What happens if I customs found out. Who gets into trouble? :confused:

Jimmy...I worry! lol

Tell me about it.

If Jimmy didn't have this site to let out his oOplely madness, goodness knows what would happen.
(sorry Jimmy, but like you said the other day, you love me :wtf::o;):D)

Wouldn't mind the salary and the shiny new Audi... :D

...but I can live without all those numbers... make my head hurt.

... OUCH.

You must have one hell of an accountant then :o.

well said John. Hopefully the shops will be reading this!

you need to earn over £150k a year in order to save £20k on tax through this method.
And if you earn that much you shouldn't really need to shop abroad to save the odd £20 on gear!!

without being to funny about it, horizon that own Losi sell Losi car's online cheaper than you can buy em from any shop in the UK, and that includes import duty and vat, although import duty should not be paid on any scale model or replica kit apart from trains and thats from UK customs them selfs, and thats not listing anything as there not, just plain simple facts. yes you should and still do have to pay vat,but with that and postage a xx4 is 40-50 quid cheaper than here in UK,xxxcr 30-40 quid,i would love to support our great British shops, and suppliers but some one some were is making a killing and if it isnt the shops then who??, i have my own ideas but what do you guys think.??