localmemelord69

On 5/25/2021 at 6:13 PM, thehumantorch said:

I had a problem with Canada Customs.  They disputed the value of 3 comics and through the shipper UPS requested payment proof.  I sent UPS a screenshot of my paypal payment and my discussion with the seller showing I never requested a false customs declaration.  They held my books for two months, ignored my emails requesting information, then finally ruled I had lied to a customs officer about the value of the books, seized them and charged me $381 in penalties.  Total bullcrap.  I appealed and sent all of my emails with the UPS rep, my attempts to email the Customs employee, and my discussion with the seller - more than 100 pages .

After 11 months a Customs Ministerial Review agreed with me and I should soon see my $381 refund.  Appeal, provide all the info you can and remain polite.

 

Quick question: When you were sending over these documents to the officials, did you send the originals or the photocopies?

7 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

I had a problem with Canada Customs.  They disputed the value of 3 comics and through the shipper UPS requested payment proof.  I sent UPS a screenshot of my paypal payment and my discussion with the seller showing I never requested a false customs declaration.  They held my books for two months, ignored my emails requesting information, then finally ruled I had lied to a customs officer about the value of the books, seized them and charged me $381 in penalties.  Total bullcrap.  I appealed and sent all of my emails with the UPS rep, my attempts to email the Customs employee, and my discussion with the seller - more than 100 pages .

After 11 months a Customs Ministerial Review agreed with me and I should soon see my $381 refund.  Appeal, provide all the info you can and remain polite.

 

Holy damn. It seems like you went to hell and back trying to get back your money. Well played sir and good sh*t.

28 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Appeal the charges.  Be polite.  Include pictures of the books, the customs form, a cut and paste of the definition of Manga, a link to where you bought them, and perhaps a screenshot of your payment.  That will all help prove what was in the package.

Very helpful! Will include all of that.

37 minutes ago, Garystar said:

I’m guessing that if the customs form said “VOLUMES MANGA”  then the VAT officer had no idea what this actually meant regards to contents so applied VAT, I doubt the word MANGA appears in any VAT regulations. Refer to VAT notice 
Zero rating books and printed matter (VAT Notice 701/10)

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/zero-rating-books-and-printed-matter-for-vat-notice-70110

Comics are periodicals and should be 0% VAT. If you are going to make a claim you would have to convince C&E that your package described as “MANGA” = Comics. 
 

Import Duty = Custom Fee = VAT. If you get hit it will be 20% of total cost i.e. goods + postage. 
If you are ordering comics from abroad it is a good move to always ask the sender to describe as COMICS on the customs form - they won’t be falsifying and avoids buyer getting hit for unnecessary VAT. 

Thank you, i'll use that info and i appreciate the clarification. I actually informed the sender but they assumed that customs knew what manga is. Noted!

17 hours ago, Point Five said:

Ugh! No answers here, but sorry to hear it.

 

Appreciate it, it absolutely sucks. On the bright side, I've got an absolutely amazing series to read once i recieve the package

7 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

Seems strange, unless Brexit changed the pre-existing situation where comics are VAT and import duty exempt.

Customs declarations form didnt clearly state comics or comic books. Luckily, I wasn't charged any import duty or any another custom fees, only VAT.

4 hours ago, Garystar said:

What was contents description on customs form? If it says something along lines of paper documents then you would have been charged VAT (including on postage) as not all paper documents are Vat exempt. 
Form needs to explicitly state comics or books to be exempt - if it does send them a photo of the custom form with your claim. I’ve had success claiming in past when the form stated comics but if it doesn’t you may have difficulty claiming. 
My only gripe with MyComicShop is they won’t explicitly put “comics” on their custom forms and I’ve been hit wrongly with VAT. 

Best of luck with your claim. 

Thanks for your response. You're right. In the customs declarations form, the sender wrote "volumes" and "manga" instead of explicitly stating comics or comic books.

I've yet to pay VAT and recieve the package so i'm unsure on why i was charged. I'm guessing that they thought it contained DVDs or something of that sort but i wouldnt know until i get the customs charge label. When you claimed your packages, did you share a commodity code or links to the government website where it shows comic books to be zero-rated? In other words, what did you say?