Imported Rare Manga comic books from EU to the UK and was charged with £112 VAT 0

[localmemelord69]

One week ago, i ordered a rare collection of manga comic books from the EU(worth £588) to which i was incorrectly charged £112 VAT. I'm in the process of filling out the dispute form(BOR286) and i need reassurance that the UK border force doesnt look for extra reasons to decline my dispute even though i'm 99.9% sure that I'm in the right.(VAT on comics are zero-rated from 01/01/2021 onwards). What type of evidences should i include(other than the main ones like charge sheet, decleration form, pictures of the manga)? What would the commodity code be? I already looked in multiple threads here, reddit and other places and the commodity codes are all different.

Any help is appreciated :))

[Point Five]

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

 

[Ken Aldred]

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

[Garystar]

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. 

[localmemelord69]

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?

Edited May 25, 2021 by localmemelord69
more info

[localmemelord69]

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.

[localmemelord69]

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

[Garystar]

43 minutes ago, localmemelord69 said:

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?

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. 
 

47 minutes ago, localmemelord69 said:

Luckily, I wasn't charged any import duty or any another custom fees, only VAT

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. 

[Garystar]

4 minutes ago, Garystar said:

Import Duty = Custom Fee = VAT. If you get hit it will be 20% of total cost i.e. goods + postage. 

To contradict myself this isn’t the end of it, if the post office collect the duty, on behalf of C&E, they will often charge an additional administration fee. 

[thehumantorch]

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.

[localmemelord69]

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!

[localmemelord69]

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.

[thehumantorch]

1 minute ago, localmemelord69 said:

Very helpful! Will include all of that.

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.

 

[localmemelord69]

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.

Edited May 26, 2021 by localmemelord69

[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?

Edited May 27, 2021 by localmemelord69

[thehumantorch]

12 hours ago, localmemelord69 said:

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

All the documents I sent them were sourced from emails or Private messages from this board so there were no original documents to send.  I also offered to forward the emails to them if requested.