£50 for cells, you are looking in the wrong place....
There are ways and means of tax 'avoidance' or negating the 'amount' of tax that you pay, otherwise, it is 8% of the value of the goods on the invoice and then 17.5% ontop of that total. Now you could go and ask the seller to put a lower value on the goods invoice, but, what happens if it gets lost.... you can' put a claim in for goods at a value of $200 when the invoice states $100.
I have never asked an overseas seller to reduce the value on the invoice, if they wish to mark the item as a gift, that is up to them. I run a lot of Tamiya cars, and unless it is the bog stock stuff, it is absoloutely pointless trying to source them in the UK, so it requires a trip to a HK site, and usualy here within three to four days. But all my AE and Schumacher stuff comes from the UK.
On a side note, I had a fly in the ointment the other day when I recieve two Battery Nurses from Tekin as a sponsorship item. Now they have to declare the value on the invoice for insurance reasons. Now, I wrongly assumed that I didn't have to pay duty on sponsorship goods, as in effect, they are not mine, I have not bought them, but here goes. As the goods are sponsored, they must be marked up as 'Gift' and thats it, this then incurs a duty payment of 3.5% of the total 'goods' value on the invoice. My sponsor had marked them up as 'gift' and 'goods sample' which did not incur a duty charge, but VAT charge on the total of the goods AND shipping.
|