Online shopping in oz from UK shops do you pay duty on goods?

[memmymooch]

Was just wondering if was to buy something like some clothes for kids from somewhere like debenhams or sports direct etc if would get hit with big bill when they entered country? Here in UK when friends have ordered trainers from US there have been extra duty charges to pay which made them such good value as they seemed

​mem

[Guest chris955]

You arent charged on anything under $1000 in value.

[memmymooch]

That's better than here then my friend had to pay something like extra £30 on $100 trainers thanks for info

[northshorepom]

Yeah, UK HMRC are really hot on it. Make the most of it in Oz because I can't see the current quite generous arrangements lasting

[Ken]

Oz retailers are trying to get the tax free limit reduced from $1,000 to $300 (well it's in their interests) but ATO isn't co-operative as they say the extra revenue will be exceeded by the extra costs to them. If that's true it must cost them almost $100 to process each shipment - can that be right? If so how does HMRC afford to tax a £15 DVD? UK tax is 20% not 10% but it still doesn't come close.

[Floplo]

HMRC probably won't tax a 15 pound DVD, which I think falls under the (fairly low) free limits.

 

It gets away with taxing things imported from the US because they outsource the cost to the importer (the bill memmymooch's friend got didn't come directly come from HMRC but from Parcelpost/FedEx/UPS, who collect the tariff revenues and charge you a fee (I think 8 pounds or so) for doing so)

 

The other difference is tax treatment, if you import something from the US to the UK, the main cost of importing is the 20% VAT you have to pay, while I think Australian GST is only 10% (though if you do online shopping from the UK you will likely also pay 20% UK VAT....)