Bloody customs.. Anyone advise?

[Papoo]

Dear all,

Some of you may know that I no longer live in the UK, having moved to the US. I took with me as many clothes as I could carry, along with my watches and odds and ends. However, I've had my family ship my posessions over periodically.

Latest was my electric guitar, about £1000 in value when new, about 5 years ago. This was packaged with my 2 squash rackets, about £250 for both, again, these are 2 years old.

I've just received a customs invoice for a couple of hundred dollars, which a) seems a pretty arbitrary number, and b) took me by surprise, as I didn't know I had to pay this on (heavily) used stuff.

Anyone here know how best to tackle this/what questions to ask? Or will it be a case of me 'smuggling' my own posessions accross the border..

[Nickyboy]

I'm assuming its the same as when sending to this country and as such it has to clearly stated on the customs paperwork that they are personal items that have no commercial or resale value. A lot of people dont state this and just whack the value of them on the forms meaning you get charged import duty.

[MrVelox]

Papoo said:

Dear all,

Some of you may know that I no longer live in the UK, having moved to the US. I took with me as many clothes as I could carry, along with my watches and odds and ends. However, I've had my family ship my posessions over periodically.

Latest was my electric guitar, about £1000 in value when new, about 5 years ago. This was packaged with my 2 squash rackets, about £250 for both, again, these are 2 years old.

I've just received a customs invoice for a couple of hundred dollars, which a) seems a pretty arbitrary number, and b) took me by surprise, as I didn't know I had to pay this on (heavily) used stuff.

Anyone here know how best to tackle this/what questions to ask? Or will it be a case of me 'smuggling' my own posessions accross the border..

You owned them before you emigrated to America?

You don't owe Duty on them. http://www.customs.gov

edited to fix URL

Edited by MrVelox on Thursday 6th November 21:45

[Matt Harper]

Your visa status could have an effect also. B1/2 visas are non residential - so you can't bring personal possessions without incurring duty.
Just a thought.

[Brown and Boris]

I had always thought that if I was going to live in the US I would go by ship as they have no real luggage limits.

I crossed on Queen mary 2 with a guy who needed 3 luggage tolies and 2 porters and had his surfboard and what seemed to be most of his house with him for the £899 6 day crossing. They even stored it all for him on the crossing so his cabin was clear.

[phumy]

Which customs has hit you with the bill, US or GB?

[angusfaldo]

You can take your personal things with you when you move country and normally not pay any duty - as you already found. But there's a time limit for moving your stuff. From memory it is 6 months in the UK but in US, who knows. Perhaps the guitar arrived outside their time limit, in which case you would pay import tax.

[phumy]

angusfaldo said:

You can take your personal things with you when you move country and normally not pay any duty - as you already found. But there's a time limit for moving your stuff. From memory it is 6 months in the UK but in US, who knows. Perhaps the guitar arrived outside their time limit, in which case you would pay import tax.

You are correct, when i moved from UK to Thailand i had to do all my relocation of personal effects within 6 months, I don't know what happens outside of that time frame, maybe thats your answer. I think you should contact them really and ask the score, after all they're the ones you're going to have to answer too anyway, not the PH barrack room lawyers