Royal Mail £8 handling fee on items under £135?

[Business15]

Hi there i am wondering if you are charging for Chinese Aliexpress imports to be delivered a Royal Mail £8 handling fee on items under £135?

As they add the VAT to the checkout or are you just charging the £8 handling fee on orders over £135 as RM have to collect the tax?

In reality RM do not have to do anything or process anything if the VAT is already paid on Aliexpress as there are no customs fees or duty to be added under £135?

[yubin282]

Don't you pay customs charges on anything over £15 value. You probably paid chinese VAT which is presumably less than UK VAT.

[Business15]

No Brexit has changed that, there is no free value.

Aliexpress now charges on behalf of the UK 20% VAT, so when the parcel gets to Royal Mail, RM then have no paperwork or admin duties to do unless the value exceeds £135.

This is why i am asking if they still add on £8 if the value is under £135 but vat has already been paid to Aliexpress. Surely this would be very unfair and cause unnecessary extra costs for small businesses, it may even make small businesses look for a new postal or courier company to deliver its items in the future.

I am wondering if its only charged on orders that have import duty or vat added to over £135.

I look forward to someone who knows or had experience with Aliexpress since 1st January 2021 Brexit.

[yubin282]

I think the £8 is added for their inconvenience. Somebody has to collect the item from customs. Customs are nothing to do with Royal Mail.

[Business15]

No the £8 was added before Brexit for processing the collection and documents for paying the fee on behalf of the customer.

Now there is no fee if you already pre pay your VAT on Aliexpress, so therefore it is impossible for Royal Mail to charge for items under £135 if VAT is already paid at checkout on the website of Aliexpress.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Hi there i am wondering if you are charging for Chinese Aliexpress imports to be delivered a Royal Mail £8 handling fee on items under £135?

As they add the VAT to the checkout or are you just charging the £8 handling fee on orders over £135 as RM have to collect the tax?

In reality RM do not have to do anything or process anything if the VAT is already paid on Aliexpress as there are no customs fees or duty to be added under £135?

We are an unofficial site so any response must bee seen as such.

Also with this being a relatively new thing its unlikely the frontline staff who post on here can give you a definitive or complete answer in line with Royal Mails policies and obligations.

I hope we can at least give some insight though.