Gold import

[Cornishfarmer]

Need bit of confirmation. Having some gold coins sent from the USA. I take it that if it goes down as investment gold I don't have to pay import duties

Is this correct?

[morezone]

You shouldn't as long as customs doesn't charge you for a laugh and the paper work is in order.

I would NOT send it with silver.  Make sure the supplier marks it correctly on the customs form.

My one and only import of gold from the USA did not go smoothly.  The supplier declared them as gold numismatics.  Fedex called to ask for payment of VAT so I told them to go back to the customs brokerage team and re-input it as it was gold bullion.  The parcel arrived the next day and the paper work which came later showed 0% VAT.

[ChrisSilver]

I believe you need to put the commodity code of 999 gold on the customs form to avoid charges. Not sure what it is, there is another topic somewhere on the forum in there you should find info on it.

[ChrisSilver]

Here we are: http://thesilverforum.com/topic/339-importing-gold/ scroll down and see pete's reply, it has the commodity code needed.

[Cornishfarmer]

Thank you @chrissilver

[ChrisSilver]

No problem. Let us know how it goes Cornishfarmer. I have never imported gold into the UK myself, so would be nice to know if you can without being charged tax unlawfully.

[Pete]

The problem with importing stuff of value is that 2 things must be correct.

The seller / shipper has to correctly identify the commodity code, not just guess it and it must be complete with no digits missing. Any error can be costly but not all is lost because you can challenge the import if you can proove an error.

The second thing is the freight forwarder or agent dealing with the import has to read the paperwork and ocassionally they can make an incorrect entry. If so you can ask them to resubmit their paperwork. There are literally millions of items imported so this is a problem when seller don't specify content precisely and in accordance with the the published tarrifs.

Sorting this out afterwards is time consuming and frustrating and may involve fees so always ensure your seller produces correct docs.

Gold is free of import duty and VAT but silver is subject to 20% ( or 5% if numismatic ) VAT.

VAT is also added to the freight cost and import costs if not shipped door to door.