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Ordering via Pinsound - Import tax

Serial Thriller

Serial Thriller

Registered
5Years
Joined
May 26, 2020
Messages
96
Location
St Helens
Hi All,

I am curious to know if anyone has placed any orders via Pinsound.

The reason why I ask is that I ordered a pack of premium balls and the pinblaster soundboard and received an email from UPS stating that import tax was due to be paid.

The amount due is £53 and I wouldn't have placed the order if I knew I was paying nearly £70 for delivery/tax.

I've ordered various things shipping from mainland Europe over the years and never been hit with import tax so just curious if this is correct.

Anyone contemplating placing an order, definitely needs to factor in the additional 30% price hike that Pinsound fail to make known.
 
It’s not pinsound, it’s “local customs” If the value is over £135, you are charged 20% VAT on the total value + shipping + £13 ish handling charge.

International sellers don’t normally tell you what every country charge for importing, they normally say it’s your responsibility to check and pay these charges

If it’s under £135 (excluding shipping) VAT is meant to be collected at source and the seller is meant to to pass this on to HMRC. What this means in reality is, you don’t get additional charges if the packaged has a declared value of <£135
 
Bought something from Pinsound when I was at the Chicago Expo, didnt pay any sales tax but was hit for the import charges when it was delivered from France (They didnt take any stock to the show)

They did overstate the package value due to some discounts/freebies that were on the order but managed to get a refund for the corrected amount of VAT based on what I actually paid for the items. I posted a thread on here about it.
 
Thanks All for the replies, much appreciated.

My order value inc delivery was £187.66 and the tax amount due according to UPS tracking is £52.63. (28%)

I had no idea what the tax percentage would be as the order states that VAT is included.

I guess I should challenge the tax amount with UPS as I did contact Pinsound and they pretty much just said "sucks to be you"...

I won't be buying from them again!
 
UK VAT is 20%, it will be calculated based on what value Pinsound have put on the package which UPS would have used to calculate VAT, if its not in GBP then it will use the exchange rate at the time when it was processed.

Based on the Order Value the VAT should be £37.53 which would make the Fee for UPS £15.10, which is more likely £15 with a 10p adjustment for exchange rate I would say.

If you have paid VAT in france i would have thought the Pinsound invoice would show what was paid.

Not sure if there is anyway to claim back any VAT if its been paid twice in two different countries.
 
It’ll be quicker posting the invoice details (excluding personal details)

What currency were you charged in
What’s the value of goods
What’s the cost of shipping
What’s the UPS handling fee

The currency you were charged in matters, this is cross referenced with the HMRC exchange rates for August 25.

It seems a tiny bit high, unless the handling fee has gone up.

£187.66*0.2 =£37.53
Handling fee: £13.60
Total £51.13
 
Fantazia2 said:
UK VAT is 20%, it will be calculated based on what value Pinsound have put on the package which UPS would have used to calculate VAT, if its not in GBP then it will use the exchange rate at the time when it was processed.

Based on the Order Value the VAT should be £37.53 which would make the Fee for UPS £15.10, which is more likely £15 with a 10p adjustment for exchange rate I would say.

If you have paid VAT in france i would have thought the Pinsound invoice would show what was paid.

Not sure if there is anyway to claim back any VAT if its been paid twice in two different countries.
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Appreciate the info and explanation, I just wish that Pinsound made it clear when checking out that tax would be applied.

I was already on the fence with getting the Pinblaster soundboard, fingers crossed it's worth it!
 
Serial Thriller said:
Appreciate the info and explanation, I just wish that Pinsound made it clear when checking out that tax would be applied.

I was already on the fence with getting the Pinblaster soundboard, fingers crossed it's worth it!
Click to expand...
It will likely be mentioned somewhere on the site, but its the same for any company based outside of the UK.

Although they shouldnt charge local VAT for any order over £135, under £135 they should charge VAT at 20% which they are supposed to pay to HMRC.

These rules came in a few years ago now.

If you download your invoice from Pinsound it should show any TAX charged.

pinsound.webp
 
Markedkiller78 said:
It’ll be quicker posting the invoice details (excluding personal details)

What currency were you charged in
What’s the value of goods
What’s the cost of shipping
What’s the UPS handling fee

The currency you were charged in matters, this is cross referenced with the HMRC exchange rates for August 25.

It seems a tiny bit high, unless the handling fee has gone up.

£187.66*0.2 =£37.53
Handling fee: £13.60
Total £51.13
Click to expand...
This is what I have, perhaps I was ignorant to think that there were no additional fees to pay when the invoice states that tax was included.
 

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Serial Thriller said:
I won't be buying from them again!
Click to expand...

Since brexit we're out of the customs union so anything from Europe is treated the same as the rest of the world.

In a perfect world you should be able to buy the product without the local tax applied, then when you pay the UK customs VAT (20%) it shouldn't be that much different, with some minor nuances.

The problem is not every shop front store is setup to remove local VAT and charges so possibly you paid twice, if you did order on their site and they didn't apply their local VAT then there's no much difference other than the difference in VAT that countries charge and what your handling charge was.
 
Serial Thriller said:
This is what I have, perhaps I was ignorant to think that there were no additional fees to pay when the invoice states that tax was included.
Click to expand...

Looks like you were not charged local VAT, you can see at the bottom the tax is 0.00.

Thus it's UK customs law that you should be annoyed at.
 
I used to be able to buy from Italian dealers two used pins and have them both on a pallet and shipped for £150 to my door. Last one was a Whitewater and a Sopranos for £4300 delivered.

That pallet is now £350+vat if I am lucky, plus VAT on the price of the used pins - hence I don't buy anything from Europe anymore because I don't want to get bum raped.
 
Markedkiller78 said:
It really annoys me that > £135 you get charged VAT on shipping costs , but it’s better than it used to be
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It annoys me that you have to investigate yourself after placing an order, by which time it's too late to do anything.

Such a price hike should be a word of warning clearly stated on the retailers website in my opinion.

The blunt response from Pinsound certainly means I'll not be buying from them again.
 
Serial Thriller said:
It annoys me that you have to investigate yourself after placing an order, by which time it's too late to do anything.

Such a price hike should be a word of warning clearly stated on the retailers website in my opinion.

The blunt response from Pinsound certainly means I'll not be buying from them again.
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You're personally importing from a country outside the UK so its not really their issue.

Some companies after the rules changed decided to not even bother selling to the UK as they didnt want the hassle of registering with HMRC, which they are supposed to do if selling below £135 and collecting VAT.
 
Alpha1 said:
I used to be able to buy from Italian dealers two used pins and have them both on a pallet and shipped for £150 to my door. Last one was a Whitewater and a Sopranos for £4300 delivered.

That pallet is now £350+vat if I am lucky, plus VAT on the price of the used pins - hence I don't buy anything from Europe anymore because I don't want to get bum raraped.
Click to expand...
This proper sucks and explains the massive price difference between buying NIB in the States vs here.

I probably could have got 2 new machines with the cost of my last purchase.
 
Serial Thriller said:
This proper sucks and explains the massive price difference between buying NIB in the States vs here.

I probably could have got 2 new machines with the cost of my last purchase.
Click to expand...

That, plus for Sterns there is the Electrocoin tax.

Dont forget when looking a prices in the US for new pins usually the buyer also has to pay sales tax on top of the advertised price, although they have ways around this buy buying out of state to try and avoid it but I think they are trying to curb this.

Sales tax varies by state but usually about the 6% mark so still less than our VAT. You get this in shops as well, they add it on at the till, its not like here where the shelf price already includes it.
 
David retro said:
saves people getting hit with surprise bills as the landed products have all the charges applied to save hassle for people much easier than the customs faff people get ordering direct
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I'll definitely be coming to you if/when I need to buy any other Pinsound products. I also saw that you had the Ellen Ripley Edition of Alien on your site.

I now need to work on the Mrs for approval but having just purchased a NIB Godzilla Premium, it might take a few months of begging 😅
 
Fantazia2 said:
That, plus for Sterns there is the Electrocoin tax.

Dont forget when looking a prices in the US for new pins usually the buyer also has to pay sales tax on top of the advertised price, although they have ways around this buy buying out of state to try and avoid it but I think they are trying to curb this.

Sales tax varies by state but usually about the 6% mark so still less than our VAT. You get this in shops as well, they add it on at the till, its not like here where the shelf price already includes it.
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And I believe they also have to pay for delivery from the stern factory. The prices quoted are "factory gate" I understand.
 
Serial Thriller said:
I'll definitely be coming to you if/when I need to buy any other Pinsound products. I also saw that you had the Ellen Ripley Edition of Alien on your site.

I now need to work on the Mrs for approval but having just purchased a NIB Godzilla Premium, it might take a few months of begging 😅
Click to expand...
Anything you need pinball wise we’re always happy to help
 
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