|
Posted by Boo on January 19, 2008, 9:01 am
Please log in for more thread options
> I want to buy some academic textbooks. They're much cheaper in the US,
> even once delivery has been taken into account. But I'm wondering if I'm
> going to get charged VAT for importing them.
>
> HM Revenue & Customs confusingly list the rate for books as either
> "Standard" or "Zero", and give no further information. I e-mailed them
> about it, and they unhelpfully failed to reply. Has anyone here bought
> books from abroad, and does anyone know the answer for sure?
If the item is entirely printed matter from front to back then it is zero rated
for VAT. If there is eg a disk enclosed then the part of the price that pays
for the disk is VATable and the rest of the price is zero rated.
I once imported a paper copy of a specification from the USA and the shipping
agents tried to charge me VAT, I wrote and explained it was printed matter and
they corrected the VAT request.
Hth,
--
Boo
| 
Yahoo! 
Google 
Windows Live 
del.icio.us 
digg 
Netscape 
XML Sitemap
> even once delivery has been taken into account. But I'm wondering if I'm
> going to get charged VAT for importing them.
>
> HM Revenue & Customs confusingly list the rate for books as either
> "Standard" or "Zero", and give no further information. I e-mailed them
> about it, and they unhelpfully failed to reply. Has anyone here bought
> books from abroad, and does anyone know the answer for sure?