who proposed that?
Petition for control of unsafe electrical items
- Thread starter bernardgreen
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who proposed that?
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What items can you get into the country tax free?
Everything is either taxed by the seller, on behalf of the UK tax, or taxed on delivery..
We do, but there is the same issue of totally inadequate resourcing to facilitate the proper policing/enforcement of those controls.
Kind Regards John
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Have you ever bought anything from China on eBay? Virtually every low cost item is free of tax.
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You have got it, OK from UK supplies we pay tax, but when the post office has a item checked by customs we also get a handing charge from the post office, I have had it, customs charged me £2 custom duty, and post office £12 handing charge.
We get items from China where they cost less than the postage would cost in UK. Not a clue how, but if items were checked at customs then we would double what we pay for things, even if customs duty was paid, due to post office charges. So think what you really want. If items are checked, it is not going to be done for free, do you want to pay the extra?
No, I have ordered a few such items since they began charging the tax at source and I have always had the tax added onto the cost. At least so far. Before that, yes I used see items declared as low value gifts.
Our experiences obviously differ. In the last few weeks I have received by post a number of items from parts afar, declared as as "low value gifts", for which I have had to pay nothing by way of taxes/duty.
Kind Regards, John
Signed.
I wouldn't buy something off a car boot sale that had a dodgy plug/flex etc so why should I be expected to try and return something from an on-line seller because he mis-represented it in his/her description?
Stop it at source with the threat of legal ramifications if not up to standard and, hopefully, it will stop/reduce the number of dangerous goods out there. Biggest problem, as mentioned previously, is policing the system.
I wouldn't buy something off a car boot sale that had a dodgy plug/flex etc so why should I be expected to try and return something from an on-line seller because he mis-represented it in his/her description?
Stop it at source with the threat of legal ramifications if not up to standard and, hopefully, it will stop/reduce the number of dangerous goods out there. Biggest problem, as mentioned previously, is policing the system.
my scribble added
Indeed, if that could be done effectively, it would certainly tend to have the beneficial effect ytouy mention, BUT ...
Exactly. The petition calls for more/extended legislation. Even if that were necessary (and I'm far from convinced that it is, given that import of the goods in question into the UK is already 'illegal'), if the available resources for policing/enforcing even the current legislation are pitifully inadequate, then extending or adding to that existing legislation without the accompanying appearance of an awful lot of (very expensive) resources would achieve essentially nothing.
It's a bit like saying that there is far too much knife crime / sexual assault / domestic violence / whatever (all very true), so we must put into place additional legislation to address the issue (useless - there's plenty of legislation available already, but totally inadequate resources to implement/enforce it).
Kind Regards, John
A bit tongue-in-cheek. but if I believed that the plug and/or flex was probably the only dodgy aspect of the product, I might well buy it [and then replace the dodgy part(s)], in the knowledge/expectation that the diminished market because of people thinking like you would probably have pushed the price down
Kind Regards, John
But the importation of the goods, in and of itself, isn't necessarily illegal.
It is perfectly legal to import, for example, a container load of angle grinder saw blades. The importer can easily argue that that they are going to export them outside of the country or repurpose/repackage the blades to be used in mini circular saws. Those blades only become illegal if sold to a member of the UK general public as saw blades for angle grinders.
eBay knowingly allow them to be sold to private individuals in the UK. If they limited the sale of them to users who provide a VAT number then, yeah, I concede that eBay might be able to say that they thought that it might be the case that the buyer was importing a sample not intended for use, but they don't.
Interesting. That may be true of saw blades but I thought (perhaps wrongly) that it was illegal to import 'finished consumer electrical goods' into the UK unless they were CE-marked (and legitimately compliant with what that implied) - or, now, the post-Brexit equivalent of CE-marking (and implied compliances). Is that not the case?
Kind Regards, John
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AFAIK all online marketplaces are required to obey UK laws when selling into the UK.
No new laws are required, your just p1$$ing up a wall with no hope of a change with a petition, it will achieve nothing as existing laws are already ignored and not policed.
If you want unsafe stuff removed from sale then report it to trading standards who are tasked with stopping it.
No new laws are required, your just p1$$ing up a wall with no hope of a change with a petition, it will achieve nothing as existing laws are already ignored and not policed.
If you want unsafe stuff removed from sale then report it to trading standards who are tasked with stopping it.
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