kateinbrooklyn

Hi - yes it was that one! I just paid the price of the items and the DHL shipping option, which was 20UKP. I didn't have to pay any customs fees. My assumption is that the duty costs are factored into the pricing. I would a) check out the reviews on the Trustpilot website; b) contact them and ask them directly.

Lion in Winter

Duty is owed by the purchaser (importer) and is paid in the country of arrival, so if that shop is located in the UK then the responsibility for paying duty is yours. If they already imported the goods into the US, and paid duty on them at that point as a business, then you will not pay duty - but you will pay sales tax to the shop. I'm not sure what other posters here mean by the higher shop prices covering the duty. They wouldn't even know whether or not duty was assessed until the item arrives at the port of entry. I could be wrong of course. I often am.

It's been a while since I managed US import taxes. I suspect that low-value packages for personal use are waived through quite often. I have received various items from the UK and Europe and have been charged no duty. Nothing more than $50ish. I think if the item is being delivered by the post office, then duty is usually payable either to the mail carrier, or you will get a notice to go to the post office to pick it up and pay duty then. I also think that for personal use items that are not in some exotic category, there is a value below which you will not pay duty. If you are bringing it in with you, on a trip, then I think it's currently $800. It may be different for online purchases. If the customs officer decides that a "formal entry" is needed, then you will definitely be paying duty, but I have never had that happen on low value personal purchases.

Please check everything I say and take it with many grains of salt. I could well be wrong. As I say, I haven't done this for a long time. I used to ship truckloads of arts and crafts type stuff across the Mexican border into the US - that was a trip, in every sense of the word.

Uktous19

There’s an Irish shop in Long Grove, IL: Paddy’s on the Square, does a roaring trade with all the local British & Irish

SanDiegogirl

I've been ordering foo items from Brit stores for several years and have never paid customs/taxes over and above what my order stated at time of ordering.

Ravenscroft

Cheers everyone for the great thoughts and sharing your experiences. I went ahead and put in an order with the store and will see how this goes. It's worth it for some of the long-missed goodies they have in stock!

robtuck

Just received our latest order, no extra charges. We usually spend about $150 each time on items.

Ravenscroft

Just to close out this thread my order (placed 10/19) arrived today. No additional charges or import fees. I thought it was going to need a signature but DHL just dropped it at the front door. All nicely packaged. For the record we bought $750 of stuff - chocolate, Walkers cheese and onion, tea, biscuits, Mr Kipling mince pies, lemon curd, Bisto, etc.

Thanks to you all for your advice and sharing your experiences. Now I'm off to make a cup of Typhoo.

lizzyq

Dinner at your place then? What time should we arrive ?

Lion in Winter

I can bring my own cutlery, if that's an issue at all....

Ja5on

I didn’t see it mentioned in the thread, but for future orders anything under $800 is fine. Once you get over $800 then they can start imposing extra taxes.

Ravenscroft

I'll put the kettle on.

angelman

My family often sends us chocolate from Scotland. My sister lives next to an incredible chocolate shop, the Oban chocolate company. They seem to have no issue sending us chocolate which arrives in one piece. The biggest problem we have in LA is in the summer the chocolate will often melt in our mailbox. Never had any issues with customs or import duties and fees. That said, I think they just use Royal Mail. Probably a bit too "fancy" for your needs but if you fancy some great chocolate, worth a try. They are actually cheaper than buying high end chocolate here, even with shipping I found. https://obanchocolate.co.uk/

jjmb

That import allowance is much better than the other way around. Send a handmade Christmas stocking as a gift which I valued at £10 and they wanted to charge over £45 for the recipient to accept it. They had changed the value to £95 which is way over the the gift limit of £39. They wouldn't accept the recipient's statement it was a handmade gift that cost less £10🤬 Ironically, if I had said, it was ordered, there would have been no import VAT as you allowed to import items up to £135. That is still really low compared to the States. Now I need to get myself some chocolate!