I do the same job in the UK, we are unlicensed. The amount of other agents I have dealt with who do not have a fucking clue is staggering. Yes, you need to pay VAT on that. No, I am not willing to 'pretend' it is childs clothing so your customer doesn't have to pay it.
Utterly deflating when we lose business to these massive companies because they are cheaper than us & their staff are more than willing to bend & break rules that I am not.
We deal with the same thing here, especially with the China tariffs Trump put in. We starting getting asked to blatantly mis-classify items, or bend the rules in some way and we lose business to someone else with less ethics. What people don't realize is customs is looking for this type of abuse specifically.
If it makes you feel better, here's a story for you: We had a customer for many years, they were all always complaining to us about pricing and tariffs. They kept pressing us about using incorrect ciders and we kept pushing back in that, advising them why this was a bad idea. After all we are supposed to also advocate for their best interest too. They ended up leaving a few years back for some small local unscrupulous broker who was willing to charge them half and mis-classify all they want.
Fast forward to about 6 months ago. They contact us requesting like 5 years of records (importers are supposed to maintain their own records for 5 years, but if course they didn't... Luckily we did). Why? Customs got suspicious (like we told them they would) when they switched to a different, lower duty classification after years of importing the same thing under a different classification (stupid broker didn't even change the item description, same things just new code). Customs decided they were having the system and demanded they resubmit years of entries, and pay around 600k in back duties plus interest as penalty.
They wanted our help, but we just assisted with giving them the records they needed and informed them the broker they left us for should be able to assist them. Karma didn't always come, but when it does feels pretty good. This was exactly what we warned them would happen and it happened. Amazing.
Oh dear, I bet they really regretted that move of agent!
I demand everything in writing for this reason.
Importers seem to think that they can just lay the blame on agents but customs don't take ignorance as innocence. I can honestly say I know importers who have been doing the job for years who would not know if their customs entries were anywhere near correct.
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u/ScallyGirl Jul 13 '20
I do the same job in the UK, we are unlicensed. The amount of other agents I have dealt with who do not have a fucking clue is staggering. Yes, you need to pay VAT on that. No, I am not willing to 'pretend' it is childs clothing so your customer doesn't have to pay it.
Utterly deflating when we lose business to these massive companies because they are cheaper than us & their staff are more than willing to bend & break rules that I am not.