Unofficial Tex Murphy

Okay everyone, I've been doing a little research for those in the EU and UK who are wondering what the tax position is on importing any physical items from Project Fedora.

I believe that the basic rule applies through the whole EU (the starting point is EU legislation) but do your own research, and this is just what I have been told is the case by the UK tax office. I have no idea whether a different person at the tax office will take a different view on the same point, but hopefully this will help.

There is a question as to whether items are purchases or gifts. Technically they could be neither, but for the purposes of this guide, I'm assuming no one is going to challenge the law.

For imports, you are taxed VAT on any item with a value greater than £15 (different EU countries may have different values). You also need to pay import duties on items worth over £135. So for goods worth between £15 and £135, you should only be paying VAT at 20%.

Where goods are liable to customs duty, the value is waived if duty comes to £9 or less. Also, every category of item has a different rate of tax applied, so some items have 0% tax, some 12% and so on.

So odds are, if you are getting a few boxed computer games, a shot glass, books and a hat. I'm guessing that tax will be less than £20.

And this won't need to be paid until the items are shipped. Bearing in mind this will be around December 2012, hopefully your wallet will have recovered from Kickstarter, and hopefully won't be too hit by Christmas.

IF you are hit with import duties or taxes that you are not expecting, you can challenge the sum due. There is something called Notice 252, which is the method in which taxes are worked out. There are six 'methods' for working out duties. Method 1 covers 90% of things imported, but having spoken to Janine in the UK tax office, she and I agreed that 'method 3' was the most appropriate here.

If anyone wants to know more about individual tax rates, I have done some research on which tax rates I think apply to each of the physical reward items and can post them.

But with luck, we won't need to worry about import duties of more than a few pounds.

So get pledging!

(and is anyone still awake???)

PS - I'm not expecting any responses to this, it's purely fyi and hopefully helps those who are wondering what the tax position would be.

They are called "rewards" for donating rather than purchasing an item so I'd definitely say it can be classified as a Gift.
I don't know if my local post office is right but they told me to mark the stuff I sell on eBay as Gift when sending outside UK. In light of that they can definitely mark these rewards as Gifts

The actual value of the physical items would also not be the same as the reward tier amount. Part of it is the digital goods tied in and also the exclusivity which result in the overall value. If you're at the $100 tier for example and add $50 for the tier above with the shot glass, then a big chunk of that is also GOG credits for all 5 Tex games. Same for the lower tiers. Just the glass by itself is probably much less than $50.

I have ordered lots of stuff from America and Japan, plus some from Australia, Germany and other places. In my experience it also depends if they send it via tracked mail or not. I have gotten a lot of stuff over the £15 (and £18 as it was before the change) by Airmail and not been charged (it can happen but very rare so far for me), but you can pretty much guarantee if its sent tracked its gonna be checked for tax etc. Of course there is the risk of stuff getting lost when not tracked (but so far I have not had that happen much except from one or two retailers who seemed to use a route through the Bermuda triangle). Still they may not want to take the chance and I don't know what kind of shipping method they are going to use.

The rules for the Netherlands are similar. Anything under 22 euro isn't taxed at all. Between 22 and 150 you only pay BTW (VAT currently 19%). It is however possible that the transporter (TNT/courier) adds an additional cost "inklaringskosten" or transaction fee (12,50 or 17 euro depending on whether or not it's an EMS - Express Mail Service parcel).

I think that a lot of it is up to the discretion of the taxman/postman who makes the decision. Technically it isn't a gift either, as it isn't something being given for nothing. This is why it is potentially neither. The Inland Revenue say that tax is paid on purchases and gifts. As this is neither, it technically might not be liable to tax at all, but the tax office, when I asked them about this, spluttered a bit and said everything that comes in has to be liable to tax.

Interesting about the Netherlands being similar - I suspect most of the EU will be liable to the same rules, so the higher tiers are still affordable!

PolloDiablo wrote:EMS - Express Mail Service parcel).

Ah thats what I was trying to think of! EMS often gets caught by customs for me if over the limit. But often I get sent stuff by Airmail and it flies through customs without additional charges even if over the customs limit. I think because they get so much Airmail and its handled less due to less tracking, so I guess (except for random checks) they just scan it to make sure its not a gun and leave it at that maybe Good thing the gun Tex threw out the window isn't a reward!!

I remember I ordered something from America by Airmail a few months ago that was £20 (when the limit was £18) and it got held up at customs for like 2 whole weeks whilst they checked it and when it arrived there was no charge, just a note to say it had been checked. Still I wouldn't say its a sure thing you won't get charged tax with Airmail. It just seems that more often its the tracked one EMS.

Great of you to bring it up, Demonlawyer. I've been wondering about the very same thing. I actually mailed CJ & AC about it but have yet to receive a reply as to how they intend to ship the items to "overseas" backers.

In Denmark we have to pay Danish VAT of 25% for items purchased outside the EU at a value of $13.5 and above. We also have to pay customs fee if the items cost more than $194.

But my question is ... how will they ship the items? Will they label the entire $100 tier package as a gift so we won't get into any trouble with customs? Or will they come up with an estimated price for the entire package?

I can see that it the package should exceed $194 the Danish customs wants me to pay the following:

12% of the value for the backer T-shirt
3,5% of the value of the CDs

Luckily the collectors edition game box is 0% but if it had been a gaming console game it would have been 3,5% as well.


Basically what I'm saying is ... I'm trying to decide whether I should up my pledge to $135 and get the ALL DIGITAL TIER rather than risk having 2 CDs and 1 T-shirt sent which could result in an extra "bill" having to pay Danish VAT and possibly customs fee too. But I would really like to have these physical items

What is your take on this?

I've sent them an email asking if they could state the value of the items rather than the value of the pledge. At the end of the day, even if they don't you can query it with customs and probably convince them that the contents are not worth a gazillion dollars.

netroam wrote:
What is your take on this?

I am totally taking the risk and going for the big box edition for Tex and Space Venture (as well as Jane Jensen, Double Fine and Wasteland). It is up to the various developers to decide what value they will put on the customs forms but I'm sure they won't get us into trouble by writing something that is far higher than the actual worth of a game-dvd and a t-shirt, even if there may be collectible or unique stuff in there too. So maybe I will get charged - 20% of $50 and perhaps the fee too, adding up to a potential extra 25 euro or so. That'd be a pity but worth it in my opinion. But everyone has to decide that for themselves of course!

Well, I got a reply back from AC & CJ about the international shipping and here's what they said:

Hi Morten,

Thanks for your message! We're glad you've enjoyed our previous games! I've just spoken with out shipping manager, and we are planning on shipping the rewards as gifts! We're glad you're excited, and we can assure you, we're as excited to make "Project Fedora" as you are to play it!

Thank you on behalf of Big Finish Games!

So it seems that we shouldn't get any problems with customs as they will ship the items as gifts

Just wanted to let you all know.

Thanks for posting that netroam.

Great news - and hopefully no biggie at this end - technically they are still liable to UK VAT above £40, but customs do turn a blind eye to low values, so hopefully we have nothing to worry about.