Importing Japanese knives into the UK

Importing knives into the UK from Japan

If you’re resident in the UK it’s important to know that when ordering a knife from overseas you’ll pay an additional sum in order to receive your knife.

As a UK resident, your overseas online purchases are subject to VAT and carrier handling fees when they arrive. By law knife deliveries to UK addresses require an adult signature and that means postal deliveries are out, and companies like DHL Express, UPS and FedEx will charge a fee to process your import.

Import duty is not applicable to knives made in Japan and shipped from Japan, thanks to the UK-Japan CEPA trade agreement, but will be levied if your seller doesn't provide the correct paperwork for your import.

What will you be required to pay once your order reaches the UK? 

All chef's knives imported into the UK from Japan are subject to tax and carrier fees. Upon arrival in the United Kingdom your delivery will be assessed for customs duty and VAT by HM Revenue and Customs.

Customs duty is 0% if the knife is accompanied by a signed Statement of Origin. Beware: knives that arrive in the UK without the Statement of Origin will be attract duty at the General Rate of 8%. You can avoid this if you make sure the seller includes one. Simply stating on the consignment note that the knife is made in Japan note is not sufficient to qualify for the Preferential Rate of duty.

An advance payment fee, sometimes called a disbursement fee, will be applied by the delivery company. This covers costs associated with their prepayment of your VAT. DHL Express applies a fee of £11.00. UPS charges £13.60. 

VAT of 20% is paid on the combined total of purchase price, shipping, insurance (if applicable), customs duty and carrier fee. Knife Japan will help minimise your outlays with the correct paperwork. 

If you’re a VAT registered business and have purchased your knife for use in your business, you can keep the outer wrapper including the customs charge label, customs declaration and invoice from Knife Japan to support your claim to input tax.

One last thing to note. DHL is Knife Japan's shipper of choice to the UK and unfortunately DHL UK now refuses to deliver knives over 20.3cm / 8 inches in length.

If you wish to order a longer knife from Knife Japan please understand that we would have to use another shipping company and an order for a single knife over eight inches in length has the potential to tip us into the red. We know you wouldn't want that. We'll assess the order and decide if our free shipping policy can apply. Thank you for your understanding.

If you have any questions about our products or how we can deliver them to you in the UK, please drop us a line using the form below.

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