If you have bought a statue direct from the United States or Asia, you will know the feeling: the piece arrives, and so does a bill. This page explains exactly what that bill is made of, how it is calculated, and why nothing like it arrives with a Halidom order.
The short version
On any statue worth more than £135 sent to you from outside the UK, you can expect to pay three separate things before the courier will hand it over: import VAT at 20%, customs duty, and a courier handling fee. Together they typically add somewhere between a quarter and a third of what you thought you were paying.
None of this is a scam or a surprise charge invented by the courier. It is the ordinary operation of UK import rules. But it is almost never shown to you at the checkout of an overseas store, which is why it feels like one.
The £135 line, and why every statue is over it
UK rules split imports at £135 of goods value.
Below £135, the overseas seller is supposed to charge you UK VAT at the point of sale and there is no customs duty at all. Above £135, the responsibility moves to the border: VAT and duty are both assessed on arrival, and you pay them before delivery.
For this category the threshold is academic. A sixth-scale licensed statue starts around £300 and quarter-scale pieces run well past £1,500. Every serious collectible statue lands on the expensive side of that line.
What each charge actually is
1. Import VAT — 20%
Charged at the standard UK rate on the landed value, which is not just what you paid for the statue. The VAT base is the goods value plus the international shipping cost plus the customs duty. VAT is calculated last, on top of everything else, which is why it stings more than people expect.
2. Customs duty — it depends on the commodity code
Duty is charged on the goods value plus shipping. The rate depends on how the piece is classified, and classification is genuinely contested in this category.
A resin or polystone display statue is usually entered as an ornamental article of plastics, which attracts a duty rate in the region of 6.5%. The same object declared as a toy or model attracts 0%. Which code applies turns on what the item actually is rather than what anyone would prefer it to be — a display piece for adult collectors is not a toy, however much it resembles one.
Commodity codes and duty rates change. Anyone quoting you a rate — including this page — should be checked against the UK Trade Tariff for the specific code on the day the goods move.
3. The courier handling fee — the one nobody mentions
The courier pays HMRC on your behalf and then charges you for the privilege. Royal Mail, DHL, UPS, FedEx and Parcelforce all do this, under names like “advancement fee”, “disbursement fee” or “clearance fee”. Expect roughly £10 to £20 per parcel, sometimes expressed as a percentage of the tax with a minimum charge.
It is a small number that does disproportionate damage, because it usually arrives as a text message demanding payment before a statue you have already waited eighteen months for can be delivered.
A worked example
A quarter-scale statue bought direct from a US studio. Goods £900, international shipping £120.
| Goods value | £900.00 |
|---|---|
| International shipping | £120.00 |
| Customs duty at 6.5% of £1,020 | £66.30 |
| Import VAT at 20% of £1,086.30 | £217.26 |
| Courier handling fee | £12.00 |
| Payable on arrival | £295.56 |
The statue advertised at £900 has cost £1,315.56 by the time it is in the room. That is an additional 33% on the price you agreed, payable at the worst possible moment, and with no recourse if you decide at that point that you no longer want it.
Gifts, and why marking a parcel as one does not work
Gifts sent between private individuals are exempt from VAT up to £39. That is the whole allowance. It does not apply to anything you bought yourself, and asking an overseas retailer to declare a £900 commercial shipment as a gift is asking them to make a false customs declaration. It is also transparently implausible on a branded studio shipper, and the usual result is a delayed parcel and a closer look.
What is changing
The £135 customs-free threshold is scheduled to be removed later this decade, which will bring low-value consignments into the duty net for the first time. For statue buyers this changes very little, because almost nothing in this category was ever under £135. It matters more for accessories, spare parts and replacement bases.
How Halidom prices it instead
Halidom imports as the business, clears the goods, and pays the duty and the VAT before a statue is ever allocated to you. The price you see on a product page is the price you pay in full.
- No import VAT bill on delivery. It is already settled.
- No customs duty to pay. Already settled.
- No courier handling fee, because there is nothing for the courier to advance.
This is not a discount and it does not make a statue cheaper than the arithmetic allows — those costs are real and they are in the price. What it removes is the uncertainty, the delay at the door, and the possibility of being asked for three hundred pounds you had not budgeted for on a piece you reserved a year and a half ago.
Questions
Do I pay import duty on a statue bought from Halidom?
No. Halidom imports the goods, and duty and VAT are paid by us before the piece is dispatched to you. There is nothing to pay on delivery.
How much is import VAT on a statue sent to the UK?
20% of the landed value, which is the goods value plus international shipping plus any customs duty. On a £900 statue with £120 shipping, that is roughly £217.
How much is customs duty on a resin statue?
It depends on the commodity code the piece is entered under. Ornamental articles of plastics attract a rate in the region of 6.5%; items correctly classified as toys or models attract 0%. Check the current UK Trade Tariff for the specific code before relying on any figure.
What is the courier handling fee for?
The courier pays HMRC on your behalf at the border and charges you an administration fee for doing so. It is typically £10 to £20 and is charged in addition to the tax itself.
Is there a threshold below which I pay nothing?
Goods worth £135 or less are free of customs duty, and the overseas seller should have charged you UK VAT at checkout. Gifts between private individuals are free of VAT up to £39. Collectible statues are almost always above both thresholds.
Can I reclaim import VAT if I return the statue?
If you are a private individual you can apply to HMRC for a repayment of import VAT and duty on goods you have returned, but the process is slow and the paperwork sits with you. Buying from a UK importer avoids the question entirely.
Last checked August 2026 against HMRC guidance on goods sent from abroad. Rates, thresholds and commodity codes change; this page is general information about how the charges work, not tax or customs advice on a specific shipment.