Dear Parents of England Manchester Missionaries:
As you plan for gifts for your missionary this year (whether birthday or special holidays), we are sending you some important information to assure timely delivery of your packages and to help minimize shipping costs, Value-Added Taxes, and duty fees.
If you want your package to arrive to your missionary in advance of the special day/holiday, please send it at least 30 days in advance of the intended date. This is especially true at Christmas time. All Christmas gifts should be mailed in early November. The cost of mailing a gift is sometimes much more than the cost of the actual gift. Many parents can avoid paying expensive mailing charges, especially from countries far from the UK, by buying gifts from Amazon.co.uk and similar British-based Internet sites and having them sent directly to the mission office. This can often be done free of charge or at cheaper British mail rates. If you live outside of Great Britain, please know that shoes, boots and other clothing items of good quality are available for purchase here.
All packages should be sent to the mission office—not to the mission home. Also, please do not send packages to the flat where your missionary is currently living. If British mail delivers a package to a flat, and the recipient is not at home, the package is sent back to the post office (generally miles away). Packages are not left at the doors in the UK. Use the following Mission Office address:
Missionary Full Name (we have missionaries with the same last name) England Manchester Mission Springwood, Suite G5
Booths Park, Chelford Road
Knutsford WA16 8GS
England
We encourage you not to send large packages because your son/daughter will need to transport the packages with them on the train or bus from zone conference back to their flat. It can be very challenging to carry them to and from the train/bus station, so please keep the package size small. Receiving an excessive number of gifts can even be embarrassing among their fellow missionaries since some of our missionaries receive few if any gifts.
Please mark all packages with the word “gift” and show a declared value of no more than £36.00 GBP ($52.00 USD). If the value of the gift is more than £36.00 ($52.00 USD) the package will incur an import Value Added Tax (VAT) of 20%. It is wise to divide gifts into smaller packages with declared values of less than £36.00 GBP. If you fail to state it is a gift, the VAT is applied on goods worth more than £15.00.
If the value of a package is more than £36.00 GBP, the package will be held by the Post Office/Customs until the import VAT is paid. The missionary would be responsible for these costs. Customs also adds on a handling fee that often exceeds £10.00. Import VAT is calculated on the total price of the goods, postage cost, and any insurance costs, not just the price of the gift. Preferred methods of
shipping from the United States is via the United States Postal Services. The missionary will incur a VAT tax if you use FedEx or UPS.
Please remember that all gifts sent to missionaries should be consistent with the sacred nature of their calling. Please adhere to the Missionary Music Policy which is as follows: “Listen only to music that is consistent with the sacred spirit of your calling. Music should invite the Spirit, help you focus on the work, and direct your thoughts and feelings to the Savior. Do not listen to music that pulls your thoughts away from your work, merely entertains, has romantic lyrics or overtones, or dulls your spiritual sensitivity by its tempo, beat, loudness, lyrics, or intensity” (Missionary Handbook. p. 25).
If you are sending reading material, please adhere to the Missionary Reading Policy which is as follows:
“Read only books, magazines, and other materials authorized by the Church (Missionary Handbook, p. 27) “Focus your study on the standard works, the approved missionary library (Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage Our Search for Happiness, True to the Faith), and the Church magazines. Study only these materials.” (Missionary Handbook, pg. 15 and PMG, pg. viii).
While favorite food items are enthusiastically welcomed by the missionaries, please do not send perishable items. We cannot guarantee a timely delivery. Keep in mind that most favourite food items can be purchased in the UK and therefore some extra personal money to purchase those things may be more cost effective than shipping.
It is illegal to ship packages of meat or dairy products to the U.K. from outside Non-European Union Countries. This includes beef jerky, which is readily obtained in the U.K. The U.K. Customs Department does random searches and if beef or dairy products are found in a package, the recipient receives a letter of seizure and forfeiture which informs them that future violations can result in a criminal investigation. Some of our missionaries have received these letters and they lost not only the banned items but everything else in their package.
Letters and cards should also be sent to the mission office and will be distributed at various meetings throughout the month.
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