Free delivery for iHerb orders over $40.00! Ends June 30th.

International Airmail — $4.00

Free for orders over $40.00! Ends June 30th.
Orders up to $80.00, and 4 pounds (1814 grams)
Usually Takes 1-4 weeks, 10 days to Europe and Pacific
2-12 Weeks to Brazil
Reliable, But No Tracking & Non-refundable
Estimated Delivery Date: July 10, 2014

I've always used this method for shipping and usually had the order after 1 week. Always within 2.

loopymum wrote: »

Iherb say on their website that you are least likely to attract customs using the free method

Orders going through DHL or UPS have tracking information, and are delivered a lot quicker than International Airmail.
Orders going through International Airmail are scrutinized less by customs in your country and subject to less custom duties, but have no tracking information, and take longer for delivery.

A few reasons for this. Standard post costs less, when valuing an item to see if its over the limit they include the postage costs, so if you have high postage costs it might bump you up over the limit. An post anecdotaly seem to ignore the postage costs when checking to see if its over the limit, but if over the limit they do include the postal costs when calculating VAT.

Second reason is that the couriers often charge the max allowable handling charge, I think it is up to €15. An post only charge €6 or so. An post anecdotaly have limited staff to process all the parcels, so tend to go for higher value items, seeing as they are more likely to cooperate with a government body trying to maximize tax income. Couriers are more likely to worry just about themselves and so want to get the fees even if someone is barely over the limit.

e.g. if you got a pen worth €10 couriered for €100 a courier might charge €15 handling and 23% VAT on €110. An post might not bother at all. If the pen was €100 and post was €10 then the courier charge the same, and an post would charge €6 handling and 23% on €110

Some iherb products might be seized too.

I had to pay €28 customs on a €82 order the other week.

rustyzip wrote: »

THat shouldn't be. I thought it was €100 and under that you could get away with?!

Customs in Ireland seem to just do what they like!

The limit is €22 for VAT to be applied, many iherb things might be zero rated for VAT too. Duty only comes into effect at €150

However customs officially state they will not bother collecting below €6 in fees, there for the real effective limit on items at the current 23% VAT is €26.08

Some iherb stuff might not be 23% or 0% either, not sure.

rubadub wrote: »

I emailed revenue about the €22 limit, in some old threads I was saying the limit is higher than €22 in most cases and they confirmed it. €26.08 at the current 23% VAT rate. The limit was higher when VAT was 21%

Hi,
I was reading on revenue.ie that the limit is €22 until something is applicable for VAT when importing from online shops

http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/pn1179.html

Consignments not exceeding a total customs value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT.

However it goes on to say

Where the customs duty on a consignment of goods amounts to less than €10 it will not be collected. Similarly, VAT liability amounting to less than or equal to €6 will not be collected.

So on typical imported items like a DVD the VAT is 23%, so if the DVD is €25 it is above the €22 threshold limit, but the VAT would only be €5.75 so is below the €6 limit. Am I right in thinking that this in effect means the real threshold value for non-excise items at 23% is €26.08 -since only items above this value will have VAT equal or above €6.

Thanks

Dear ***,
Your calculations in the example you quoted are correct but do remember that, if the freight costs or the VAT rates increase, the €22 threshold will produce a different result. This threshold is set in European Law, while the €6 de minimus limit is just a local practice based on administrative expedience.

Regards,


****
Customs Division

I have seen customs officials on RTE news a few years back saying the limit was €45, this is the limit for gifts, however back then it was rare to hear of people being charged VAT on parcels below €45 which came via normal post.

If you get 3 deliveries on the same day from the same place, all under €26 they can in theory add them all up and treat it as a single consignment, never heard of it happening though.

rustyzip wrote: »

I placed three separate orders all under €60 I think, so hopefully I won't get stung.

What were you buying?!

4 boxes of quest bars. They're all just over 2lbs each, so you can't even split the order which is annoying.

Bah, thought someone had found a decent weed delivery service.

Same here €17 on a €30 order, 10 euro to DHL and 7 in vat

To the best of my knowledge what is happening here is 100% illegal and nothing is being done about it.

Yes for many dietary supplements VAT is now applicable, but according to Revenue eBrief No. 70/11, standard dietary supplements are still 0 VAT, and are so in pharmacies etc;

"Food supplements that may benefit from the Zero rate must fall within the ordinary and everyday meaning of “food” and not be equivalent to any of the items specified in the Table. The supplement must encourage the maintenance of health, through the sustenance derived from a normal, healthy diet, to meet the social reasons criteria that apply to goods benefiting from the Zero rate. The key consideration is whether the food supplement is one that forms part of a person's normal diet for the purposes of sustenance as opposed to enhancing a person's diet with a view to achieving a particular aim.
The Zero rate applies to the following substances, whether they are marketed as food supplements or not, provided they are formulated to make good the potential shortfall from the nutrition required for a normal, healthy diet:

Vitamins and minerals in solid form, such as capsules, tablets, pills or lozenges, intended for oral consumption without further preparation;"


After being charged VAT on an order that met this criteria I rang DHL to complain.

They informed me that they have been instructed by airport customs that all orders for iHerb (regardless of what they contain) are to incur custom charges at full value. After contacting Airport customs, they gave me details for Revenue.

I've contacted Revenue and they just pass it between departments without reply yet.

This is out and out robbery, I really hope anyone charged fees on standard vitamin and mineral preparations joins me in emailing complaints, or contacts their TDs.

Ordered 3 weeks ago and selected the free international airmail and still haven't received it. Very unusual to take this long so its either an post are working out charges or it's been nicked. I'll wait another bit before contacting iherb.

I always split my order and aim for around €22-23 with airmail and no probs. Last year i put an order in and DHL said some of the stuff couldn't come into the EU - dog treats which the sell in the EU already and gave me the option of having it destroyed or sent back :mad:

May I ask what company delivers the International Airmail option? Is it An Post?? Thanks.