which shipping method is with no VAT?

CyberGhost

Hi!

I was wondering, I heard that when someone sends you something from the US via USPS you don't have to pay the import VAT is that true?

what about UPS? and other services?

Victor

It's only with small value items. Not sure what the cut off is.

Tom Dunne

I think it's around $65.

I got two wireless cards sent to me last year from the US and they were around $60, so i wan't caught for VAT.

CyberGhost

Originally posted by silent
if it's fedex/ups - you will get a letter in about 3 weeks, I usually don't mind that, after few months you get some letters from their debt collection agency, after the second I pay up why pay immediately for something you hate (import tax) immediately, let them wait

if it was sent per USPS EMS and customs wanted their cut then it would be delivered by sds who would want COD for the item. usually it slips undetected (if its small and <200$ declared value ) and delivered by an post

worst scum are gls/williames (they do usps airmail for items >4lbs) their handling fee is ridiculously high

no idea how it's handled by dhl, never used them from the states. Airbourne express (another courrier from us) do not deliver, they send you a letter and want you to call them to give them CC details or send a cheque, then they deliver.

I presume your shippment was fedex/ups - wait for the letter(s) - they don't tuck on much of a handling fee though.
lesson of the day - don't get anything delivered by courrier as you have to pay 21+4 % + handling fee on every item, if you send it by usps ems/airmail it usually does not cost you anything more, but I know sometimes courrier is your only option (had to do it myself recently for my skates, waiting for the first letter from fedex )

forgot that i asked that question already

silent

if it's a rather small package and declared with value less than 200$ then mostly it will come without any extra charges. USPS EMS is way better than usps airmail btw, well worth the extra $.
I get 1 parcel per week at least from the states for some years now (I order loads of stuff online from us), so far only 2 packages were taxed, YMMV though

CyberGhost

what's EMS? by sea?

silent

ems is kind of an international standard for express mail
most countries have an ems service level, and I think it includes sharing information about tracking (altough not as sophisticated as fedex/ups) etc

CyberGhost

ah ok, Thanks!

btw while we are at it, Are you charged with VAT when a parcel sent is from within the Europe Union? Germany for example

silent

Originally posted by CyberGhost
btw while we are at it, Are you charged with VAT when a parcel sent is from within the Europe Union? Germany for example

no, whole EU is import tax free (freedom of movement - personal and goods - are one of the main points of EU) but some big shops (amazon.co.uk i.e.) have to charge the irish vat when shipping to irl (basically any shop doing business more than some value larger than X) so you can be charged (by the shop) a larger amount than advertised (say amazon.co.uk - value of 20Eur will result in 20/1.175*1.21=20.6E)

wow - some heave usage of brackets

CyberGhost

Thanks Silent!

BendiBus

You're only allowed gifts up to €45 and commercially supplied goods up to €22 exempt of charges (including VAT)

The route the goods take (or who provides the delivery service) doesn't matter.

http://www.revenue.ie/pdf/pn_1179.pdf

Kobie

Be carefull when ordering anything worth a couple of hundred Euro from the states - you'll be hit with 21% VAT + Excise duty (a couple of percent, not sure how much). Quite often it'll work out cheaper to buy the stuff from Germany or another EU country where if you pay their VAT, you don't have to pay anything extra here.

Final note: Avoid Fed-Ex like the plague. They royally cocked up a delivery for me before - held it in their Dublin depot for a month while denying they'd ever had it, charged me twice for the VAT + duty & denied every charging me anything. It took months of waiting on hold to get it all sorted out. And they had the cheek to charge 7.50 handling fee on top of it all. Never again. And always pay COD on these things - it's an incentive for them to deliver on time.

K.