FedEx invoice query

fletch

Right so here's the story

• Bought a camera off ebay from a seller in Hong Kong
• Shipped by fedex which I paid for at time of payment for camera (item marked as Gift so wasn't stopped by customs)
• Camera arrives as expected
• Receive an invoice today (nearly a month later) from Fedex requesting payment of €20 for "VAT" and an "Administration Fee".

What should I do....
I'm going to just ignore it until the bailiffs arrive (good idea or not?)

Nukem

Bold bold bold you!
Ya tried and got caught:( - if you want leave it til you get a phone call or another letter but thats recorded and the will just hound you till you pay.

Nuke

fletch

Nukem wrote:

Bold bold bold you!
Ya tried and got caught:( - if you want leave it til you get a phone call or another letter but thats recorded and the will just hound you till you pay.

Nuke

I dont understand....because the "VAT" figure they request is under €12....this in no way represents 21% of the cost of the camera....
The last time I bought a camera off ebay I did get stung for customs duty but it was dealt with in a totally different manner. I received a post card notifying me that the item would not complete shipment until the duty had been paid...I paid the duty which was nearly €100 and the camera arrived the following day.

Nukem

Thats odd,never heard that before? Be thankful its not 21% of the price of the camera so,cause sounds like you 90% got away with it! Not promoting it:pMod and all

fletch

I think I'm still going to wait for a registered letter to arrive before I pay it

j4vier

any updates on this ?
did u had to pay in the end?

Ruu_Old

I would just pay it and be done with it.

mikeruurds

The same thing happened to me with a digital camera that I bought for €400 from HK on ebay valued at €900 in the stores here.

The seller marked it as a gift with a $100 value and Fedex sent me an invoice for 20-odd Euro. Luckily they calculate the VAT on the declared value of $100 and not the market value + added their admin fee.

You've scored. They could've charged you a hell of a lot more and either way you'll have to pay as they've already declared it to the Irish revenue authorities.

Mike

Grimlock

Well they've charged me 60 quid for a wakeboard worth 500 with no value declared for the board, at least none that I could see so I can't imagine where they got €60 from.

I had bought other wakeboarding gear and had it shipped to where I work and a month later the accountants here asked me if I knew anything about a 200 bill being charged to the company by fedex. :eek: Looked like I was trying to pull a fast one. I was furious and rang up Fedex as not only did I not give them my company's fedex account number, I did not know we had one! I explained this to the girl on the phone who insisted that I must have given the number then went silent and confirme that I did not give the number. She offered to let me pay by my credit card there and then but made no attempt to acknowledge their mistake or to say sorry. I was pretty fooking embaressed by the episode so out of the principal I'm not paying the 60 quid :mad:

Gone West

could you all stop talking about tax evasion?
kthxbye

mikeruurds

I wouldn't say that my purchasing on Ebay can be described as tax evasion. I've never asked a seller to mark down the value of an item.

If you purchase something from outside of the EU you should add VAT of 21% and a €10 or so admin fee to the item cost and then decide if the total value is still a good deal. If so go ahead and purchase the item bearing in mind that you might get charged when the parcel clears customs.

Sometimes you get aways with paying a reduced charge or no charge at all, but don't complain if you end up paying more than 21% of the purchase value in customs fees. Remember that the VAT is added to the value inclusive of postage.

Regards
Mike

Sad Professor

this happened to me too. several times. however i was expecting it as it seems that fedex automatically pay the customs for you. they don't wait to be stopped, hence no delay. i don't know if they make exceptions for lower priced items though. i doubt it.

if you don't pay they will start threatening you will legal action. whether they'd be bothered taking it over 20 euro i don't know...

zuchum

I made an order from Fedex in March for EUR 121 for some tshirts,received an invoice for 33 quid today.

Don't mind payng it that much to be honest,but have no idea how to pay it. Have account number from the invoice,but when you go to their website it says login with your User ID and password...which I don't have.

How in the hell do I pay??

rubadub

I find it odd that you are not informed first. What if you won a expensive prize and then get them looking for €1000 in VAT that you cannot afford. Could I go to the US and post some cheap jewellery to some lad I do not like and mark it worth 100000s.

Happened to me before, I just binned the letters until they became solicitors letters.

Nody

rubadub wrote: »

Could I go to the US and post some cheap jewellery to some lad I do not like and mark it worth 100000s.

Something similar has actually been done with a Ebay scammer buying a "laptop" a couple of years ago. I'd post the link but lost it a while back (in short he got sent a painted brick listed with value of $2000 and had to pay the VAT to get the package).

As for your extreme example I'd simply go dispute it with the custom's department and show what you received, what you paid (why did you sign for it if you did not know the person sending it?) etc. They can then in turn refund Fedex and Fedex can issue a more appropiate invoice.

RMD

I order €350 worth of clothes from America and got taxed €102 VAT, don't know where they came up with that figure from.

As I was 14 my Dad told me not to pay as apparently there is a loop hole which states that as I'm 14 at the time the clothes count as necessaries and the government can't tax me on it

I haven't paid anyway, they were sending me letters from september to november and they haven't contacted me since so I assume they've just given up. The 5 letter's from their lawyers would have exceeded the cost of the 100€ Vat anyway by now lol.