[article] Christmas parcels confiscated in Revenue VAT clampdown

Padraig Mor

Article from today's Examiner regarding the Revenue clampdown on tax on packages from outside the EU. I was quite interested in this bit:
"Revenue is using its legal right to open any parcels which do not have an invoice attached to the outside of the package"
Wonder if it means that they cannot open a package with an external invoice regardless of the value declared?

link: http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=21068-qqqx=1.asp

Christmas parcels confiscated in Revenue VAT clampdown

By Conor Ryan
CHRISTMAS presents sent through the post are being confiscated by the Revenue Commissioners until the recipients pay VAT charges and postal handling fees — or parcels are returned to sender.


Revenue has collected hundreds of thousands of euro from people availing of cheaper CDs and DVDs on the internet by forcing them to pay customs duty and value added tax, plus a €5 post office fee on items bought from companies outside the EU and posted to this country. Failure to pay the tariff means items are sent back.

The charges can often amount to 50% or more of the item’s original cost.

In order to detect offenders, Revenue is using its legal right to open any parcels which do not have an invoice attached to the outside of the package at mailing centres in Dublin, Cork, Athlone and Portlaoise.

According to Revenue, there has been an increase in the number of confiscations of packages containing CDs, DVDs and computer games arriving by post from Jersey, Hong Kong, China and the US and 235 such packages have been detained.

Duty and VAT collected amounted to €3,752 and 72 packages are stored at the letter post depot in Dublin.

“Portlaoise parcel-post office has collected €1.375 million in duty and VAT on parcels this year to date,” a Revenue spokesman said.

“Revenue staff at our mailing centres in Dublin, Cork, Athlone and Portlaoise scan all third country post and parcels and raise charges as part of their normal routine work. All post is targeted.”

He said An Post acts as its agent in processing parcels, but An Post pointed out that Revenue staff are working at the mailing centres.

Jersey is home to one of the most widely-used internet product companies, Play.com while Hong Kong is home to CDWow.com.

Products bought from any internet product company outside the EU, including the likes of Amazon, would be subject to the taxation.

Play.com declined to comment but Dermott Jewell of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland said the Revenue Commissioners are simply enforcing the law, something they have not done in past years, and consumers must be aware that they should pay tax on items worth over €45.

“Our advice would be not to have goods sent in bulk but to have them sent individually. If the Revenue sees a batch of 50 DVDs they are not going to think it is for personal use but for re-sale.”

BuffyBot

Wonder if it means that they cannot open a package with an external invoice regardless of the value declared?

I'm sure they can, depending on whats listed/declared and whether the suspect it to be correct/incorrect

machiavellianme

Padraig Mor wrote:

Play.com declined to comment but Dermott Jewell of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland said the Revenue Commissioners are simply enforcing the law, something they have not done in past years, and consumers must be aware that they should pay tax on items worth over €45.

I thought it was over €22. Was it changed to €45?

byte

machiavellianme wrote:

I thought it was over €22. Was it changed to €45?

Yea, that's what I thought too. Somebody is wrong!

Our man in Havana

It's €45 if it's a gift, otherwise it's €22.

byte

Bond-007 wrote:

It's €45 if it's a gift, otherwise it's €22.

Ah, thanks for clarifying that.

Cionnfhaolaidh

I've just ordered a camera and lens for €990 from Hong Kong. Fingers crossed I don't get stung.

Anyone else got any horror storys?

Our man in Havana

You will get caught. Alarms will ring when that package comes into Ireland.

jor el

Cionnfhaolaidh wrote:

I've just ordered a camera and lens for €990 from Hong Kong. Fingers crossed I don't get stung.

Anyone else got any horror storys?

If the declared value on the outside is almost €1000 then it will almost certainly be stopped. If there is no value on it, or a small value, then it may or may not be opened and valued depending on the revenue officer who inspects it. If they suspect the declared value is a lie then they will almost certainly stop it.

You could be looking at up to €300 charge on that camera and lens unfortunately.

I had a DVD box set opened on me once, was The Sopranos season 1-5, coming in from HK. I paid €60 and the tax and charges were almost €30 on top. Wouldn't have minded so much but it turned out they were cheap knockoff DVD silvers. Had been advertised as legit originals. It would have cost me €150 at the time for the full set of originals from CDWow, but I ended up paying €90 for knock offs. eBay is not always a bargain.

Cionnfhaolaidh

The sender will value it as 300 euro, so even if it does get stopped, the tax shouldn't be too bad.