Calculating tax & duty on importing goods from the USA?

Zascar

I want to buy a piece of electronics from the USA. It sells for €499.

How can I work out how much it will cost me in taxes and duties etc? Does anyone know how it is calculated?

I hear that most of the time you get stung but sometimes you get away with it (probably rare though) - whats the deal?

Can anyone shed any light on this for me?
Thanks

jor el

If it's delivered by the post office (sent by USPS) then you may well get away without any tax/duty as only a small number of An Post packages are examined. If it's sent by one of the courier companies then you'll most likely have to pay up as most of them declare and pay the duty before delivering it.

Duty is something like 4-5% I think, VAT is put on top of this at 21% and then the delivery company is allowed to charge up to €15 for processing all this for you. An Post only charge €5, some others charge the full €15.

rubadub

They slap on the shipping costs before calculating too, in many cases shipping can be more than the item.

Of course there are several ways around being charged.

IamMetaldave

If this is any use to you, I bought clothes from the states, the cost $130 and I got a bill from Fedex for €56...

Also, I had a guitar delivered by USPS and they wouldn't give it over until the dutys were settled.