Q+A on Import Duty+Tax [Do Not Ask How to Avoid!]

kumate_champ07

email I received from the revenue today

"your package will be released free of charge today
*
*******"

not even a 'sorry for the inconvenience'

they sent me a letter saying my package was being held in customs and they wanted me to send them invoices which I did, so that they could work out how much money to squeeze out of me. I'm sure my sender put the cost on the package.

Im just a little shocked that theres not even a hint of an apology, I did nothing wrong and they tried to catch me out but I was legit

Is this the norm?

ronaneire

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

Is this the norm?

It is the revenue commissioners!

byte

Yeah, I got the same before from a DX order.

But, after emailing them a scan of the receipts, it was released. No big problem really.

I guess they just don't believe the values put on the customs declarations.

PCPhoto

byte wrote: »

Yeah, I got the same before from a DX order.

But, after emailing them a scan of the receipts, it was released. No big problem really.

I guess they just don't believe the values put on the customs declarations.

probably due to the high number of people trying to avoid import duty and vat.

kumate_champ07

they should still apologise for delaying my package, I did nothing wrong, I'm lucky it wasnt something I needed urgently but I dont know how long theyve had it for, It was sent 4 weeks ago

jor el

kumate_champ07 wrote: »

I did nothing wrong,

Neither did they. Why would they apologise for doing their job?

Redsoxfan

So I received a notice from the Revenue last week informing me that a laptop battery is being held (I ordered it from UK Battery Locator but it was dispatched from Hong Kong-surprise surprise!).

Anyway, I don't have a receipt or invoice from the seller stating how much I paid (there is a link to view a receipt online but this only works if you created an account when ordering, which I didn't). I have e-mailed them explaining that if I don't get an invoice Revenue won't release the package and it will be returned to sender and I will be looking for a refund, but no response yet.

Would Revenue accept a copy of my credit card bill as evidence of payment?

blackest

perhaps you could email a link to the page where you ordered the battery and say what you paid. As long as your being straight with them and the price is reasonable I don't see why the revenue would want to spend any extra time on this. The duty cant be that high on a laptop battery.

Rockshamrover

Hi folks,

I hope you can help with the following. I bought a product from the US.

The company I bought it from said they would pay the shipping on the parcel.

Fedex are asking me to pay VAT on the delivery cost even though I didn't pay for delivery.

Can this be correct?

Thanks

jos22

Rockshamrover wrote: »

Hi folks,

I hope you can help with the following. I bought a product from the US.

The company I bought it from said they would pay the shipping on the parcel.

Fedex are asking me to pay VAT on the delivery cost even though I didn't pay for delivery.

Can this be correct?

Thanks

was there a shipping cost marked on the invoice or was shipping on the invoice marked as free.

usually it value declared on the customs docket they charge vat on. are you sure its shipping cost and not the handing charge.
UPS charged me the vat on a parcel from Amazon.com and also charged me vat on the handling fee for them to pay the vat on my behalf.

Rockshamrover

jos22 wrote: »

was there a shipping cost marked on the invoice or was shipping on the invoice marked as free.

usually it value declared on the customs docket they charge vat on. are you sure its shipping cost and not the handing charge.
UPS charged me the vat on a parcel from Amazon.com and also charged me vat on the handling fee for them to pay the vat on my behalf.

Hi Jos,

Thanks for the quick reply. They are charging for "freight". They are saying that the "shipper did not state on the paperwork that the freight was free of charge".

I have told them that I have an e mail from the company confirming that they would pay the shipping so as to get my business. It wasn't a standard free shipping deal.

Thanks.

jos22

Rockshamrover wrote: »

Hi Jos,

Thanks for the quick reply. They are charging for "freight". They are saying that the "shipper did not state on the paperwork that the freight was free of charge".

I have told them that I have an e mail from the company confirming that they would pay the shipping so as to get my business. It wasn't a standard free shipping deal.

Thanks.

So that prob means that a shipping value was declared on the invoice when they received it. so they just billed you as required by customs import law.
any time I had the free shipping the invoice always marked it as 0.00.

you should ask them if you provide them with proof that you didn't pay the shipping cost will it be refunded usualy an invoice from the company you bought from.

Rockshamrover

jos22 wrote: »

So that prob means that a shipping value was declared on the invoice when they received it. so they just billed you as required by customs import law.
any time I had the free shipping the invoice always marked it as 0.00.

you should ask them if you provide them with proof that you didn't pay the shipping cost will it be refunded usualy an invoice from the company you bought from.

Thanks Jos, I'll give that a shot. Can't do any harm:)

Redsoxfan

blackest wrote: »

perhaps you could email a link to the page where you ordered the battery and say what you paid. As long as your being straight with them and the price is reasonable I don't see why the revenue would want to spend any extra time on this. The duty cant be that high on a laptop battery.

Seller actually sent me an invoice yesterday and aslo told me that if the taxes were less then £5 they would re-imburse me, and it worked out more than that, I would have the goods sent back to them, which seems reasonable on their part.

cassiha

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to see if anyone out there could tell me what the taxes due would be on a parcel valued 158 euros, shipped from USA to Ireland? I have already been totally screwed by the company who quoted a price of 158 euros, then a week later took a further 90euros off my credit card without permission for shipping! Then I get landed with a bill from UPS stating that I owe them almost 78euros in tax. When I rang UPS all they kept saying was there was a 13.5% tax on goods from the USA. But by my calculations that should be a bill of 31.33 euros. Since the bill I received is almost 50euros more than that Im confused. Does anyone know what exactly I'm been charged for?
Thanks for the help :-)

-=al=-

whatever the value is marked as on the parcel.. like 25% shud be added or so... ive no idea but something like that shud happen

jor el

Ask them to detail the bill. VAT will be 21% on the majority of goods, postage is included, and a fee of up to €15 applies on top.

jackbauer

Sorry if this has been asked before. I purchased an item from the states in november and with fedex delivery came to about 62 euro total inc shipping. Received a bill from fedex for 25 euro and change on friday. 15 for vat and 10 admin fee. No problem paying but i thought these was a change in the import/vat rules recently that exempted anything under 150 euro? Again sorry if its been asked before.

chalkitdown

jackbauer wrote: »

Sorry if this has been asked before. I purchased an item from the states in november and with fedex delivery came to about 62 euro total inc shipping. Received a bill from fedex for 25 euro and change on friday. 15 for vat and 10 admin fee. No problem paying but i thought these was a change in the import/vat rules recently that exempted anything under 150 euro? Again sorry if its been asked before.

I think that's only for goods that you are bringing into the country in person, the rate for goods shipped from outside the EU is much lower, around 25 Euro.

jor el

150 is the duty limit. VAT is applied at 22 euro.

iamskippy

Is there a custom fee* on laptop battery being sent from Singapore?
*Not sure of correct term

ozikool

Hello, I am new to the site, but I need to ask something: ON a site called lokerz I will be getting an item shipped from America and the shipping is free, but I wonder is how much will I have to pay for duties and tariffs. I am getting a PSP3000 bundle. Thank you.

rubadub

It seems strange that you would get free shipping from the US to here (presuming you are getting it to Ireland). Duty is liable if it is over €150 worth, VAT is over €22 (over €45 if it is a gift).

I would be more worried the site itself though, I did a search and found this.
http://lockerz-scam.com/

http://www.kongregate.com/forums/2/topics/52873?page=1

EDIT:corrected €22 for normal purchases.

flazio

How is the charge for "Post Office Clearance" determined? On my BBC DVD from play.com valued @€;35.49 I got charged €7.45 in VAT and €8 in a P.O.C. fee.
Is there anywhere that explains how the latter is determined?

ozikool

My friend got something from that site and I seen screenshots. So you are telling me I will have to pay like €195? Or is it something that I don't understand ?

The maximum I would pay is €50, So it is a bad idea right? Taking away the fact it might be a scam.

jor el

No, duty and VAT are applied once you go over those amounts, and it's really over €22 for VAT, €45 is the limit for a gift. It's all in the import duty thread, where this post will now be.

What exactly is Lockerz? If it looks too good to be true, then it isn't true.

jor el

flazio wrote: »

Is there anywhere that explains how the latter is determined?

It's probably on the Revenue website, but they can charge anything up to €15.

ozikool

So is it a good idea, because I shall only pay max of around 50

flazio

jor el wrote: »

It's probably on the Revenue website, but they can charge anything up to €15.

That site would explain the €7.45 I put in Brian Lenihan's coffers but the €8 that I put in An Post's account is what I would like to know about, you'd expect a Post Office Clearence charge to be a percentage of the VAT added on top, you know 10% of the VAT charged etc, not to be more then the VAT itself.

jor el

Actually, I'd expect a handling fee to be fixed, which it is, as it costs no more to calculate and collect the money on a high value item than it does on a low value item. If it were a percentage, then something attracting a lot of VAT would have a very high fee too.

For low valued items, the surcharge can often be as much as the VAT, or even more.