Do Customs check fedex parcel

MooseJam

I've got 2 8800GT's coming by fedex, could I get stung for tax ? or do fedex bypass customs ?

Timothy Bryce

MooseJam wrote: »

I've got 2 8800GT's coming by fedex, could I get stung for tax ? or do fedex bypass customs ?

I'm afraid they do horsebox....you'll be nailed for import duty no doubt.

This is a guarantee.

MooseJam

**** it, how does that work, do they stop it untill I pay ?

Reku

Used to be a random check although I've been told they've stepped things up a bit in terms of the amount they check. AFAIK unless you're getting it delivered to a registered import/export business (in which case your boss will soon be shouting at you for charging the company) you'll be contacted by customs and they will hold on to the parcel until you pay the amount.
This is why whenever possible I buy from within the EU, saves any hassle.

Timothy Bryce

MooseJam wrote: »

**** it, how does that work, do they stop it untill I pay ?

They'll deliver the package and ask for money....when you don't pay it they use collection agencies who force you down the legal route.

You can end up with massive fines and in court etc.

kevmy

They don't check everything so you might get lucky.

Think tax is 30% on however much over €50 you go

Voodu Child

MooseJam wrote: »

or do fedex bypass customs ?

Yeah, fedex bypass customs, they're great for smuggling guns and drugs etc. :rolleyes:

When US sellers ship packages to Europe, they have to fill in a form which, alongside your address, tracking number etc, also details the nature and value of the goods. It's taped to the box.

Customs just charge you based on that, unless they don't like the look of it or want to do a random check. Fedex usually pay customs the charges to get the parcel on it's way asap (except for very high customs charges), and then you'll re-imburse fedex the charges when they deliver (or else they just won't give you the goods).

They'll quite often do a random check to see if the goods in the box match the goods on the form. Especially lately.

Jesus Wept

OP: Related

ojewriej

MooseJam wrote: »

I've got 2 8800GT's coming by fedex, could I get stung for tax ? or do fedex bypass customs ?

The way it works is:

Customs apply charges based on a value given by the shipper on the Commercial Invoice. First, it's duty, the amount might vary, depending under which tariff code they will charge you. Then they will apply VAT (21%), based on value of the goods+transportation charges+duty.

Now, not all merchandise will get charges, for instance if the shipper will mark it as "gift" (some internet shops will do that for you) or something similar. They also like to do spot checks, to make sure it's really a gift, or if the value given is correct. These checks are quite regular i'm afraid.

The courier company will pay the custom charges - shipper has to sign th power of attorney letter - and then they will bill you, with their admin charge, which usually is 2.5% of what they paid, bit not less than x (about 10-15 euro). You won't get your parcel until you pay them.

If you want to query charges applied by customs, you can, but you have to pay first anyway. And then they have up to 6 months i think to answer.

Hobbes

You can lie about the price, but if it goes missing your screwed (even with insurance).

Also customs have a list of certain companies who have tried to screw the system, and if you got an item from one of those then you will deffo get a charge.

Karoma

Where did you order from?
FedEx don't check everything but they check almost everything and are very by-the-book.
You get the item + a bill (with all duty and costs on it) and have X number of days to pay before they get vicious.

ED:
Re: marking as a gift- bah. the others have said enough on it methinks. In short: Not very likely to work with FedEx.

Senna

I bought a dvd player for the car from Canada, it was shipped with Fedex. It cost me about €300 (to buy it) but on the package it said value $29.99 so i only had to pay €8 tax. The funny thing was, the description on the customs note was exactly what it was i.e. In-car DVD Divx player with 4.1' touch screen, bluetooth etc. How did they not figure out it was worth more than $29.99?? So understating the value really works.

BrokenArrows

I got a bill from fedex 6 months after i received a few sticks of ram from the US.

The first letter i got was saying that i was over due to pay the fine. Now i lost the letter a month ago and i havnt heard from them since. (i actually did lose it)

I have no intention of paying the bill so ill see what happens.

Senna

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I got a bill from fedex 6 months after i received a few sticks of ram from the US.

The first letter i got was saying that i was over due to pay the fine. Now i lost the letter a month ago and i havnt heard from them since. (i actually did lose it)

I have no intention of paying the bill so ill see what happens.

A friend of mine kept getting bills and demand letters for about €100 from Fedex (or possibly another service), he never paid it and the letters stopped after about a year. That was at least 3 years ago, so i wouldn't worry to much.

Why isn't it the customs that send out these letters?

ojewriej

Senna wrote: »

A friend of mine kept getting bills and demand letters for about €100 from Fedex (or possibly another service), he never paid it and the letters stopped after about a year. That was at least 3 years ago, so i wouldn't worry to much.

Why isn't it the customs that send out these letters?

Courier companies have to pay these charges to get goods into the country. If they won't, customs won't allow them, and couriers won't meet their next day delivery promise. That's why they make shippers sign power of atorney letters

Overheal

its a bit scandalous isnt it? I mean if you arent happy if the Imports > Exports, you dont need to tax us about it: bring in jobs! Manufacturing! EXPORT! Stupid government.

MooseJam

Karoma wrote: »

Where did you order from?
FedEx don't check everything but they check almost everything and are very by-the-book.
You get the item + a bill (with all duty and costs on it) and have X number of days to pay before they get vicious.

ED:
Re: marking as a gift- bah. the others have said enough on it methinks. In short: Not very likely to work with FedEx.

I got it from newegg, had it shipped to my brother and now he is fedexing it to me

ojewriej

MooseJam wrote: »

I got it from newegg, had it shipped to my brother and now he is fedexing it to me

mark it as a christmas gift, make sure that the name of your brother and yours (i presume they are the same) is very visible and you should be ok.

Customs tend to check the ones sent from businesses

ojewriej

Mr.S wrote: »

thats all wrong.

marking as a gift, will do sweet **** all. they (try) and check as many packages as possible, things that look like they are worth a fair bit, big boxes etc.

it doesnt matter who sends it, if it comes from the US/Japan and its over a certain value and they see it, youll get charged.

chances are you wont get caught, but they DO check, and theres nothing you can really do about it.

From my experience - and i deal with this sort of thing ona daily basis - marking is as a gift and making same names of he sender and receiver visible lessens the chances of the parcel being checked. Tha's all i'm saying, but yu are right, they do check and if they will you will get charged.

Ruu_Old

Mr.S wrote: »

thats all wrong.

marking as a gift, will do sweet **** all. they (try) and check as many packages as possible, things that look like they are worth a fair bit, big boxes etc.

it doesnt matter who sends it, if it comes from the US/Japan and its over a certain value and they see it, youll get charged.

chances are you wont get caught, but they DO check, and theres nothing you can really do about it.

Agreed, maybe a few years ago you might have gotten away with it but not these days.

Tropheus

IME, the only way to possibly avoid duty is to use regular post. All couriers are obiged by law to charge relevant duty before delivery.

5starpool

I got something shipped from a Canadian website a few weeks ago. It cost me €330, but the company shipping it put CA$100 value on the customs form, but I never got charged a penny extra for it.

kowloon

Watch out how the cards are listed, i bought some bike parts and was double charged as they multiplied the cost of the parts by the number of parts when the value was, in fact, the total value of both.

BrokenArrows

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I got a bill from fedex 6 months after i received a few sticks of ram from the US.

The first letter i got was saying that i was over due to pay the fine. Now i lost the letter a month ago and i havnt heard from them since. (i actually did lose it)

I have no intention of paying the bill so ill see what happens.

Fedex do this a lot, I bought a PSP from Japan last Xmas (it was marked as a gift at $40), 4 months later a letter arrives in the post from them saying I had to pay duty.
Needless to say I wasn't going to pay it, I rang them up and asked why I had to pay duty on a $40 gift, then went onto to ask them did they even know what it was (they didn't know as the package was not open).
When I said to them regardless of what it was or cost that I should of been informed of the duty before they dispatched it to me or been charged it on delivery as this is what other courier companies do ie. DHL, the guy turned round and said I would not have to pay

I use DHL almost all time for online purchases and anytime there is a duty charge they always ring me and let me know before they dispatch.

Red Alert

Quite frankly the whole customs thing gets me - all it does is serve the rip off interests of irish businesses.

Rob_l

Red Alert wrote: »

Quite frankly the whole customs thing gets me - all it does is serve the rip off interests of irish businesses.

what how is this?

Dimaer

Just looked through posts in this thread.
Looking forward to buy Canon camera in the states and get shipped via my friend there.
So best solution, I suppose, will be to use Fedex as a courier, cause they do quick charge according to shipping documents (to make fast shipping) and there is only small chance that It will be opened and valued by Custom.
Is this correct?
Cheers.

Reku

Make sure that the value is labelled as far less than it actually is, they might try confirm it but odds are they won't, and so any duty applied will be to the value your friend wrote on the parcel.
I used to get stuff from the US all the time, then got stung for duty, after that got the sender to always label it as $50 value, no problems there-after as the items were pretty obscure, and arbitrary anyway, and the lads in customs wouldn't have had a clue what the real value was so it's not like they could have done much to contest the $50 value claim. You just have to hope it doesn't go missing but TBH I've never heard of a parcel going missing when shipped via courier as opposed to An Post.

Beano

Dimaer wrote: »

Just looked through posts in this thread.
Looking forward to buy Canon camera in the states and get shipped via my friend there.
So best solution, I suppose, will be to use Fedex as a courier, cause they do quick charge according to shipping documents (to make fast shipping) and there is only small chance that It will be opened and valued by Custom.
Is this correct?
Cheers.

Not correct. If you ship it by fedex there is more chance of it being opened by customs. USPS express mail all the way.

MooseJam

I got my 8800GTs from Fedex, the box wasn't opened and I wasn't charged any tax, the parcel was labelled as a gift

dahooligan

What if a parcel is marked repairs? i.e. if a product was purchased outside the EU, received in Ireland, found to be faulty, sent back to vendor and then sent to Ireland again as a repaired product?

I ask obviously as I'm thinking about buying something new, but getting the vendor to mark the package 'repairs' in the hope that it'll fly under the radar as 'gift' appears to be used quite often.

MooseJam

I had the original packaging for my 8800gt's removed, dumped the boxes and just posted the graphics cards themselves so the box wasn't huge and if they opened it they wouldn't know what they were or what the value of them was.

Karoma

Do not discuss ways to avoid customs & taxes. End of discussion. It remained open while the original discussion was ambiguous.