Customs charges

Sarahjanem

I was wondering if anyone knew if you got charged additional costs on arrival from forever21 or victorias secret?

tinkerbell

You can get charged for up to 40% of the value of goods + shipping. So if you buy clothes say worth $100 and shipping is $20, you'll get charged approx $48.

Toto Wolfcastle

Moved from FAP.

cooleo

I know this is late but was just charged €76 for goods worth €162 in customs:mad:! Have no problem paying about 25% like I use to but found this was crazy! Even though I paid for shipping from UPS- they stuck on a further €16 for handling- what did they think they were going to do with it when it came in!!!!

I rang customs (very nice guy) and he told me that clothes are high and if it's over €150 that they charge duty (12.5%) and then VAT (so mine was €162+ €20.25 = €182.25, then VAT (@21.5%) goods and duty together €40- about €60! and then UPS €16 handling fee)- if under just then your just charged VAT, no duty.

Might be something to think about if your ordering...

Also- does anyone know if all delivery companies charge this handling fee/ lower handling fee?

Nody

All shipping firms have the right to charge a handling fee in Ireland for tax etc. (lobby your politicans if you want it changed); you will also find this holds true to any country you ship where tax/vat will be applied. How much they charge vary but all charge iirc and it's up to 15 EUR on the top of my head (and then VAT/tax on top of that possibly).

The reason they only charge it once it arrives is two fold; first they don't know if your package will need to be declared (i.e. does customs pick it up, now in Ireland and with DHL etc. they will always declare to customs to ensure that their packages go through quick but that is a side track) and secondly you have the option to declare it yourself.

When I was in another EU country I had a package (mp3 players from HK) come in with UPC and I was called up and asked if I had it declared/wanted to declare it (filling in the relvant form, get them stamped etc.) or if I wanted UPC to do it for me at a cost of Z. In general it is cheaper and faster to have the company do it for you and I went with Z because this also means you get the package faster.

rubadub

cooleo wrote: »

Also- does anyone know if all delivery companies charge this handling fee/ lower handling fee?

Some are lower, not sure which.

Might be something to think about if your ordering...

Yes, the €150 limit is only out the last year or so. But also do bear in mind if you are buying from companies here they charge you all these costs, the VAT, the duty, AND the handling fee- i.e. they have to pay their accounts dept people to process this- nothing is free, there are no volunteer accountants, just like www.play.com do not have volunteer postmen.

So people should not be quick to point fingers and say they are being ripped off by local stores, if you add up the costs the online companies could be the ones making far more profit.

vibe666

I spent €250 on clothes from the US a while back and got stung for around €120 odd from customs.

i'm getting married next year so the g/f is on wedding forums and the trick they do is to order dresses from the US for half the price, but recently customs have been cracking down (obviously good for revenue) on US imports and there's tales of girls getting their dresses held in customs and them not having them in time for the big day and having to buy another dress here instead.

they'll inspect pretty much everything coming from outside the EU these days unless it's in a small packet. you can pretty much guarantee that if it's in a big enough package to look interesting they'll want to have a look.