import duty,,

honeybadger

dose anyone know what will happen to ya if you dont pay it,got stung for it today for me first time after 153 buys on ebay,,and the company is fed ex and i never had dealing with them before either,,its a 25 euro fine and 10 euro of that is admistration fee,,anyone else form deise encounter this mis fortune

chelloveks

Snip

nialeon

Hi there mate, I got done for a similar charge a while back!! thou it was customs & excise that stopped a package of mine...I was bringing in some Electrical stuff from Hong Kong! In my case they seized the goods till I forwarded them a Cheque!. I thought I was unlucky was only the 5th time I brought stuff in.

ziedth

Mod Note:

Please don't give out any advice as how to avoid Customs. As it's illegal and we can't give such advice on the site. Cheers

beazee

Yup! fedex that is.
Had to give the chap my credit card number (Duty + €10 admin fee) to put my hands on the parcel.

south

Had to pay out €73 for my tablet that was delivered today.. Customs even rang yesterday and asked did i still want it delivered..

SillyMcCarthy

honeybadger wrote: »

dose anyone know what will happen to ya if you dont pay it,got stung for it today for me first time after 153 buys on ebay,,and the company is fed ex and i never had dealing with them before either,,its a 25 euro fine and 10 euro of that is admistration fee,,anyone else form deise encounter this mis fortune

You might try ordering a dictionary the next time you're on E-Bay!

Professey Chin

Exactly why I avoid UPS,Fedex etc etc etc
Good old standard post is always the best

honeybadger

SillyMcCarthy wrote: »

You might try ordering a dictionary the next time you're on E-Bay!

ask gscully for a loan of his babelfish dictionary,im sure he will help you out

mlumley

Never had a problem getting my Viagra through. Mind you, a few tablets were missing. Got to go, feeling a bit stiff.

honeybadger

what will happen if i default on it lol. will fed ex bump up the admin fee on the paper work,,i would pay the 12.50 ok but im not and not happy about having to pay the admin fees they have landed on me for two sheets of paper that wouldnt even light the fire here at home,i paid for this in the beginning through ebay and my taxes and everything should be includeded in there profit margin that they charge for lettin auctioneers use there site and there 15 %is more than enough to cover things,i just find it terribly cheeky way of doing business,,in fact ruined it for me now ,il support it no more

BlaasForRafa

honeybadger wrote: »

what will happen if i default on it lol. will fed ex bump up the admin fee on the paper work,,i would pay the 12.50 ok but im not and not happy about having to pay the admin fees they have landed on me for two sheets of paper that wouldnt even light the fire here at home,i paid for this in the beginning through ebay and my taxes and everything should be includeded in there profit margin that they charge for lettin auctioneers use there site and there 15 %is more than enough to cover things,i just find it terribly cheeky way of doing business,,in fact ruined it for me now ,il support it no more

Are you for real? Import duty is not something thats unknown or mysterious, if you are importing something from a non-EU country then there is always a chance you are going to have to pay some duty. Most of the time it will slip through the net or someone will decide its not chargeable....thats called a bonus.

Just man up and pay up FFS.

Cabaal

honeybadger wrote: »

,i paid for this in the beginning through ebay and my taxes and everything should be includeded in there profit margin that they charge for lettin auctioneers use there site and there 15 %is more than enough to cover things,i just find it terribly cheeky way of doing business,,in fact ruined it for me now ,il support it no more

Import Duty isn't paid to ebay or the seller on ebay, its paid to the state.
As such import duty is nothing to do with ebay full stop!

Now man up and pay it or don't pay it and they'll pursue you and if you don't yet have the item they won't give you the item

dayshah

How much did you pay for the item?

There is a bit of a scam involving UPS where they claim something is import duty, but it isn't.

I once got a calendar for €15, plus postage was about €15 bringing it to about €30 (from the US), well below the threshold for import duty. Yet they put a charge of about €27 on it.

Import duty is only for amounts over roughly €127 I think.

honeybadger

dayshah wrote: »

How much did you pay for the item?

There is a bit of a scam involving UPS where they claim something is import duty, but it isn't.

I once got a calendar for €15, plus postage was about €15 bringing it to about €30 (from the US), well below the threshold for import duty. Yet they put a charge of about €27 on it.

Import duty is only for amounts over roughly €127 I think.

125 dollars i paid and then had to pay a extra 35 dollar for some extra bits i needed but this was a seperate payment to the 125 and was made thru paypal and then had to pay 45d for shipping ,,,i have the item aswell now,this bill just came in the post a week after getting it can i tell them f o or will they try to jail me over 25 euro ?:) i am more worried about the admistration fees a i wud pay the 12 50 0wed but there not gettin the 10 euro ,,i have me princeables and im not going to let ye boards kno it alls break me down over it with your man up and pay the bill when the bill has been already paid,,fook that

seanybiker

That's a bit of a balls them asking you to pay after you received the goods

gman2k

Always check on the auction page how the seller is going to ship.
If it's Fedex or UPS, don't buy.
I got stung that way myself once, never again. BTW I've no problem paying due taxes.

Regards the legality of it, I'm not sure.
In my eyes, I did not enter into a contract with Fedex (some may argue otherwise) and my relationship with the tax man is none of their business.
The administration charge is their way of making extra money off the transaction.
They should be forced to have a clear breakdown of all taxes payable on the item in question, at the moment it feels more like a rip-off.

old gregg

about 2 years ago I bought a Namba laptop gig bag from the European distributer in Switzerland, it cost around EUR220 so well liable for duty.
The item was delivered without problem and once no claim for duty was made I put it down to one of life's rare wins in this department and forgot about it.

About 2 months later the courier DPD sent me an invoice for €40 administrative charges relating to customs duty. Not the import duty itself. The invoice was swiftly dispatched to the bin and thats' the last I ever heard about it.

jbwan

Hi All,

I know this is an old thread but I've just found myself doing some research with respect to a camera lens that I want to import (Hong Kong) and I have found that import duties, etc, are certainly not black and white. I'm hoping that the bump will get the attention of somebody with prior experience or actual knowledge beyond assuming that import duties are due.

Doing my research on the EU Taric database, I believe I have found the correct product code for my intended purchase (although it could still be one of several that match the description of my item). That's fine and is worst case scenario to total duty + Irish VAT + random penalty for doing their job from the delivery people. However, in my desperation to find a definitive answer, I stumbled across this site http://www.dutycalculator.com/ and it tells me that the lens I want to import is exempt from VAT (possibly because of region I am importing from or due to the rate of duty applied - it's as clear as mud). The site seems quite reputable though and says that they base their calculations on actual data. However, trying to find confirmation of this is nigh on impossible in this country. Through a friend, it was enquired of customs workers who emm'ed and ooh'ed without being able to give an answer and nobody else seems to be able to give a definitive answer either.

Please tell me we're not still finger in the air calculations and somebody can put this to bed once and for all. From what I've seen, it's not transparent nor accessible for anyone wanting to check the details. I have no problem paying the duty/charges but logically I just want to check the actual price for comparison before I go to the hassle of importing the item.

Answers greatly appreciated, if with reference or actual verifiable experience. Opinions don't help.

kayaksurfbum

jbwan wrote: »

Please tell me we're not still finger in the air calculations and somebody can put this to bed once and for all. From what I've seen, it's not transparent nor accessible for anyone wanting to check the details. I have no problem paying the duty/charges but logically I just want to check the actual price for comparison before I go to the hassle of importing the item.

Answers greatly appreciated, if with reference or actual verifiable experience. Opinions don't help.

I import goods from china and Europe for my job and im afraid to say that some if not most of the duty calculations are decided on the spot. The same product in the same colour might be charged at different duties depending on the customs official that you meet(or your forwarded meets) on the day.
An example, one product i bring in every year, its always the same, same manufacture and same forwarder. In 2011 i got charged twice the duty as 2010, and this year it was back to same as 2010 again! Any business that imports will tell you the same. Unless the product is named, like alcohol, perfume, leather or such, the duty is up to customs person to give it a percentage.

You can appeal a customs decision(which i did) costs you money and you have to pay the duty first! and no-one ever wins apparently. And you bring yourself into the spotlight of the customs which can really delay your imports.

Iv bought stuff from ebay from china, got away with duty on some things, got charged 90euro duty on a 250euro part for a bike once. Remember that they charge duty on the value inclusive of vat and shipping charges.

Jason Todd

Only this week I received a package of a Canadian hockey jersey and some tshirts for my kids as an early Xmas present from a relative who emigrated to Canada a few years ago. I was asked to pay €23.49 to receive the package as it had been intercepted by customs and been searched.

Has anyone else had this experience, and had a better explanation than me?

jbwan

Thanks kayaksurfbum. Sadly that's the story I'm hearing from so many people at the moment. It disgusts me that what should be a clear and open process with prescribed tarifs, etc is actually a complete farce. Open markets they say... Leaves an incredibly unpalatable taste in one's mouth.

Cheers for the reply and personal experience - sadly further confirming my fears.

michellie

I've ordered hundreds of things off the internet, my daughter got a birthday present off her uncle in New York in July and got a letter a few wks later looking for €49, first time I've ever got anything like it. I rang them and told them she's 4 and doesn't have the money to pay(and either do I) they wrote it off !

beazee

Jason Todd wrote: »

I was asked to pay €23.49 to receive the package as it had been intercepted by customs and been searched.

Has anyone else had this experience, and had a better explanation than me?

Yep, tenner of that is to cover administrative costs (intercept, search, ask for payment, accept payment) the rest is VAT.

kayaksurfbum

A retired customs official told me that there was some big plans to change the whole system to something similar to the car tax and ros way of doing things so that you could find out exactly how much this would cost you in advance of purchase. this would have gotten rid of the inspection fee also.
It was knocked on the head by the unions as unworkable!!! Seams to be working fine for the car tax and Ros.ie!

Kracken

Ultimately, the Custom Services are clamping down on imports, as the recession is causing people to find cheaper products online and are having them to shipped cross boarder.

To avoid a loss to the state's revenue, customs check and apply duty where they see fit.

If the item is an intended gift I would check if they can apply duity to it (maybe ring them)

Fed-Ex and UPS have depots where all packages must go through a customs check unlike An Post who only do spot checks based on country of origin.

The only way to avoid it is if you are paying for something within the Irish VAT system and the importer is covering the customs charge for you.