Have I been overcharged on custom charges?

ElleElleB

In a nutshell a few weeks ago I ordered 2 T-shirts from the USA at a total cost of $71 (including delivery) The products themselves cost €44.98

Today I got a letter saying I owed €22.50 in duty tax/custom charges! Is this right? It seems an awful lot to me for products that only cost €45. That's nearly half the price of the goods! I don't mind paying it if it's correct but it just seems a lot.

I've been searching revenue.ie for information but I can't find anything helpful. The charges was charged by FedEx the company that delivered the product to me saying they paid it on my behalf at the time so now I need to pay them. There is a phone number/email to contact them but I want to have some information before I do. Do you think I was overcharged?

If it's any help the breakdown of payment on the form is
Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT - €10.87
Clearance Administration Charge Vatable at 21% - 10.00
VAT at 21% - €2.10
Total -€22.97

vicwatson

ElleElleB wrote: »

In a nutshell a few weeks ago I ordered 2 T-shirts from the USA at a total cost of $71 (including delivery) The products themselves cost €44.98

Today I got a letter saying I owed €22.50 in duty tax/custom charges! Is this right? It seems an awful lot to me for products that only cost €45. That's nearly half the price of the goods! I don't mind paying it if it's correct but it just seems a lot.

I've been searching revenue.ie for information but I can't find anything helpful. The charges was charged by FedEx the company that delivered the product to me saying they paid it on my behalf at the time so now I need to pay them. There is a phone number/email to contact them but I want to have some information before I do. Do you think I was overcharged?

If it's any help the breakdown of payment on the form is
Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT - €10.87
Clearance Administration Charge Vatable at 21% - 10.00
VAT at 21% - €2.10
Total -€22.97

I've never heard the term "Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT", are they calling that DUTY or something ??

There are two important things when importing goods from outside of the EU - 1.VAT and/or DUTY might be applicable 2.You will have to pay a customs clearance charge even though you don't get to choose who actually does the clearance for you.

If it's shipped via An Post they charge €6.00, if, as above, it's Fedex that do it it will cost you €10.00 PLUS VAT of 21% = Total €12.10 for the same service that An Post charge €6.00 for.

Basically what happens is that the goods arrive they have to be customs cleared as they are from outside the EU, there might or might not be Duty to be paid but there will be VAT once it's over €22.00.

Duty is calculated from a set Commodity Tariff (rates can be anything from 0% upwards), your t-shirts have a set 10 digit code that everyone in Europe uses (and I think the world).

So what they do is convert the invoice total into euro by using the rate of exchange set by customs on a monthly basis, they add the shipping cost to it also, then Vat and/or duty is calculated on that.

If you want to PM me the customs clearance document I'll decipher it for you but on that value it sounds about right.

Daxve

Have a look at this leaflet

http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/postal-guide.pdf

Unfair as it may seem the charge is calculated on the total cost that includes postage, postal insurance etc. so what seemed like a bargain can end up costing a fair bit due to the shipping costs from the US plus as stated above the shipping co. adds on their own admin charge on top.

Charge as listed looks about right.

nompere

You'll find most of the answers here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055862554

tenchi-fan

ElleElleB wrote: »

In a nutshell a few weeks ago I ordered 2 T-shirts from the USA at a total cost of $71 (including delivery) The products themselves cost €44.98

Today I got a letter saying I owed €22.50 in duty tax/custom charges! Is this right? It seems an awful lot to me for products that only cost €45. That's nearly half the price of the goods! I don't mind paying it if it's correct but it just seems a lot.

I've been searching revenue.ie for information but I can't find anything helpful. The charges was charged by FedEx the company that delivered the product to me saying they paid it on my behalf at the time so now I need to pay them. There is a phone number/email to contact them but I want to have some information before I do. Do you think I was overcharged?

If it's any help the breakdown of payment on the form is
Disbursements out of the scope of EU VAT - €10.87
Clearance Administration Charge Vatable at 21% - 10.00
VAT at 21% - €2.10
Total -€22.97

€45 = cost

€9.45 = vat
€10 = admin charge (by shipping company)
€2.10 = vat on admin charge
€21.55

So give a take a euro, it sounds about right.