USPS & Customs Charge

Bongalongherb

Hello folks.

I purchased a hand held radio from Vancouver/Washington of which the price was 55 dollars €50 from e-bay to my location Dublin Ireland.

I was charged €18.21 customs charge for this and will have to drive to An Post to pay and collect it. According to revenue regarding Consignments of Negligible Value, it says...

Consignments of Negligible Value

Consignments not exceeding an intrinsic value of €150 may be imported without payment of Customs Duty. (Intrinsic value is the value of the goods alone, and does not include insurance and freight). Consignments not exceeding a total customs value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT. (Customs value is the value of the goods plus insurance and freight (which includes postage costs (CIF value)). However, it should be noted in particular that there is no relief (from Customs Duty, VAT or Excise duty) under this negligible value provision for importations of tobacco, tobacco products, alcohol products, perfumes or toilet waters irrespective of their value.

The radio and delivery came to around €76 all-told and is well below the €150 mark for customs. Why do I have to pay this customs charge if this is the case above ?.

Thanks

Bong

Pacing Mule

Bongalongherb wrote: »

Hello folks.

I purchased a hand held radio from Vancouver/Washington of which the price was 55 dollars €50 from e-bay to my location Dublin Ireland.

I was charged €18.21 customs charge for this and will have to drive to An Post to pay and collect it. According to revenue regarding Consignments of Negligible Value, it says...

Consignments of Negligible Value

Consignments not exceeding an intrinsic value of €150 may be imported without payment of Customs Duty. (Intrinsic value is the value of the goods alone, and does not include insurance and freight). Consignments not exceeding a total customs value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT. (Customs value is the value of the goods plus insurance and freight (which includes postage costs (CIF value)). However, it should be noted in particular that there is no relief (from Customs Duty, VAT or Excise duty) under this negligible value provision for importations of tobacco, tobacco products, alcohol products, perfumes or toilet waters irrespective of their value.

The radio and delivery came to around €76 all-told and is well below the €150 mark for customs. Why do I have to pay this customs charge if this is the case above ?.

Thanks

Bong

Customs duty and VAT are separate charges. You've been hit with a VAT charge and an admin charge for processing the VAT by An Post.

Bongalongherb

I see. It just says... custom charges due on this item €18.21

Thor

Bongalongherb wrote: »

I see. It just says... custom charges due on this item €18.21

Indeed, your being charged VAT and an An Post charge, which is probably around €6.50 itself.

You can see it written it what you posted.

Consignments not exceeding a total customs value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT.

Yours goes way above the charge, and as such, includes a charge of VAT.

Make sure to check your ebay receipt, as sometimes you have to pay the customs charges along with the order, which means you may be being charged twice. Although doubtful, since you listed the pricing of everything already.

Bongalongherb

Ah I see now. I didn't cop that one. This is the first time this ever happened regarding my online purchases. Thanks for making it clear as to the case.

rubadub

I think an post fee is now €7,

So you have €11.21 in vat, which is 23% of the combined shipping and item cost. So they are valuing the item and shipping at €48.73. So you are actually getting off a bit lightly.

Bongalongherb

rubadub wrote: »

I think an post fee is now €7,

So you have €11.21 in vat, which is 23% of the combined shipping and item cost. So they are valuing the item and shipping at €48.73. So you are actually getting off a bit lightly.

Thanks for the info. Ah it's grand, I was just making sure everything was in order. On the box it says €48.76 custom fee, so you were basically bang on there.

emma.gaynor

Same thing happened me last week. Item bought on ebay from China. Postage was free. Response from Revenue:

Thank you for your eMail. Customs Charges are due on your package. The charges and the expected delivery date are set out below. The charges can be paid to the postperson on delivery by cash (exact amount) or cheque/postal order made payable to “An Post”. If you are not in when An Post call, they will leave a note in your letterbox advising where to collect your parcel and pay the charges. Any queries or questions relating to the delivery of your package should be directed to An Post Customer Service quoting your Track and Trace number.

Total Value of Goods - €117.43

Customs Duty - € 0.00
VAT @ 23% - € 27.00
An Post Fee - € 7.00
Total for Collection - € 34.00

B0jangles

The An Post 7 euro flat fee is a really pisser when you're parcel is of relatively low value; I just got a parcel of pets toys from the US -

Customs value: 36.69
VAT@ 23% : 8.43
An Post Charge: 7.00

Total extra charge: 15.43 (42% extra)

Really stings to be paying An Post when I've already paid over 30 dollars to the USPS to deliver my order.

rubadub

B0jangles wrote: »

The An Post 7 euro flat fee is a really pisser when you're parcel is of relatively low value; I just got a parcel of pets toys from the US -

Customs value: 36.69
VAT@ 23% : 8.43
An Post Charge: 7.00

Total extra charge: 15.43 (42% extra)

Really stings to be paying An Post when I've already paid over 30 dollars to the USPS to deliver my order.

so what was the actual value of the goods? I have never heard of an post catching people for items worth under the €22 limit.

i.e. if goods were €20 and postage was €30 it would be valued at €50, but I would not expect it to be caught. Now if it was €40 and €10 postage I would expect to be caught.

It may have been cheaper to get it delievered in 2 parcels which might have been below the value and cheaper overall even if postage was higher.

B0jangles

rubadub wrote: »

so what was the actual value of the goods? I have never heard of an post catching people for items worth under the €22 limit.

i.e. if goods were €20 and postage was €30 it would be valued at €50, but I would not expect it to be caught. Now if it was €40 and €10 postage I would expect to be caught.

It may have been cheaper to get it delievered in 2 parcels which might have been below the value and cheaper overall even if postage was higher.

$40 is the only sum mentioned anywhere on or in the parcel itself; contents were 2 plastic bird toys and some straw chew toys of negligible value. I only bought online because bird toys for anything larger than a budgie are astronomically overpriced in this country.

Seems like I just got incredibly unlucky and got charged a 7 euro fee for the honour of being charged 8 euro in VAT on a couple of cheap plastic toys

rubadub

That's unfortunate, I am presuming they combined the shipping and item cost in that figure. If it had been separated I doubt it would have been caught.

Off topic but I see cheap pet toys in €2 shops and also in a local pet shop near me. Then I went into maxi zoo and was astonished at the prices, and told the sales guy so. I think it was 4 times the price for grains compared to the local shop.

I think they just guess people will presume maxi zoo will be "the going rate".

Tesco also have very high pet food costs.

B0jangles

rubadub wrote: »

That's unfortunate, I am presuming they combined the shipping and item cost in that figure. If it had been separated I doubt it would have been caught.

Off topic but I see cheap pet toys in €2 shops and also in a local pet shop near me. Then I went into maxi zoo and was astonished at the prices, and told the sales guy so. I think it was 4 times the price for grains compared to the local shop.

I think they just guess people will presume maxi zoo will be "the going rate".

Tesco also have very high pet food costs.

Tell me about it; I was in petstop last week and was amazed and delighted to find a decent quality large parrot-sized chewing toy for only 10.49. Got it home, installed in it my bird's cage - 1 hour later it was mostly destroyed.
:mad:

(Yeah, I know they are made to be mangled, but sometimes I wish she wasn't so damn efficient at it!)

Anyway, she likes the new toys so I think I'll just chalk this one up to bad luck

delahuntv

The An Post fee is the lowest of the carriers - its a processing fee and applies in most european countries.

Also good to know that once the amount is over €650 (including shipping) you need to fill out a SAD form and probably get a customs agent to do the enrtry (though you can do it yourself). A customs agent will charge €40 +

All the details are in the revenue guide

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

mikeecho

/retracted/

rubadub

mikeecho wrote: »

It may not be ethical, but if buying on eBay, it often helps if you send a message to the seller asking them to mark the item as a gift with a value of $10.

This is fraud, so no more discussion about it please.


If lost in the post low priced items can have insurance issues, and an post will know the value of many items and not believe it.