Buying duty free online

rubadub

Found this place selling duty free online. Has anybody any experience with them. Google gives few hits.

http://free-brands.com/

doesnt seem so cheap that it is a scam. A litre of finlandia vodka is US$20 including delivery. Could get the christmas booze in. Shipping is only $2 per item or free if you order over $90. It also sells smokes and mentions Ireland saying max is 1 carton of 200 per 21 days.

Lots of cheap booze, sells perfume and other stuff too.

Stephen

You'll most likely get boned for import duty when the stuff comes in, i.e. the postman won't hand it over until you pay up.

rubadub

they only mention smokes, I am only interested in booze. I have emailed them to ask

Customs and Taxes
Is it legal to buy cigarettes and perfumes via international mail?
Yes, as long as the purchase is made in accordance with international postal regulations and standards. Free-Brands.com complies with all international trade and postal regulations.

What is a duty free zone?
A duty free zone is a trading zone from which products can be sold without being subjected to duty & tax.

Are imported cigarettes and perfumes always subjected to duty taxes?
No. Duty tax is not charged for buying and importing up to 200 cigarettes (one carton / pack) at a time. Free-Brands ships each carton separately to its customers, i.e. if you ordered 5 cartons, your order will be shipped to you the in 5 separate packages all sent at a few days´ interval and thus they will not not arrive simultaneously.

Does your company guarantee that no duty tax will be paid worldwide?
No. It is the client´s responsibility to verify and abide by all applicable laws concerning the delivery or taxation to his / her region. Some countries may occasionally change international postal regulations and standards.

What should I do if I have to pay duty tax in order to receive my order?
In this rare situation (highly unlikely in the U.S.) you can either:
1) Pay the duty tax and collect the parcel. The total amount will still be much lower than the regular retail price.
2) Reject the parcel, which will be returned to us. Our policy is to send the package a second time and in 97% of cases, it will arrive at its destination. we undertake to cover the return mailing costs in full.

(*) Credit is provided as a coupon for future purchases in our other section in our store.

Tazz T

Surely the whole point of this site is that you're only buying an item at a time- which means it has a better chance of getting through the Customs & Excise.

I wonder how the company label the goods.

Incidentally, it looks like a lot of those premium spirits would still be cheaper even with duty added than if you bought them here.

I could be wrong but isn't duty only added once the goods are over a certain value?

If anyone's ordering can they let us know how they get on.

rubadub

He replied to my email, says there is no limit to drink, and they will be sent separately. I am still scouring to see forums if "real" people ordered from them. It is expensive for duty free, but still a fraction of what it is here. But it must be the one at a time thing. Are customs really going to bother with paper work for a single bottle of vodka? will I ever be sober again

I am getting listings to yahoo shopping sites, they advertise on them. I am not sure if yahoo vet their ads. I know illegal software is advertised on amazon.

rubadub

found a uk site with good reports, but now says no paypal. The site is down at the moment, here is a google cache, search for free-brand

My wife drinks Tia Maria by the gallon :beer: and it is getting rather costly. We stumbled across a great site Free Brands (http://www.free-brands.com) by accident and thought it couldn't be right the prices that they were charging. Anyway we thought that we would by a bottle and to our surprise it took less than a week to arrive. The beauty of it was that I paid using Paypal....

I have just tried to order another bottle, but to my horror they do not accept Paypal, but suggest JensleyPAY (http://www.jensleypay.com/) who I have never heard of...

What I am trying to say is do you know any other site that sells Tia Maria (Or any booze for that matter) at cheaper prices than the supermarket & UK Off Licence?

Thanks....

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:qwPEwysK8WgJ:forums.moneysavingexpert.com/search.html%3Fdo%3Dfinduser%26userid%3D6937+%2BWWW.free-brands.com+%2B%22bought+from%22&hl=en

Mods, this may be better suited to the bargain alerts forum, if you want to move it.

Ann Elk

I think that you'll get shafted by customs. A good friend of mine recenly bought three dresses from the US on the internet. Customs opened up the box which was labelled 'Dresses' charged her €40 per dress and then fecked them back in, creasing them really badly. With that in mind, i think that they'll go baloobas on drink and fags - they wont return them to the sender either, if you don't cough they'll confiscate them - personally, unless you can find someone who has used them sucessfully, Id stay away.

But let us know

rubadub

So your friend bought goods that commanded duty of €120, that is a lot. The most I paid €35 on goods worth about $250, so her stuff must have been a lot to start with.

People buying DVDs from the states are well aware of the situation and order them to be packed individually, the recommended cutoff is usually $40-50 where no duty is charged, there are threads here about this. Over that they may charge, depending on the goods i.e. goods with a low duty value over $40 may not be charged since it is not woth the administration costs of the customs people to collect say €10 in duty.

If they put the correct price of $18 then duty should be a % of that. I cannot see them bothering to collect €10 in duty, or whatever it is. I have gotten computer parts with a value of €350 in the past with no duty paid, value was marked on the box.

Ann Elk

The dresses were the US$ equivalent of €160.00 each. As far as I know, and 'll have to check on this, the post office also caehrged €5.00 for collecting the payment! I think that the problem that you'll run into is tha high rate of duty applied to cigarettes and alcohol - i doubt if it's a loophole they want opened.

Tazz T

Interesting!

According to the DHL site the cut off after which you will be charged duty on commercial purchases in €23.

A bottle of Metaxa (my preferred tipple) seems to be $20.

Has anyone any further info on this. Can't seem to find anything cut & dried on the revenue site.

rubadub

Found it on the revenue site. Bad news you can be charged, that is if they do specify that it is alcohol.

6. Customs implications as regards imports via the Internet, what reliefs are available?

Customs duty is payable on goods imported into Ireland (regardless of the medium used) from outside of the European Union. The actual rate of duty involved depends on the nature of the goods and is assessed in accordance with the tables set down in the Customs & Excise Tariff of Ireland. VAT which is levied at whatever rate would apply to the supply of the imported goods in Ireland is also payable. Customs duty is chargeable on the value of the goods often referred to as CIF or the cost of the goods plus insurance and freight. The customs duty payable is included in the value of the goods for VAT purposes. Excise duty, if appropriate, must also be paid in accordance with Part 5 of the Customs & Excise Tariff of Ireland.

It should be noted, however, that the following derogations apply:


Gifts
Customs duty and VAT is not payable on consignments of a value not exceeding €45 which are sent as gifts by private individuals from third countries for the personal or family use of private individuals in the State. However, relief from VAT does not apply in the case of tobacco products, alcohol/alcoholic beverages perfumes or toilet waters and the limits set out in Public Notice No. 1179 relating to relief from customs duty on such goods must be observed. Furthermore, where after excluding the value of the goods (other than tobacco products) which qualified for the relief (€45), the total value of the remainder of the dutiable goods in a gift consignment does not exceed €349.18, customs duty will be charged on the balance at the standard rate of 3.5%. The importer may, however, opt to have the goods charged at the relevant tariff rate(s) applicable. VAT and excise duty, if chargeable, will be assessed in the normal way.


Goods of Negligible Value
Packages, other than those containing tobacco or tobacco products, alcoholic products, perfumes or toilet waters with a value of €22 regardless of status (for private or commercial use) are admitted free of customs duty and VAT under the scheme commonly known as "small packages" relief

from http://www.revenue.ie/faqs/faq_cat5.htm

Does anybody know of anybody charged for perfume or alcohol from outside the EU with a value under €20?
People sell vintage bottles on ebay and surely some women have got perfume.

More searching on revenue tells you if it is marked as a gift and only 1litre you pay no customs duty, but do pay excise duty and vat. excise duty is €39.25 per litre. so would be say €15.70 on a litre of 40% vodka. not sure how much the VAT would be, but even with that I think some spirits would be cheaper to import.

BigEejit

All couriers are allowed to charge a fee to get the duty from you, DHL charged me €9 ... had to pay €31 total on a $90 item - bastids

Tazz T

So it's really a gamble on whether C&E pick it up or not.

Still on hard to source booze products, even with VAT and excise, it's less than €30 for a litre bottle. In fact I work it out to be around €25.

I might have some of that Metaxa when my current supply runs out.

nesf

Moved to Online Buying/Auctions

Can someone explain the differnce to me about
A) Buying 1 bottle of Vodka over the internet duty free, (completely within duty free limits)
and
Going somewhere and bringing back a bottle of Vodka (completely within duty free limits)

rubadub

Thats what I wondered too. The revenue.ie site has a decent search function. I saw something about travelling mentioned. I thought that this company had found a loophole or something.

5500

From the Revenue site on importing goods..........

GOODS MAXIMUM QUANTITIES

Cigarettes 200 or
Cigarillos 100 or
Cigars 50 or
Tobacco 250 grammes

Spirits (whiskey, gin, vodka, etc.) 1 litre
OR
Intermediate Products (port, sherry, sparkling wine, etc.) 2 litres

Apportionment of the above allowances is allowed on a fractional basis; e.g. ½ litre of spirits plus 1 litre of port; 100 cigarettes plus 50 cigarillos.

Still Wine 2 litres
Perfume 60 mls (50 grammes)
Toilet Water 250 mls (0.25 litre)

Other goods including BEER, gifts and souvenirs - 175 Euros per adult. 90 Euros if under 15 years.

samo

Took the plunge and ordered a litre bottle of Smirnoff Blue (50% proof woohoo ) and will see what happens...came out at $21.99 so I make that approx €18.

Am hopeful that as per eirreals post above it may not be a customs target!!

OK...I take that back...just as I clicked on the process payment button ...it wouldnt allow my visa card So hopes well and truly dashed now

rubadub

did they take mastercard?
If you do get charged the excise duty is calculated on to the volume and %, so a small bottle of low % liquer may be the best bet for a first time chance. The duty may be so low that they will not bother though.

I emailed revenue about it (well made out as though I was in the US posting as a gift). I got a real legalistic reply and referred to another revenue email. Have no reply from the second one yet.

samo

Actually forgot to post an update...

Even though the credit card rejected message came up, about 20 mins later I got an email from them confirming my order and with a confirmation number! (This was using visa though...dont think they took mastercard!)

Says shipping should be in approx 10-21 days although I guess by current shipping standards I'll triple that to a more realistic timeframe.

A friend in work also tried ordering smirnoff Red 80% proof 1 ltr for $19.95 and the same thing occured with the credt card being rejected but they got a confirmation number, although if what you say is correct about the volume of alochohol an 80% proof bottle of vodka might not be customs friendly!!!

Last thing to note was that the checkout had an option of the item being gift wrapped.

So now the waiting game for it to arrive begins!

rubadub

it is 80 degrees proof which is 40%, I thought it very strange that a 75cl red, 1L red, and 1L of blue smirnoff were the same price.

samo

rubadub wrote:

it is 80 degrees proof which is 40%, I thought it very strange that a 75cl red, 1L red, and 1L of blue smirnoff were the same price.

ah OK...I'll pass that info on, did think 80% proof was quite excessive!!

BrianD

Papa Smut wrote:

Can someone explain the differnce to me about
A) Buying 1 bottle of Vodka over the internet duty free, (completely within duty free limits)
and
Going somewhere and bringing back a bottle of Vodka (completely within duty free limits)

Yes A is illegal (without payment of relevant duty) and B is legal. The duty free limits only apply when you actually leave the EU zone and then re-enter it. You must travel. This why they ask for your boarding card to prove that you are actually travelling and travelling outside the EU. Otherwise you could import loads of stuff and claim that you were importing on behalf of and using the duty free allowance of others.

All Duty Free sites are technically a fraud though I suppose duty-free shops are state sanctioned 'frauds'. The notion of duty free arises from the fact that if you travel you pass through areas that are not controlled by any government and therefore no taxes apply. Given that it is difficult to trade in the middle of the Atlantic, governments simply moved these shops to the nearest convenient airport and seaport.

What these duty free shops are really doing is putting the onus of paying duties and taxes onto you.