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Q+A on Import Duty+Tax [Do Not Ask How to Avoid!]

Puteq

Yesterday I received a letter from some company called 'Avance' who were contacting me on behalf of 'Federal Express Europe Inc' threatening to 'commence formal proceedings' against me unless I paid 40 quid into a bank account in Dublin.

Sounded like the usual spam garbage to me, but I tried calling the 1800 number in the letter just in case, and of course it didn’t work. So today I phoned FedEx to let them know some spammers were using their name to scam people - only to find it is apparently real! I had bought RAM from the crucial.com website in July, and apparently FedEx had to pay the customs and imports tax on it or something, so now they were after me to pay them. I asked why they were sending debt collectors instead of just writing to me and asking me to pay themselves and they told me thats what they usually do and maybe the letter was lost in the post or something - sounds a bit unlikely to me.

Now pls note - I know the rules here and I am NOT looking for a way to avoid tax or anything like that, but whats the story here - I previously bought from crucial a few times in the past and never had this. Is this some new thing, or is every online purchase subject to this but customs only randomly check a few things or what? I am wondering because this would influence my decision to buy online in future, if I had to pay this much cost on top of the price on the site then the net is suddenly not a very attractive option at all…

PS: the original cost of what I got (I don’t remember exactly) was about 100 quid so I find 40 quid quite high

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Comments

jazzie

my order says inclusive of VAT - does this mean I don't have to pay tax.

jor el

Yes. Creative are registered for VAT here, so orders would normally include it. If there's any question over it, you have a VAT receipt which you can show.

jos22

why can courriers charge such high handling fees on vat due on items out side the US.

bought some blu rays from amazom.com seleted standard shipping. then for some reason amazon shipped it via UPS expedited.

meaning instead of paying around the 6 euro an post charge I had to pay 14.50 to ups. plus the vat. not too happy.
any know if amazon.com ship items via UPS expedited often when the basic cheap option is selected which should have went through an post once it hit Ireland.

kent07

So if i order from US and it comes via USPS and its 149.50 euros.......i will just pay VAT?? correct?:confused

jos22

kent07 wrote: »

So if i order from US and it comes via USPS and its 149.50 euros.......i will just pay VAT?? correct?:confused

yes if if deliver via an post you can expected around
40 euro due on delivery

if the total inc shipping is 149.50

Basq

Bah.. girlfriend just rang me to say my 2 media players from Ebay (Hong Kong) are liable to customs.

I've to forward them my Paypal invoice.. and they'll issue me a receipt of how much is due (including An Post's €6 fee).

If I didn't bother paying and had them returned to sender, would I be entitled to my money back I wonder? Not bothered paying if it's much more.

PS - forgot to mention the media drive €25 each (46 sterling for the two) which is why if it's a fair bit more, I couldn't be bothered!

jos22

basquille wrote: »

Bah.. girlfriend just rang me to say my 2 media players from Ebay (Hong Kong) are liable to customs.

I've to forward them my Paypal invoice.. and they'll issue me a receipt of how much is due (including An Post's €6 fee).

If I didn't bother paying and had them returned to sender, would I be entitled to my money back I wonder? Not bothered paying if it's much more.

the 6 euro is standard UPS charge me their fee 0f 13.50 very kind of em they also charge vat on their fee.

jor el

basquille wrote: »

If I didn't bother paying and had them returned to sender, would I be entitled to my money back I wonder? Not bothered paying if it's much more.

They might take a restocking fee, 10-20% perhaps, and you wouldn't get back the cost of posting them to you either.

Basq

Cheers lads.

jor el wrote: »

They might take a restocking fee, 10-20% perhaps, and you wouldn't get back the cost of posting them to you either.

Postage was free.. that's the thing!

As I added above, it was €50 for the two. If I've to pay more than €15 - €20, might go down the return route,.

The_Joker

I got a nice phonecall not so long ago from the customs saying my 3 mags from rsov had arrived (how nice of them to ring me personally) and I had to pay an extra €20.25 on top of the total!

I paid $51.45 for the mags
$43.00 for UPS (rip off)
So a Total of $94.45 plus €20.25 customs
each mag worked out at about €28.27 What a bargain......not!!

I should've just bought them here it would've worked out the same, live and learn

Basq

What's the skinny with custom duty? Is this a percentage?

So far, I'm paying about €16 (€6 fee by An Post, and VAT at 21% on item - bout a tenner.)

jor el

Duty varies, depending on the product, and is normally a percentage. It only applies if the value is over €150, except to things like alcohol and tobacco. Even at over €150, it's often not bothered with, as the rates tend to be low (2% bracket).

jos22

basquille wrote: »

Cheers lads.

Postage was free.. that's the thing!

As I added above, it was €50 for the two. If I've to pay more than €15 - €20, might go down the return route,.

if you payed 50 Euro total

then you should have to pay

about 10.75 in vat @ 21.5 % plus 6 euro handling for an post
so 16.75

an post where i live wont take cash so i had use post order which will bring it closer to the 20 euro.

be easiest just to pay if it once off save you the hassle of try to getting a refund.

The_Joker

basquille wrote: »

What's the skinny with custom duty? Is this a percentage?

So far, I'm paying about €16 (€6 fee by An Post, and VAT at 21% on item - bout a tenner.)

It's supposed to be just the VAT @ 21.5% + any extra charge for further postal costs

So if you pay €42 for all your stuff online including delivery it's
€42 +
€9.03 VAT @ 21.5% +
€7.05 Postal costs =

€16.08 You owe the VAT man

€58.08 Total

But they can add a handling fee and the cost price then add the VAT + postal fee.

One thing I don't get is there are some sites that ask you what value % do you want displayed on the customs declaration documents 100%, 75%, 50% etc (totally illegal of course)

If you say 50% and the customs ask you for a paypal receipt you're still going to end up paying the full amount of VAT, sounds kind of iffy to me

jos22

The_Joker wrote: »

It's supposed to be just the VAT @ 21.5% + any extra charge for further postal costs

So if you pay €42 for all your stuff online including delivery it's
€42 +
€9.03 VAT @ 21.5% +
€7.05 Postal costs =

€16.08 You owe the VAT man

€58.08 Total

But they can add a handling fee and the cost price then add the VAT + postal fee.

One thing I don't get is there are some sites that ask you what value % do you want displayed on the customs declaration documents 100%, 75%, 50% etc (totally illegal of course)

If you say 50% and the customs ask you for a paypal receipt you're still going to end up paying the full amount of VAT, sounds kind of iffy to me

you be charged vat on the amount you payed and you can also face a fine for try to mislead the customs not sure what the fine is but their is one.

Hoffmans

are free samples liable to duty .like they are free so how can you be taxed on something that is free??

recently got a demand for some samples i was sent from hong kong.

stedeb

hi all
i bought some perfumes from cdwow and postman arrived looking for vat
the stamp on the box it came in was from sweeden

the customs declaration green docket says gift but has a price in us
the post office put there sticker over the stamp and said it was from hk

should i have paid the vat
it was 2 seperate parcels and postoffice charge for both was 6€

would appreciate some comments
thanks
ste

jos22

stedeb wrote: »

hi all
i bought some perfumes from cdwow and postman arrived looking for vat
the stamp on the box it came in was from sweeden

the customs declaration green docket says gift but has a price in us
the post office put there sticker over the stamp and said it was from hk

should i have paid the vat
it was 2 seperate parcels and postoffice charge for both was 6€

would appreciate some comments
thanks
ste

Consignments of Negligible Value (€22)
Consignments not exceeding a total value of €150 may be imported without payment of Customs Duty, while consignments not exceeding a total value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT. However, there is no relief for importations of tobacco, tobacco products, alcohol products, perfumes or toilet waters irrespective of their value.
It

so it appears you have no choice pay if want them or else they be sent back with around 5 days to cdwow

stedeb

so basically its right as dute was not paid and goods wer 80 euro value so vat is to be paid only and the high po price
thanks
ste

jos22

stedeb wrote: »

so basically its right as dute was not paid and goods wer 80 euro value so vat is to be paid only and the high po price
thanks
ste

looks that way but you said it was marked that it came from Sweden

cdwow could ship to sweeden and then forwarded it to you.
you could
email or call one of the below offices to query it and mention the stamp on the box it came in was from sweeden.

but most likely you have to pay the charges. if a mistake was made which is unlikely you could get the money back if you pay the charges now and later appeal within a set time frame.

"Can I query a customs charge?
Yes. If you have a query on a specific customs charge you should contact Revenue staff at the postal depot shown on the date stamp area of the Customs Docket with the precise details of your package i.e. the parcel number, the sender’s declaration and the part of the packaging with your address on it. Alternatively, you can have your parcel returned to the postal depot for reassessment.
E-mail contact details for the customs parcel depots are as follows:
Portlaoise - parcelpost@revenue.ie
Athlone – athlonepost@revenue.ie
Dublin Mail Centre – dmc@revenue.ie
"

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

derek1234

Got a good deal on some car parts from the U.S . Price quoted was about $860 . Do I pay any tax when I bring these parts to Ireland ? They are being U.P.S.'d to my house ...

leeroybrown

Yes. You'll pay excise duty on whatever is being imported (you'll need to look the TAIRC codes and rates yourself), a small handling fee for the courier company and you'll have to pay VAT on the total cost (value of goods + excise + delivery costs + handling fee). As far as I remember VAT on car parts is at 21.5%.

jonnyb

I am buying a large amount of stock from a company in the UK but they are shipping the items direct from a factory in China to me.

This means I am paying a UK company and as I am vat registered I dont have to pay vat on the items.

BUT as they are coming from China will I have to pay VAT????? or who pays that VAT

I am very confused

allthedoyles

I bought a mobile phone in China , it cost €45.50 and postage € 11.00

Fedex have now sent me an invoice for this :

VAT = € 19.12
Admin Fee = 10.00
Vat on admin fee = 2.15

Total payable to Fedex = € 31.27

jor el

Either they calculated the VAT wrong, the wrong value was declared, or there was no value declared and they gave it a value. The rest of it is exactly as you would expect.

allthedoyles

jor el wrote: »

Either they calculated the VAT wrong, the wrong value was declared, or there was no value declared and they gave it a value. The rest of it is exactly as you would expect.

They had a USD invoice for value $ 68.75 .

I may query this with Fedex because vat of 19.12 = a value of around 90 euro

Saltour Sossiez

If I were to buy a video game off ebay from a seller in Japan would I have to pay import tax? The game costs less than 2 euro with around 5 for postage via EMS.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I didn't want to go searching through the whole thread.

Gwame

Saltour Sossiez wrote: »

If I were to buy a video game off ebay from a seller in Japan would I have to pay import tax? The game costs less than 2 euro with around 5 for postage via EMS.

Sorry if this has been asked before but I didn't want to go searching through the whole thread.

You might want to ensure that the game's compatible, if it's coming from Japan.

Saltour Sossiez

Gwame wrote: »

You might want to ensure that the game's compatible, if it's coming from Japan.

Yep, I've got that part of it sorted.

Kevin!

Hello,

I recently purchased an airsoft gun from dealextreme, and I was wondering why they are going to this effort to send me a letter, when the package total was 23.03, there limit being 22.00.

Would they not just let 1.03 slide? it seems a bit stupid to me.

Thank you,

Kevin.