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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

Kevin!

They let me off with the 1.10 and decided to let me off with the charges, just received and email from them

Sharpshooter

Moved from After Hours.

mathie

timmywex wrote: »

Just hope your package aint noticed, absolutely hate paying customs anything at all for some reason!

60% of the time mine gets noticed all of the time.

donster79

Its unlikely to not get noticed, the funny thing is it will still be far cheaper to buy the lenses this way than through an optician here.

timmywex

Just hope your package aint noticed, absolutely hate paying customs anything at all for some reason!

donster79

Cheers!!!

maddogcollins

Using current rates I think you will be liable only to VAT on these at 21.5%.

US$ 225 = €157.00 (roughly at todays rate)
€157 @21.5% = €34 (roughly)

So you will have to pay €34 more on delivery.

Duty is normaly charged at 2.9% i think but as it comes to less than €10 I dont think it will be applied.

All these are open to correction. Below is a link to a duty calculator

http://www.dutycalculator.com/calculation/saved_calculations/view_details/37834/

donster79

I am ordering something online in from the US(contact lenses) which are far cheaper to buy this way. The total cost of what I am ordering will amount to approx 225 US dollars. Does anyone know how much customs will sting me for when they arrive at my doorstep??

jor el

Trevor451 wrote: »

so let me get this straight. I ordered something off dealextreme and it came to about €7.00. Will I not have to pay vat since its under €22?

Why do people have to keep asking the same question? Is 7 < 22?

jayj224 wrote: »

Hi Guys i'm thinking of buying an iphone on ebay and it will be coming from hong kong or Australia am i nearly 100% likely to be caught for customs due to the value of the item. Many Thanks Jason

Very likely, and also likely to not be a real iPhone.

jayj224

Hi Guys i'm thinking of buying an iphone on ebay and it will be coming from hong kong or Australia am i nearly 100% likely to be caught for customs due to the value of the item. Many Thanks Jason

Trevor451

so let me get this straight. I ordered something off dealextreme and it came to about €7.00. Will I not have to pay vat since its under €22?

Sponge Bob

So now a 'rifle' shaped package is gonna apear in customs with your name on it and you are worried about the duty/vat on 23.03 worth of goods, you will be lucky if the branch don't come out with it instead of customs

dudara

Better suited to Online Buying & Auctions.

Lower tax takes elsewhere means that the Revenue & Customs are enforcing the €22 limit much more than they used to.

dudara

Kevin!

Paulw wrote: »

The limit has to be set somewhere, and then enforced.

Whatever about the time/effort cost, it's still revenue for the Revenue.

Grr wouldn't mind but I could have split up the pellets and the airsoft gun, shipping is free and it would have brought it under the 22€ limit, will know for next time though

Paulw

The limit has to be set somewhere, and then enforced.

Whatever about the time/effort cost, it's still revenue for the Revenue.

Kevin!

Kinetic^ wrote: »

The limit is €22 and they've been cracking down on it a lot due to revenue from other taxation falling.

but the time and effort and cost it takes to process a case must be worth more than the tener there trying to charge me?

Kinetic^

The limit is €22 and they've been cracking down on it a lot due to revenue from other taxation falling.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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%.

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 ...

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

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: »

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