New Import Duty/VAT Thread. Read Post #1 for Rules

I'm looking to import a musical instrument from the US.
The instrument is about 50-60 years old and was originally manufactured in Germany, then at some point (either immediately after manufacture, or at a later date) was imported TO the US.

As it originally came from Europe, would TAX/DUTY still be payable on it?

If I collected the instrument in person and brought it back with my by air, what are the chances of getting pulled going through customs?

If you have sold an item to a person outside the EU & they are sending it back for repair, how can this be handled so as VAT & duty are not applicable - it will be exported again after repair?

r-i-tect wrote: »

Just been asked to send in my Paypal receipt, how did they know I used paypal

They (I presume customs ?) would have gone on the law of average that items bought over the Internet have been bought using paypall. Nothing more sinister than that.

Cheers,
Rudolf289

last month i bought an iphone from the usa.
it cost 150euro along with postage.
it was shipped via usps priority mail international.

it wasnt labelled as gifts but for some reason i didnt get taxed.

Any idea why?

DYLF wrote: »

when they send it they will need to mark it for "repair and return".. you may also need to get an import SAD from when you sent it to prove it was shipped from you originally

Thanks DYLF,
What's an import SAD. Most of the customs stuff leaves me sad but not as bad as the €600 charge that a girl down the road was being charged for a wedding dress from the US (The post guy who called to me looking for import duty was telling me that this was his next call)

He also told me about the powers of these guys - they can walk into your home without a warrant & take ownership of anything. He told me of a case (this might be urban legend stuff) that a politician's wife grabbed the package (cosmetics) off the postman & slammed the door on him - didn't pay the duty. After ignoring numerous payment request letters, they nabbed her driving her BMW out of the driveway, put it immediately to auction & the first bid got it - a €40,000 car bought for €4,000 - they took their cut (& you can imagine the handling charges were high & gave her the loose change left!

DYLF wrote: »

wouldnt believe that for a second.. if it is not paid it would usually be passed on to a debt collection agency to recover the debt...

Yea, a bit of an urban legend about the whole story, I thought

SAD - Single Administrive Document
every shipment coming into or going out of the country has one of these done up for it. so if you need proff of import or export you just neeed to contact the courier you sent it with / recieved it from and they should be able to provide this for you

What if it's being posted - do the post office have such a document?

Grumpypants wrote: »

You will either get a letter saying you owe X amount for vat or you will get a letter saying it is fake and is being destroyed.

Just what we thought would happen - Wonder will they value the goods at Irish prices for VAT purposes

Could it be cash on delivery or will we have 30 days to pay vat

Hi,
why is Revenue sometimes asking for Paypal receipts? Is it that they don't believe the declared value? Do they run the package through a x-ray machine or something?
Some Ebay sellers advertise that they will declare value below $30 to avoid vat and duty but this isn't going to work, or is it?

boardsiebob wrote: »

Hi,
Is it that they don't believe the declared value?

this is exactly it. if you cant provide something to prove what you paid for it they will put their own value on it.. which of course is usually way more than you've paid for it

They're ripping me off by 16 euros for a media player I bought from Hong Kong on ebay that should have been 50 euro bringing it to 66 euros.
So that was like 21% vat and 6 euros for handling it, though I didn't want the mean buggers to get their grubby hands on it in the first place.:mad:

I'm afraid to buy games or anything outside Europe in future now incase I get stung again.
The rule of thumb seems to be if you buy something from outside Europe and the value is over 22 Euros you can get screwed by customs, correct me if I'm wrong.