VAT shocker awaits Stateside shoppers

scargill

Story in today's indo about shoppers being hit for duty on return from US holiday. Anybody have any experience of this ? I've been to NYC with girlfriend a few times and I know she passed her limit within half an hour of arriving in New York !! Never been stopped coming back in through Dublin - although never really went overboard on the shopping - just clothes.

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http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/index.php3?ca=9&issue_id=11592

IRISH shoppers travelling to the United States hoping for pre-Christmas bargains are in for a sharp suprise at customs on the way home.

The up-coming November Thanksgiving Day weekend has traditionally been very popular among Irish people who wish to shop in the US, but now they will have to pay duty and VAT on their purchases.

Under rules enforced by the Revenue Commissioners and Customs officials, anyone bringing in goods over the value of €22 will have to pay for duty and VAT. And with goods valued at between €22 and €350 subject to 3.5pc duty and 21pc VAT, the weekend trip to New York could work out considerably more expensive than a few days in Grafton Street, depending on the amount of goods declared.

Those tempted not to declare their shopping take a considerable risk - if they're caught, the goods can be seized, and penalties amounting to double the VAT and duty due are payable if the goods are to be recovered.

Once the value of the shopping goes over €350, a whole array of different charges for duty come into play, with some clothes attracting duty charges of up to 24pc on top of VAT.

Nevertheless, Aer Lingus has reported heavy bookings from Ireland for the popular weekend, with prices of up to €1,600 for a return flight on the weekend.

The Dublin Airport Authority said that in the region of 7,000 people will travel to the US from November 24 to November 26.

m4cker

bogey my mother is leaving for the us in the morning. that could upset her quite a bit. it may also leave my new threads hangin in the balance

IrishMike

Just remove the tags from any clothes that u bought. They cannot prove that you
bought the items in the states. Worst case just say that you were given them as
presents by relatives over there.
Simple as that really, just came home yesterday with about 2 grand worth of clothes etc
(my family combined not all mine ) and had no problem

Sleepy

What IrishMike said.

A little common sense goes a long way you know

Pretty typical of this governments reaction to anything though: our shopkeeps are thieving baztards that the Irish public have to look overseas to afford nice things. Let's tax 'em at the airport!

When will they learn?

quarryman

does this tag trick work w/ drugs?

wait, there's no tax on narcotics. silly me.

SteM

Gerry Ryan was talking about this earlier today and got up on his high horse about it. Don't worry, he'll sort the government out for his listeners.

Seems that customs are going to be cracking down on people more that they have done in recent years. I'm sure there's no way they can do much about clothes but any expensive cameras, jewellery etc will be scrutanised I'd say.

FX Meister

There's usually nobody at customs in Dublin even if you did want to declare stuff. Just cut the tags and ball the close up a bit before you pack them for home. Post all receipts and the likes home. Last year I got stopped on the US Canadian border, there was three of us with a Range Rover full of goods. The customs guy gave us loads of hassle and as two of us were returning to Ireland we were allowed bring stuff in as long as we were taking it out again. He knew that a lot of the stuff was for my aunt living in Canada. But then he quizzed her and said he was going to search us for all receipts and if he found anything she had bought with her credit card he would confiscate it. She simply said she had bought us the stuff as gifts, he was pissed but just sent us on our way.

As reagrds stem above, my sister brought a canon 300D and a Sony PD150 home from NY for me. Her boyfriend carried all the boxes and manuals and she carried them as if they were her own equipment. There's ways around all their efforts. Why should we pay tax on items bought in Ireland when the prices are a rip off.

Mr E

- Cut the tags off the clothes.
- Don't keep the clothes in macy/dkny/whatever bags. Mix them in with your real clothes.
- Discard the receipts (its not like you'll be returning the items, anyway).
- If you buy electronics, take them out of their boxes (discard the boxes!) and carry them onto the plane in your carry on luggage.

K!LL!@N

By cracking down, do they mean they'll actually have some customs people there? :rolleyes:

Last few times i've been through dublin airport i never saw a single customs inspector, never mind peoples bags being checked.

Anyway, as has been mentioned.
Just take off all the tags, you're going to be wearing the stuff anyway.
Get rid of all the boxes from stuff you've bought.
Wrap it in the clothes.
If you want to keep the receipts, just post them back to yourself before you leave.
You could even post manuals and stuff as well, if you wanted.

Killian

andersde10

TmB wrote:

- Cut the tags off the clothes.
- Don't keep the clothes in macy/dkny/whatever bags. Mix them in with your real clothes.
- Discard the receipts (its not like you'll be returning the items, anyway).
- If you buy electronics, take them out of their boxes (discard the boxes!) and carry them onto the plane in your carry on luggage.

Don't you need the receipts if you are going to be claming back the tax you pay over there? I came back from Canada with a good load of stuff last year then sent the receipes back to canada and got a lovely tax refund a couple of months later

Mr E

Don't you need the receipts if you are going to be claming back the tax you pay over there?

Fair enough, good point.

I was actually stopped by customs during December last year. I was coming back from a business trip in Canada, I was bloody knackered, cold, cranky and just wanted to go home. Bogger customs officer in Shannon stopped me, asked me where I'd been. Told him "Canada, ON BUSINESS" and he let me through.... I had new clothes mixed in with the old ones, discarded receipts etc, so he wouldn't have found anything anyway.

tk123

I was in Dublin Airport last week returning from the US. There were 4 guys on stools - 2 for EU passports and 2 for Non-EU. The non-EU guys were just saying "Irish and English passports go straight through" - they didn't even look at the passports just as long as it was the right colour !!!

EDIT I know - why not wear your new clothes on the plane ala that friends episode

K!LL!@N

tk123 wrote:

I was in Dublin Airport last week returning from the US. There were 4 guys on stools - 2 for EU passports and 2 for Non-EU. The non-EU guys were just saying "Irish and English passports go straight through" - they didn't even look at the passports just as long as it was the right colour !!!

Yeah it's pretty laughable alright.
I mean the guy would want to have superhuman sight to be able to check the details of peoples passports as they walk past.

Killian

Sleepy

tk123 wrote:

I was in Dublin Airport last week returning from the US. There were 4 guys on stools - 2 for EU passports and 2 for Non-EU. The non-EU guys were just saying "Irish and English passports go straight through" - they didn't even look at the passports just as long as it was the right colour !!!

EDIT I know - why not wear your new clothes on the plane ala that friends episode

Beacuse wearing clothes that bulky would lead to painful drugs searches

steveland?

Sleepy wrote:

Beacuse wearing clothes that bulky would lead to painful drugs searches

Or enjoyable ones

tk123

lol

OfflerCrocGod

SteveD wrote:

Or enjoyable ones

Is that what you are into?
+
Each to their own I suppose.

Paddy20

So, what happens if I buy online from the world famous LL BEAN clothing webstore in the states ?...

steveland?

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Is that what you are into?
+
Each to their own I suppose.

Wonder if they'll charge me VAT if that's what I'm bringing into the country

gandalf

LOL could you imagine the custom mans face with you going "Oh yes, yes, yes, further further, faster....mmmmmgghhhhh......"

LOL!!!

Wertz

Paddy20 wrote:

So, what happens if I buy online from the world famous LL BEAN clothing webstore in the states ?...

You play financial russian roulette with An Post: sometimes your stuff arrives quicker than it would have if it had been posted in Dublin, sometimes it ends up being held in some sorting office/custom's warehouse and you get a bill for the VAT and duty.
I've eBayed a good few things from the US and only got caught once for duty (which ended up being f*** all anyhow).

Paddy20

Wertz,

Thanks, I remember when I was innocent. I purchased a tee shirt from Elvis.com, they sent it via FedEX and they ended up at my door with a load of paperwork for extra charges, inc their own Rip-Off delivery charge, which I paid because I really wanted the item.

I complained to the official Elvis website, but they replied that they only used FedEX and refused to use ordinary US Post which would have cost me next to nothing and the value of the item would not have attracted any VAT or Import duty as it did automatically with FedEX. I have never purchased anything from Elvis.com ever since.

Just in case anyone wants to look at the great range of clothes available from L.L.Beans famous clothing website, I think this link should work: www.llbean.com/

Good luck.

P.

steveland?

gandalf wrote:

LOL could you imagine the custom mans face with you going "Oh yes, yes, yes, further further, faster....mmmmmgghhhhh......"

LOL!!!

Act real shady next time you're goin through customs... like keep grabbing your.... rear.... and pretend its all stuffed up. When they ask is something wrong go "I dont know... maybe you should have a closer look"

fenris

Be careful about using USPS for parcels as they use GLS as their agent in Ireland. GLS are a woeful shower of chancers with extra handling charges for fully declaring your parcel for duty - even when duty does not apply, soft knock delivery guys and a disturbing habit of leaving stuff in a random neighbours dog kennel - check out the Komplett forum "courier alternative" thread for an idea of how much hassle that GLS can cause you, dread to think of the damage that they are doing to komplett!

You would be better of Fed-EXing your shopping as you know that you would get it without having to take 3 days off work to chase it and also you would know what it was going to cost as GLS charge you for handling once the parcel leaves the US as the USPS charge only covers the part of the journey within the states.

Jip

tk123 wrote:

I was in Dublin Airport last week returning from the US. There were 4 guys on stools - 2 for EU passports and 2 for Non-EU. The non-EU guys were just saying "Irish and English passports go straight through" - they didn't even look at the passports just as long as it was the right colour !!!

These people aren't concerned about customs and excise, more imigration, the customs lads are the ones who stand at the green and red channels just as you leave the baggage area and pick random people out to search. Having said that, the last two times I've been through it there were no custom guys.

IrishMike

jip ive been to america 6 or 8 times in the last 3 or 4 years and ive never seen any
customs official even working in shannon not to mention checking someones baggage
possibly just a scare tactic ? who knows

Third_Echelon

according to the head of customs in dublin airport who was on gerry ryan this morning, it is an allowance of €175 per person for importing goods while you are a passenger on a flight etc. The €350 limit is for receiving goods via the post or courier...

He even said himself, they will only pursue it if they think that there will be a major affect to the revenue of the country. I.e a big loss to the exchequer. so if you are bringing back some clothes there wont be a major issue... if you are bringing back half of macys, you are going to be hit for vat and import duty....

gazzer

the 175 euro allowance seems really small... i wonder if it increases each year?