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

tommyjin83

Bond-007 wrote: »

Postman will collect so.

Alrit, so if i'm not at home, i'll get a notification like usual to pick up the parcel in the post office and pay the money there, right?:rolleyes:

jor el

tommyjin83 wrote: »

Alrit, so if i'm not at home, i'll get a notification like usual to pick up the parcel in the post office and pay the money there, right?:rolleyes:

Yep, pay on collection. They may not take cash too, so you may need a cheque book. Often, they will take cash, but you should have the exact amount.

Teslacuted

I'm just wondering why it is we are charged VAT on the international shipping costs we pay, surely the transaction and the service occured outside the state, why is it still subject to the state's taxes?

If I (from my house in Ireland) were to pay for a package to be shipped from New York to LA should I still be paying VAT?

jor el

Because the shipping agent is providing a service here, and services have VAT. If you ever see the bills, it's not always applied to the shipping cost, but it could be.

Messerschmitt

I haven't read all ten pages of the thread because I'm a bit tight on time, so I appologise if my question has already been answered. Is there any sort of fee I might have to pay if I order something from the UK. Somebody told me that there is 15% VAT in the UK and 21% in Ireland so I might have to pay the 6% VAT on top of the price quoted on the site. Is this true? Will I have to pay customs taxes or import duty if the item is for personal use (ie. I'm not buying in bulk to sell in Ireland)? I just wanted to know for sure because all of my previous orders have gone wrong for some reason or another (eg. the postman thought Ireland was Iran, and my package was sent to Iran). Thanks.

jor el

Messerschmitt wrote: »

I haven't read all ten pages of the thread because I'm a bit tight on time, so I appologise if my question has already been answered. Is there any sort of fee I might have to pay if I order something from the UK. Somebody told me that there is 15% VAT in the UK and 21% in Ireland so I might have to pay the 6% VAT on top of the price quoted on the site. Is this true?

No. VAT is an EU tax, and the UK are also in the EU, so VAT is paid on any order. The difference is one of the bonuses of buying from the UK (or any country with cheaper VAT than us).

Messerschmitt wrote: »

Will I have to pay customs taxes or import duty if the item is for personal use

Yes, if it's coming from outside the EU.

Messerschmitt

Thanks Jor El.
I've placed the order and should receive the goods within the next week or so:). Thanks again.

zero19

Hi i'm expecting a package from hong kong via ups, the total cost i paid for shipping and the items are 120dollars, how much should i expect to be stung for? I have heard of people having to pay the charge after it being calculated from the dollar currency but paid in euros (i.e if it's 25% of 120 dollars i would be charged 30 euro incorrectly?) is that illegal and can anything be done about it if it happens?

jor el

The couriers use a daily exchange rate, and not euro=dollar.

snubbleste

jor el wrote: »

No. VAT is an EU tax, and the UK are also in the EU, so VAT is paid on any order. The difference is one of the bonuses of buying from the UK (or any country with cheaper VAT than us).
.

Retailers that have above a certain volume of business across EU borders are required to charge destination country VAT. An example is amazon.co.uk

jor el

snubbleste wrote: »

Retailers that have above a certain volume of business across EU borders are required to charge destination country VAT. An example is amazon.co.uk

But it won't be applied by customs, it'll be at the time you pay. If you pay a lower VAT rate, then that's it, there's no additional payment on receipt.

Skyhater

Just came across this tread as am currently researching the Import Duty/VAT topic. Great info....thanks to all.

Can anyone let me know if it would be cheaper to ship to a NI/British address? Anyone got any experience of this?

Thanks!!!

jos22

dose any one know if they has being changes to this
I got a parcel today value would be 43 euro and got slapped with 20 euro custom charge.

over the past 3 years i got 20 or so parcels from the same all around 40 -45 euro. no charges on em.

as far as i knew i could in port goods up to 45 euro tax free has this being lowered recently
all via an post

jos22

ok i figured this out before the customs office used to allow all paracels 45 euro or less through tax free regardless if gift was marked on it or not.

now most items over 22 euro if not marked gift will be hit with in port taxes

Red Sleeping Beauty

jos22 wrote: »

ok i figured this out before the customs office used to allow all paracels 45 euro or less through tax free regardless if gift was marked on it or not.

now most items over 22 euro if not marked gift will be hit with in port taxes

Was it a custom duty charge or a VAT charge ? If it's over €22 you get charged Irish VAT @ whatever horribly high amount it is. As far as I know the ceiling was raised for customs duty.

What was it anyway ? And was it marked as a gift ?

jor el

Marking things as gift does nothing, especially when it's an obviously commercial purchase.

Red Sleeping Beauty

What about marking things as a gift when it is a gift ? Or if it was a purchase of a gift ?

jos22

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Was it a custom duty charge or a VAT charge ? If it's over €22 you get charged Irish VAT @ whatever horribly high amount it is. As far as I know the ceiling was raised for customs duty.

What was it anyway ? And was it marked as a gift ?

it was 41 euro worth of region 1 dvds from deepdiscount

it was vat that was added on 11.50 euro plus 6 euro an post handling charge.

the parcel was not marked as gift or commerical.

is the 22 euro a new thing. i have gotten 20-30 parcels from that retailer all 45 euro and never charger anything. several were inspected by customs and still not charged. last time i got charged was 80 euro worth of dvds( or about 200 euro if bought here, love those buy 1 1 free on boxsets ) and it was 17.50 due on that one too.

apparently goods can be up 150 euro before customs duty's are due

Red Sleeping Beauty

Sounds like you know what you're talking about so... The VAt allowance @ €22 isn't new as far as I know. It's been set in stone for a good while. The customs allowance was changed a while ago. Charging you extra on the delivery fees is lousy.

Irish people sometimes get stung buying from the likes of play, sendit and HMV etc. because they're outside the EU so it's essentially the same as importing from USA. And I think CDwow comes from Singapore by way of Switzerland (also not in the EU).

So it depends if you get caught in the net I suppose

jos22

Alan Rouge wrote: »

Sounds like you know what you're talking about so... The VAt allowance @ €22 isn't new as far as I know. It's been set in stone for a good while. The customs allowance was changed a while ago. Charging you extra on the delivery fees is lousy.

Irish people sometimes get stung buying from the likes of play, sendit and HMV etc. because they're outside the EU so it's essentially the same as importing from USA. And I think CDwow comes from Singapore by way of Switzerland (also not in the EU).

So it depends if you get caught in the net I suppose

i thought play and sendit were uk based

Our man in Havana

Nope. They are based in Jersey. Jersey is not in the UK or the EU.

jos22

Bond-007 wrote: »

Nope. They are based in Jersey. Jersey is not in the UK or the EU.

never got charge anything on dvd i ordered from them. and good few were well over the 22 euro over the 45 euro gift limited too.

or do they pre pay the import tax

Red Sleeping Beauty

Bond-007 wrote: »

Nope. They are based in Jersey. Jersey is not in the UK or the EU.

I think Sendit are in Guernsey. Same with HMV and a few others. It's all a bit of a tax loophole. As far as I know the UK people are ok with "importing" stuff from that crowd but eveyrone else in the EU is left wide open to VAT charges.

jos22 wrote: »

never got charge anything on dvd i ordered from them. and good few were well over the 22 euro over the 45 euro gift limited too.

or do they pre pay the import tax

I heard/read (can't remember where from) that Play and Amazon settled with the UK revenue crowd. Of course they couldn't give a twaddle about here regardless of how much business Irish people give them. You'd think though that they'd have to have an Irish VAT number though. All tres confusing.

The VAT charge varies. Some people get caught , others don't. Play will post your DVD order seperate per DVD or whatever to keep the cost printed on each envelope as low as possible. So you could order 100quids worth of gear but they'll post each bit seperately so they're not over the €22 treshold. A lot of people get stung around Xmas time (there's threads here on it).

If you were to order a lot of box sets they could get flagged and stopped.

EdgarAllenPoo

Has anyone ordered from this site? When you get to the checkout page it lists a tax and duty fee and says that you won't be charged any additional moeny upon delivery, anyone know if this applies to international orders?

jos22

GDM wrote: »

Has anyone ordered from this site? When you get to the checkout page it lists a tax and duty fee and says that you won't be charged any additional moeny upon delivery, anyone know if this applies to international orders?

enter BML2009 as the copon and receive 20% off your entire order. never used them before what tax rate are they giving any US store I bought from listed taxes as 0 for non US consumers.

EdgarAllenPoo

Well on an item listed as €72 + €23 shipping (total=€95.86) they charge €10.80 in duty and VAT;
https://secure.shoes.com/Checkout2/Checkout.aspx

jos22

GDM wrote: »

Well on an item listed as €72 + €23 shipping (total=€95.86) they charge €10.80 in duty and VAT;
https://secure.shoes.com/Checkout2/Checkout.aspx

not sure so maybe there charging you EU vat on the order then.
if you em CS they let know

EdgarAllenPoo

Was just looking on that site again and apparently they use a company called FiftyOne which calculates the tariffs and dutys due on your order by country when you go to the checkout. If that's the case then that's bloody handy but I still can't see customs here not wanting to stick me with some kind of bill. To buy or not to buy.

herbieflowers

Hi guys, sorry I've tried searching this thread (probably been answered ad nauseum at this stage) but to no avail.

Basically: will any charges be placed on single CD orders, ie ones that would be sent by regular post in an envelope, from America if the value of the CD and postage combined is less than 20e?

Soryy again.

jos22

herbieflowers wrote: »

Hi guys, sorry I've tried searching this thread (probably been answered ad nauseum at this stage) but to no avail.

Basically: will any charges be placed on single CD orders, ie ones that would be sent by regular post in an envelope, from America if the value of the CD and postage combined is less than 20e?

Soryy again.

goods under 22 euro are allowed in tax free.