Are customs and excise getting stricter

mel123

I always used to buy off Strawberrynet, not a problem. My last two times, very small orders have got caught (i know strawberry may refund me). Just recently i have heard of a good few people getting stung, should i give up internet shopping??

squibs

Just try to source from ecommerce companies that ship from within the EU. You should be ok then.

Cabaal

I would say they have, prior to this year I ordered $1000's worth off the net and was only caugh once, this year I've been caugh 3 times already

jor el

They're definitely cracking down on Amazon.com orders anyway. All of my recent orders from them have been stopped. Not really worth it unless the saving is significant. Also, Amazon print the full value on the outside, regardless of if there was a buy one get one free or similar offer, so you pay VAT on the free items too.

MysticalSoul

jor el wrote: »

They're definitely cracking down on Amazon.com orders anyway. All of my recent orders from them have been stopped. Not really worth it unless the saving is significant. Also, Amazon print the full value on the outside, regardless of if there was a buy one get one free or similar offer, so you pay VAT on the free items too.

I have ordered loads over the past month from amazon.com, with no problem. I have noticed though that amazon.com are a lot slower with processing the order.

arybvtcw0eolkf

Its got to the stage where I've almost stopped ordering from the USA as I've had too many items caught.

ams

if the cost of the item is less than €25 you should be ok for customs. Maybe try ordering things in smaller batches if the postage costs arent too high.

redfan

bought a fone from hk and i had to pay 7 euro on it ... couldnt belive it . 7e. haaha
on the fone packaging it read gift.and i said it was a present from my brother in law....where she got 7euro from ill never know..
hahaha i didnt question it as i taught id have to pay way more ...

Electric

I suspect that they are being very strict at the moment because they know that in December the import limit is going up to €150 so they won't be able to charge customs on half the stuff they are stopping now.

Me thinks it's a money grabbing exercise.

My last two shipments from StrawberryNet have been stopped. It's so annoying because I don't own a chequebook and they only accept payment by cheque or bank draft so it means I have to queue in the bank for half an hour at lunch

Gillo

I regularly order stuff form the UK, which was pulled from the shelves here by the IMB so no one can sell it any more and never been stopped.

miju

anything coming from the UK wouldn't be stopped / have excise duty owed on it as it's from within the EU.

hence me buying my Kayak and all related gear there last month. Total saving of about €400 for me even after shipping costs of €100. Irish suppliers would have ripped me off goodo.

As they always say vote with your feet (or mouse)

*kisses and hugs internet*

MysticalSoul

Received another amazon.com parcel today, with no glitches. Total value was €30, so maybe they allow €5 leeway or something

mel123

Well, on this particular package i still saved, however, you have to pay VAT at 21% plus a €5 "post office handling fee", which is a bit of a joke IMO.
I ordered also a foundation (before i realised about the first package), which is worth a whole €17, so i will see if this gets intercepted.
I know someone said that under €25 doesnt get stopped, but I am not sure if this is right, I think everything that gets stopped has to pay, no matter about the value. That was my take from what I read on some customs website or government website.

jor el

irishamethyst wrote: »

Received another amazon.com parcel today, with no glitches. Total value was €30, so maybe they allow €5 leeway or something

€45 is the limit for a gift, and I think they generally allow this much, even for items not marked gift. Anything over €45 is fair game, and they do seem to be hitting Amazon in particular. Even the guy in the Post collection office said it to me that he's been seeing a lot of Amazon (in particular) charges recently.

mel123 wrote: »

Well, on this particular package i still saved, however, you have to pay VAT at 21% plus a €5 "post office handling fee", which is a bit of a joke IMO.

They're allowed, by law, to impose a fee of up to €15, so €5 is quite good. The courier companies generally impose the full €15, and then VAT on top of that too. When GLS handled incoming USPS post, they charged the full amount too.

Onikage

Importing: Duty & Tax

Before you see horrendously good deals online and splash out on a monster home cinema from America, bear the following in mind:

• Shipments sent from outside the EU may be liable for Customs Duty, Excise Duty and VAT
• VAT on goods is calculated using the rate the same goods sold in Ireland would use (21% for electronics)
• VAT is calculated on the total of the price of the goods, shipping, insurance, duty and other taxes
• Gifts from one private individual to another up to the value of €45 are exempt from Duty and VAT
• Commercial shipments up to €22 are exempt from VAT and Duty (note: this is set to rise to €150 on December 1st)
• Cigarettes, perfume and alcohol are never exempt, but we're not interested in them right now.
• For one off shipments where the value of the goods is less than €250 and the Import Duty due is less than €10 then an exemption from VAT and Duty may also be granted to customers who are VAT registered

Of course not every shipment is stopped and held by customs. All I can say is if you do decide to import, be VAT registered if it's less than €250 total. And if it's greater, start praying.

Note: I in NO WAY condone avoiding tax. But if you are not legally obliged to pay it, don't.

Sources
dhl.ie
revenue.ie

Stepherunie

I haven't got caught with any of my american eagle packages - though they've never been above 55e.

Same with orders from threadless, though they've always been marked as gifts.

I've heard of a lot of strawberrynet ones being stopped of late though.

Morbid.Angel

This post has been deleted.

The_Conductor

A single DVD from Sendit.com shipped from Guernsey on 27.05.08 arrived at my desk this morning, having been opened by customs. The padded envelope had been opened and was resealed with "Inspected by" tape. It had a declared value of Sterling £6.89 (it was the IT Crowd Series 1 disk which was mentioned in the Bargains Alert thread a few weeks ago). Curiosly Season 2, which was ordered at the same time, but shipped in a seperate envelope, arrived on the 29th of May......

Most of the ebay things I'm ordering lately have really long Customs Clear times- even when they are declared as gifts etc. The occasional thing comes straight through without any delay or problems, but they are more the exception now.

LoopyBum

I reckon that you can get a few things in without being done for duty but you will draw attention to yourself if you do it regularly and yes they will flag your address and watch for things mentioned in all above posts... You can change your shipping address after a few goes maybe to avoid this flagging... I know some companies won't ship to PO Boxes though, so that may not be so great.

The_Conductor

LoopyBum wrote: »

I reckon that you can get a few things in without being done for duty but you will draw attention to yourself if you do it regularly and yes they will flag your address and watch for things mentioned in all above posts... You can change your shipping address after a few goes maybe to avoid this flagging... I know some companies won't ship to PO Boxes though, so that may not be so great.

How do they do this- a database of "suspicious" addresses?
Seems a bit far fetched.
If any of us could really see the way they operate- I guess we would be shocked at the random nature of it all......

rubadub

Electric wrote: »

I suspect that they are being very strict at the moment because they know that in December the import limit is going up to €150 so they won't be able to charge customs on half the stuff they are stopping now.

Where did you hear this? who is raising it? Thought it would be the same or less. They can only process so many orders a day, and a lot of e-commerce is going on. People might just get caught on a slow day and the manager of the system says "right, only go for items above €100, there are too many to deal with".

I also expect places like play are delivering in containers, so it is easy pickings, the people processing them can do it very quickly, they know where to look for the values, and probably have forms half filled out saying "play.com, DVD", etc.

I know a US bodybuilding/sports supplement site is being targetted after continually trying to send banned products here. To piss them off they just stop and hold all legal products too.

Electric wrote: »

Me thinks it's a money grabbing exercise.

Yes but rightly so really. All other companies here have to pay it, feeds our economy. By buying abroad you are paying other countries VAT (if any) and supporting their economy. That is why I am surprised it is going to €150

penexpers

I just got a $480 4.5kg package through without paying customs.

Onikage

rubadub wrote: »

Where did you hear this? who is raising it? Thought it would be the same or less.

It is an EU regulatory amendment. See my last post for the link and go to Article 1.3 - "in Article 27 the value of ECU 22 shall be replaced by EUR
150;", which refers to the previous limit.

pissed

Sorry for digging this thread up again but I placed an order from a guy in China. Total cost including shipping is €67 and is being shipped by DHL. Is this liable for any duty or has the €150 limit been introduced?

jor el

The import duty limit is 150, the VAT limit remains at 22, and generally swamps the duty (typically a couple of percent). The increased limit is meaningless in the most part.

MysticalSoul

I imagine more things are being stopped at the moment, due to the recession fewer people are spending money - either here at home, or online, and hence, this creates a higher likelihood of things being caught IMHO. I had to pay duty on a dress this morning, but the dress was still half the cost of what the same dress would have cost here, so was still a bargain IMHO.

pissed

Ok my package arrived today... excellent shipping as it was only handed in on tuesday night in Hong Kong. Anyway I was working today and the DHL delivery guy arrived and had to pay him €18.68. Dont know what it was for as no receipt was given but said the office would post one out. I just rang their customer service who informed me it was VAT. The declared value of the item on the package was $35. They are to phone me back on Tuesday with an explanation.

Thoie

pissed wrote: »

Ok my package arrived today... excellent shipping as it was only handed in on tuesday night in Hong Kong. Anyway I was working today and the DHL delivery guy arrived and had to pay him €18.68. Dont know what it was for as no receipt was given but said the office would post one out. I just rang their customer service who informed me it was VAT. The declared value of the item on the package was $35. They are to phone me back on Tuesday with an explanation.

€5 for the VAT, €13 for DHL I'd imagine.

pissed

Surely that cant be right. They can charge me €13 for collecting €5 vat?

Thoie

Sadly they can I'm not saying that's definite, but it won't surprise me if that's what they come back with - keep us posted, cos I'm curious now.

The (valid) point they'll make is that the admin work is the same whether it's €5 or €500. My point is that if they are charging €13 for what's less than 5 minutes work, what are the chances that they're paying the person who does it over €150 an hour

pissed

Ok got my duty/vat invoice yesterday from DHL.
Customs import VAT @ rate 21.5 on decl value incl freight €85.14 = €18.31
2% surcharge = €0.37


Who decides the declared value? Its listed on the packet from the sender as a value of $35. The total cost to me incl shipping before this was €67. Is this DHL picking figures out of a hat or is there an actual customs guy there instructing them on prices?