Fed Ex and customs charges

E.T.

I bought an item from America which cost just under €100. It arrived no problem but 2 weeks later I got an invoice from Fed Ex for €35 for customs duty, AND a €10 fee from them for "handling" it for me. I rang them to ask who had given them permission to handle it for me, and they said the Irish revenue services give them permission to do this, and that the customs duty is calculated on the total including postage, which came to €120. I've no problem paying the duty, but I've rung Fed Ex repeatedly, and also emailed repeatedly looking for an actual receipt to prove that they did pay on my behalf. Still no sign of it, but I just received an overdue account notice from them. A colleague at work had the same problem, and has received a notice from a debt collection agency! I know there are a lot of other people having this problem with Fed Ex. Is there anyone I can contact to make Fed Ex give me a receipt?

BArra

all courier companys charge this, dhl, ups, fed ex ect ect

just pay it, and buy ur goods from europe and you wont pay any duties

Max Power1

I had the same experiemce with UPS, bought a couple of apparel items totalling €120. Had to pay €45 on credit card to the delivery guy for customs and delivery before he would give me the package!

jor el

As they are acting as agents of the revenue commissioners, you can be pretty sure that they are paying the VAT correctly, as revenue are likely to conduct regular audits on any of their agents. The invoice that you received from FedEx is your receipt.

UsedtobePC

My folks used to send me pressies every now and again until I begged them to stop cause it was draining my wallet.
What really ticks me off is that the duty is calculated based on the declared value + postage back in its country of origin where VAT has already been paid for the latter. Can somebody explain how handling and posting the parcel in Argentina impact/affect the import duties in Ireland???

Nody

It is part of the over all price to receieve the item. Anything you buy in a store in Dublin already has the shipping cost in the price you pay. Hence to make it as fair as possible they include the full cost of the item, including shipping (stab in the dark).

irishfeller

UsedtobePC wrote: »

My folks used to send me pressies every now and again until I begged them to stop cause it was draining my wallet.

I don't think any duty is payable if the parcel is marked as a gift...

hellboy99

The way Fed Ex do this in my opinion is completely wrong, I had it happen to me and I ended up not having to pay it, basically I told them that:

1. They should of informed me of this before dispatching it from the depot.

2. Or, the courier should of had an invoice with him stating the duty charged and should of not given me the package without payment of the duty.

3. Once I signed for it and had the item it became my property and was no longer theirs so therefore could not charge any further charges.

4. Informed them that other couriers ie. DHL will not release goods without duty paid and inform you of charges before dispatch.

Just try the above and see what happens.

hellboy99

irishfeller wrote: »

I don't think any duty is payable if the parcel is marked as a gift...

That doesn't work anymore.

jor el

Gift exemption for VAT is 45 euro, non gift is 22 euro. Duty exemption is 150 euro, but duty is rarely applied, they usually just go straight to the VAT.

Duty or VAT is calculated on the total cost of receiving the item, this includes the cost of delivering it, as delivery is a service that attracts VAT. VAT is also applied on top of the Duty, so you pay tax on the tax.

TheDriver

Fed ex do NOT always calculate vat correctly. Got 2 dvds and 3 books (educational) from us 2 years ago and got charged vat on all of them (remember books have no vat)plus the invoice arrived to me 9 months after the parcel arrived. I naturally complained and asked for a reinvoice but they waivered the whole lot due to the late arrival of the invoice.

dee1dee2

had same prob last year bought something online the company put valu of 100$ on parcel cost me 34e on vat from fed ex the product only cost me 16e but as valu on lable was 100$ had to pay fed ex bill it finished me buying from usa