Whats the average customs bill

lefthooker

Hey lads,
As per the title, what have you had to pay to customs before you can collect your purchase. I handed over €57.87 for a scope from the U.S. Is that the standard rate?

Kilo

lefthooker wrote: »

Hey lads,
As per the title, what have you had to pay to customs before you can collect your purchase. I handed over €57.87 for a scope from the U.S. Is that the standard rate?

Customs duty is by far the smallest portion of the payment. Typically between 2 and 8% depending on the goods. VAT is then charged at 21% on the total of the cost of the item plus duty.

lefthooker

Kilo wrote: »

Customs duty is by far the smallest portion of the payment. Typically between 2 and 8% depending on the goods. VAT is then charged at 21% on the total of the cost of the item plus duty.

So there's no such thing as an average bill. Thanks for clearing that up, I didn't really follow the whole rigmarole. Or the calculation either.
Even so, when you add the cost, shipping & duty its still a lot cheaper than buying here or in the UK.

clivej

I paid €45 on a $130 package. But only had to pay once in many imported buy's.

pedroeibar1

lefthooker wrote: »

Hey lads,
As per the title, what have you had to pay to customs before you can collect your purchase. I handed over €57.87 for a scope from the U.S. Is that the standard rate?

Firstly you must pay Customs duty which is calculated by Customs on the TOTAL cost of the import. They add together the purchase price + insurance + freight costs. On this total figure they charge Customs duties of X%, rated on the product. For clothing it is 12%. Duty on footwear depends on the material the footwear is made of. It's usually between 9% and 15%. Customs duty does not usually apply to clothes or shoes under €150 total cost.

Add Duty amount to the value, then you pay VAT at 21% on that total. Finally, some local handlers charge a ‘‘clearing fee’ of euro 20.

No point in asking a US vendor to underprice the goods on the documentation, it is a serious crime under US law and they will not run the risk of prosecution just to please you.
Rs
P.

Sparks

BTW, there are a massive number of customs tarrifs for different classes of goods, there's an entire computer database of them. And it's worth checking you have the right class - some will have no duty at all, others can have 12-15% or more.

To be honest, I usually pay far more on shipping and VAT than I do on duty, the duty on a lot of goods we'll buy here is either 0% or 2-3%, tops.

freddieot

Cheapest for Customs Presentation \ Clearance is An Post at €6.

A far cry from what some of the orther operators are charging. Worth remembering if you have a choice as to whether something is posted or goes DHL \ FedEx \ UPS etc.

zeissman

freddieot wrote: »

Cheapest for Customs Presentation \ Clearance is An Post at €6.

A far cry from what some of the orther operators are charging. Worth remembering if you have a choice as to whether something is posted or goes DHL \ FedEx \ UPS etc.

If possible I always choose to get it sent by USPS which is the US postal service which will then be delivered by An post.
Courier services usually work out a lot more expensive.
December is a good month for getting stuff sent from the US.
I ordered scopes, binoculars, etc for a few mates for the last few years and the stuff came straight to me without having to pay any duties.
I guess customs were too busy with the Xmas rush.

Tackleberrywho

I asked a mate in Customs once to look up a figure for Hypothetically importuing a rifle to see if a dealer was trying to rob me.

21% VAT
2% CCT+ E100 as the item was over 600 euro (no Euro symbol on this keyboard sorry )

SHIPPING is generally the Largest cost.

I bought a T-Shirt for $20 and shipping was $17 :eek:

The rifle I was thinking of was $1500 and it was costing me 2700 euro off RFD :eek::eek:

lefthooker

zeissman wrote: »

If possible I always choose to get it sent by USPS which is the US postal service which will then be delivered by An post.
Courier services usually work out a lot more expensive.
December is a good month for getting stuff sent from the US.
I ordered scopes, binoculars, etc for a few mates for the last few years and the stuff came straight to me without having to pay any duties.
I guess customs were too busy with the Xmas rush.

My scope was sent using USPS & was here in only a few days after buying. There's a lot of figures to digest in some of the other posts but i can kinda see where they get their figures from

In general are there many companies who won't ship outside the states?

pedroeibar1

Tikka T3Tactical in Ireland is about 1900 euro.
Same gun in USA is about 1430 USD.

Rate of exchange is in our favour at the mom, at 1.44, so that makes it €993

Add €100 for shipping and 25 for insurance, brings cost to €1118 euro.

Duty on Firearms is 3.2%, brings cost to €1154. (see link below)

Add VAT at 21%, brings cost to €1396.

Add 100USD (€70) for US RFD and 100 euro for Irish RFD to handle the transaction, brings amount to €1,570. Allow a handing fee and round it up...
Total = €1,600.



Shipping and handling costs are my estimates. Link for duty rate is

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds2/taric/measures.jsp?Lang=en&SimDate=20110409&Area=US&Taric=9303000000&LangDescr=en


Would the hassle, delay, paperwork, etc., make it worthwhile?
P.

tonysopprano

Pedroeibar, the only problem with your calculations, in my experiences, is that customs use a 1 to 1 exchange rate in their calculations.

i.e. $1200 = €1200 etc .

Another problem is that your rate will depend on what is the first item listed on your invoice.

i.e. recently I ordered a load of stuff, mostly cleaning products and targets but the first item listed were cloth cleaning patches so I was charged the rate for clothing on the whole load, which is dearer than for all the other items.