Import Tax Help

Gary4279

Hi,
I recently ordered 8 External Hard drives for 350 Euro from China.

They arrived at my door today but I couldn't accept them as the tax was €165.22. I though this was way too much an was told I could collect them on Monday I was prepared to pay.

Does this seem like too much tax for the amount I paid for them?
This has knocked my profit margins down by around 15% as a result.

Any help would be appreciated.

RUDOLF289

Hello Gary 4279,

Please note the following ;

1) There is no import duty payable on hard drives
2) VAT is charged at 23% over the cost of the product plus freight cost (if not included on the invoice)

23% over € 350.00 = € 80.50

I suspect that the balance is made up of charges for customs clearance and handling.

How did the goods arrive (I reckon it would be by air) ? Who made the transport arrangements ? Your supplier ?

Suggest you get a copy of the customs entry and a breakdown of the charges and perhaps post again with further details.

Cheers,
Rusdolf289

mari2222

if you google for " taric" you can find an eu website that tells the import duty on everything brought into the eu from anywhere

omelette

I've just been to that "taric" site and can't make head nor tails of it! I even downloaded a mammoth 14meg pdf listing all the taric-codes (8500... for electrical stuff it would appear) but you still get no indication of what import-charges they'll hit you for!

btw, the 165 euro seems pretty steep. Or maybe not - almost a year ago I ordered something fro China costing $168 (dollars, not euros) and was horrified to have to pay 58 euro import-charges! I ended up with something of inferior quality than I could have bought from Amazon.UK, but for about the same money! At least with Amazon, the warranty actually counts for something and they are great when something isn't right with the order - when something I ordered turned out to be faulty after just a few weeks they sent me another 40euro item free of charge, telling me to donate the old one to charity or something!

But there are some great bargains (on paper anyway!) to be had from China, especially electrical items - which is why I'm researching this now...

RUDOLF289

omelette wrote: »

I've just been to that "taric" site and can't make head nor tails of it! I even downloaded a mammoth 14meg pdf listing all the taric-codes (8500... for electrical stuff it would appear) but you still get no indication of what import-charges they'll hit you for!

btw, the 165 euro seems pretty steep. Or maybe not - almost a year ago I ordered something fro China costing $168 (dollars, not euros) and was horrified to have to pay 58 euro import-charges! I ended up with something of inferior quality than I could have bought from Amazon.UK, but for about the same money! At least with Amazon, the warranty actually counts for something and they are great when something isn't right with the order - when something I ordered turned out to be faulty after just a few weeks they sent me another 40euro item free of charge, telling me to donate the old one to charity or something!

But there are some great bargains (on paper anyway!) to be had from China, especially electrical items - which is why I'm researching this now...

Hi Omelette,

the best people to give you an opinion (and that is all it will be, an opinion) is to contact the customs tariff classification unit in Nenagh. Have a look at page 7 of the attached document ; LOGISTICS SHIPPING CUSTOMS BOARDS REV01.

Also attached see a spreadsheet DUTY AND VAT CALCULATION. The Customs rate of exchange for February is 1.2831 (as shown in the attached spreadsheet).

Once you have the values and the duty rate, populate the spreadsheet and you should get an idea of what the duty and VAT outlay will be.

Just be ware of fake and sub standard products. If you are looking to buy in quantity, I would recommend to go through (Irish) sourcing agents to help you. You are likely to avoid a lot of pitfalls that way. Let me know if you need further info on same

Best of luck

Cheers,
Rudolf289

omelette

RUDOLF289 wrote: »

Hi Omelette,

the best people to give you an opinion (and that is all it will be, an opinion) is to contact the customs tariff classification unit in Nenagh. Have a look at page 7 of the attached document ; LOGISTICS SHIPPING CUSTOMS BOARDS REV01.

Also attached see a spreadsheet DUTY AND VAT CALCULATION. The Customs rate of exchange for February is 1.2831 (as shown in the attached spreadsheet).

Once you have the values and the duty rate, populate the spreadsheet and you should get an idea of what the duty and VAT outlay will be.

Just be ware of fake and sub standard products. If you are looking to buy in quantity, I would recommend to go through (Irish) sourcing agents to help you. You are likely to avoid a lot of pitfalls that way. Let me know if you need further info on same

Best of luck

Cheers,
Rudolf289

Hi Rudolf289. Wow, thanks for the spreadsheet thingy! However it doesn't seem to be very realistic - either that or Customs charges what they like! For instance, the product I got a year ago cost $97.99 with shipping costs of $70.76 (high shipping is the sellers way of having the product seem cheaper so it's listed before the competition!) Entering this into the spreadsheet gives €32.32 as the 'Total Payable To Customs' - WAY below what I actually payed, €58.92 (Duty=13.80, VAT=39.12 and the rest an administration-charge). And this was after I got an email from Customs telling me they required proof of exactly what I payed - the idiot of a seller although charging me in US dollars, invoiced me in Chinese yuan! I sent them screen-grabs of my Aliexpress account, so they had no room for errors!

The only field I didn't fill in in the spreadsheet was the "Freight Insurance to you", which the accompanying text states must be filled in with a "nominal" value, regardless of whether or not you had the package insured (I hadn't). But even setting this to a ludicrous €100 results in a Customs-charge of €56 - less than I payed! - so something is definitely not right here!

Hell, I'd be quite happy paying the figures that the spreadsheet produces, but the almost twice that I was actually charged - no way!

Would you know if there is a way of claiming back VAT if there was an error made?

PS - Entering gary4279's €350 (350 * 1.28) into the spreadsheet (without shipping & Freight Insurance fields) gives a result of €86.20 - almost half of what he was actually being charged! Which ominously was the same math my total was subjected to - about double! Any chance there's some clown doubling-up the actual charges and pocketing half?!?!?

omelette

Customs Duty is chargeable on the Customs Value of the goods, this is usually the Cost plus Insurance plus Freight (CIF) cost of your goods.

VAT is chargeable on the CIF value, increased by the import duty at the appropriate rate. The standard rate of VAT is 23%.

Any item with a Customs Value of less than €22 is not liable for Customs Duty or VAT.
Any item with a Customs Value of €22 or more is liable for VAT
Any item with a Cost price of €150 or more is liable for Customs Duty and VAT.

Before a duty rate can be ascertained you need to have your goods classified. You can contact our Tariff Classification Unit mailto:tarclass@revenue.ie or by telephone 003536763400, with a full specification of the goods and a contact telephone number and they will reply with the relevant codes.

Please see below example to assist you in calculating your Duty & VAT.

Example:
If the Customs Duty on your goods was for example 5% this would be calculated as follows:
Goods cost €500
Insurance €50
Freight €50
C.I.F. value = €600
Customs Duty 5%= €30
VAT @ 23% is calculated on €630= €144.90
The total amount of import duties you would pay is €174.90

The "Customs Administration Charge" you refer to below is a charge set by the carrier of the goods i.e. An Post, FedEx, UPS etc Any queries regarding this should be directed to the carrier.

With regard the calculations you provided below I will need to check with the relevant Postal Mail Centre the charges were placed. Would you have details of which Mail Centre your item came into. This would be the area where you sent the proof of purchase receipt. Once I have that information I will contact them and revert back to you.

Please find below links to Information Notices available on our website which you may find useful.

A Guide to Customs Import Procedures ( http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/import-procedures-guide.pdf)

PN 1882 Ordering Goods over the Internet or from Mail Order Catalogues from a country outside the European Community (EC) ( http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/pn1882.html)

A Revenue Guide to Importing Goods through the Post ( http://www.revenue.ie/en/customs/leaflets/postal-guide.pdf)

If you require further assistance please do not hesitate to contact this unit.

Regards,


Deirdre Quinlan,
Office of the Revenue Commissioners,
Customs Division,
Customs Procedures Branch,
Import and Export Policy Unit,
Government Offices,
St. Conlon's Road,
Nenagh,
Co. Tipperary.
<< mailto:importpolicy@revenue.ie>>

Above is a response I got from the Customs Procedures Branch in response to a query - straight from the horses mouth, so to speak! Intriguingly, this information fully agrees with the output from the spreadsheet that Rudolf289 provided. In fact the only 'complication' involves the Customs Duty - the %-rate used in this calculation depends the item-type being imported, but can be got by contacting the above department. And very important, no Customs Duty is applicable if the item-cost (excluding shipping) is below €150. Other than that, it's just 23% VAT plus the carrier-charge (An Post seems to limit this to a flat €5, couriers can be much more expensive - up to €25) No matter how I look at it, what I was charged was far too much. I sent the above department a scan of the Customs documentation on the package in a probably futile hope of getting a refund of some kind. No matter, forewarned is forearmed for any future imports.

RUDOLF289

Hello Omelette,

you can be assured that if it turns out that an incorrect calculation was made you will be given a refund. All customs is interested in is applying the regulations correctly and evenly.

Hope you'll see the refund soon

Cheers,
Rudolf289