how much is the customs charge?

sojc2002

hi
recently i bought a car dvd player from aliexpress. which was shipped through DHL. they charged me 63 euro as import duty & vat. the car dvd cost me only 110 us dollar. is this the correct charge?
to sort it out to whom i have to contact?

Losty Dublin

This should explain how they work out what is owed and why.

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/common/buying_online/buying_goods/within_non_eu_en.htm

I'd suggest you contact DHL as well; they know the in's and out's of duty better even than the Customs men themselves.

Pat Mustard

sojc2002 wrote: »

hi
recently i bought a car dvd player from aliexpress. which was shipped through DHL. they charged me 63 euro as import duty & vat. the car dvd cost me only 110 us dollar. is this the correct charge?
to sort it out to whom i have to contact?

I'll give this a stab, but I'm letting you know at the outset that my knowledge of VAT and Customs duties is pretty limited. I'm not sure of the correct tax and duty rates, so the following calculations are based on assumptions and could be entirely wrong, but may be useful for illustrative purposes.

Look at this from the Revenue website:

C. Consignments of Negligible Value
Consignments not exceeding an intrinsic value of €150 may be imported from outside the EU without payment of Customs Duty. Intrinsic value is the value of the goods alone and does not include insurance and freight). Consignments not exceeding a total customs value of €22 may be imported without payment of VAT. (Customs value is the value of the goods plus insurance and freight (which includes postage costs (CIF value).

According to the exerpt from the Revenue website, there is no Customs Duty on consignments of less than €150.

Let's look at the question of VAT.

The AliExpress website advertises free shipping. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but it seems that the entire consignment (taking account of free shipping) was still $110, which is about €81.71 at the moment. I'm not sure what it would have been when you bought your goods.

I'm not sure of the correct VAT rate, but if we assume that the rate is 23% and if we assume that the Customs Value is €81.71, then .23 x €81.71 = €18.79.

The linked Revenue page mentions that the carrier may impose certain handling fees for dealing with customs duties etc. Still, I would definitely be interested in seeing the calculations that produced the €63.00 figure that was given to you. This isn't legal advice, so you'll have to draw your own conclusions.

You could ring Revenue for another opinion, in case what I have suggested is incorrect. Also, you could consider posting your query in the Taxation forum.

coylemj

Does 'intrinsic value' not mean the estimated retail price of the goods in Ireland? It's interesting that the revenue don't talk about the original 'price' of the goods so I'm guessing they've decide the OP's shipment is worth more than the threshold based on the retail price of a similar item in Ireland.

Like The Mustard above, I'm not claiming to be an expert, just my tuppence worth.

sojc2002

hi
there was a problem with the bill the seller send to me it caused all the problems other wise i could have save at least 30 euros, and also he didnt mention the freight charges
when i contacted customs dept they give me this calculations

ITEM 1: NEAR VIEW CAMERA: VALUE = $110 @ 1.3752 = €72.72 + €45.66 FREIGHT = €118.38(CIF VALUE)

€118.38 @ 14% DUTY = €16.57
€118.38 + €16.57 = €134.95 @ 23% VAT = €31.04
TOTAL = €16.57 + €31.04 = €47.61

ITEM 2: CAR RADIO: VALUE = $10 @ 1.3752 = €7.27 + €45.66 FREIGHT = € 52.93(CIF VALUE)

€52.93 @ 2% DUTY = €1.06
€52.93 + €1.06 = €53.98 @ 23% = €12.42
TOTAL = €1.06 = €12.42 = €13.48

TOTAL PAYMENT ITEM 1&2 = €61.09
& there is a charge for dhl nearly 2 euro for customs clearance

Corkbah

sojc2002 wrote: »

hi
there was a problem with the bill the seller send to me it caused all the problems other wise i could have save at least 30 euros, and also he didnt mention the freight charges
when i contacted customs dept they give me this calculations

ITEM 1: NEAR VIEW CAMERA: VALUE = $110 @ 1.3752 = €72.72 + €45.66 FREIGHT = €118.38(CIF VALUE)

€118.38 @ 14% DUTY = €16.57
€118.38 + €16.57 = €134.95 @ 23% VAT = €31.04
TOTAL = €16.57 + €31.04 = €47.61

ITEM 2: CAR RADIO: VALUE = $10 @ 1.3752 = €7.27 + €45.66 FREIGHT = € 52.93(CIF VALUE)

€52.93 @ 2% DUTY = €1.06
€52.93 + €1.06 = €53.98 @ 23% = €12.42
TOTAL = €1.06 = €12.42 = €13.48

TOTAL PAYMENT ITEM 1&2 = €61.09
& there is a charge for dhl nearly 2 euro for customs clearance

were they both in the same package ? if so … why was freight charged twice !!!

hearny

Why did they take the freight charge into account twice.

Losty Dublin

There are different duty rates for different products. Customs staff classify the item, add on the carriage rate and from there they work out the duty due. As there is only the one carriage rate on the whole parcel, instead of sitting down and dividing pro rata they simply charge the full amount and that's what they work on. You could appeal this to Revenue but as DHL would have declared and settled this upon arrival you will probably find out that it is a correct figure and procedure.

As an aside, if you order from an non EU based site then you will almost always be liable for Custom's Duty. It's also rather unlikely that you would benefit from free delivery policy from a non EU site; maybe get onto Aliexpress about this if you feel wronged.

sojc2002

yes
there was only one package