New flashlight eshop and the future of China business

i was reading in finland they will introduce some post tax, because the post service here is getting busy with all the parcels coming from china (to me manly)

they was supposed to introduce it allready this year, but ive not recieved any bill for tax or post . ok ive only ordered bits and pieces from BG under 20 euro each time

but does it really effect us if we are spending less then 50euro per parcel

saying that my friend at work ordered a few phones from china. 48 euro one phone and about 100 euro for another phone and get taxed (import duty) on both phones i think the 100 euro phone was about 18euro to pay tax

so i dont really know what they charge and what on

i think phones and electronics are taxed and electronic parts come under a different section of tax

Hi, vresto. I have cousins in Zborov. And more cousins who have moved west to Prague. It’s a small world.

As things stand in the USA at the moment, I don’t believe that a small sales tax across the board would reduce US residents’ internet purchases from China more than perhaps 5–10. It would take a larger tax than that to bring total price up to the level of the big US e-tailers. That’s my gut feeling… no hard data or research.

Personally, I already avoid purchases with China shipping as much as possible, be they on ebay, Amazon, or a China-based web store. I just don’t like the relative uncertainty and long wait times involved with the long-distance shipping, and I also don’t get a warm feeling about their customer service ethic if I have a problem with the product or with shipping, so overall I’m willing to pay a bit more for most stuff if I can get it from a US e-tailer or at least a US-based warehouse.

Zborov? Really? Far from me, but the world is really small sometimes. We wanted open something western menthality eshop.i understand what you mean… This was the reason why.cust.service silence, unreasonable waiting times… Yes… Exactly.

https://www.idnes.cz/ekonomika/domaci/evropska-unie-cla-dph-zbozi-zasilka-e-shop-cina-gerlach-celni-sluzby-euro.A200213_130744_ekonomika_maz

its in my language,but sadly the message is-you will pay VAT tax and borderd tax for all chinese orders….since 2021…which will change the good old shoppings in chinese estores into much more expensive…and loooong waiting in the delivery proccess…so the chinese answer will be- moving their warehouses into Europe….now its official…at least here.

The answer might not fit the question but: import duties in EU are low on most goods.
BUT you have to pay 21% VAT on the total (assurance or estimated) value plus shipping cost.
Customs “services” are not free. They outsource these activities. The fee cost you €13+ a pop.
So the new regime won’t be “every single small parcel lands for free at my doorstep”.
The new regime might be: add your orders in order to mitigate shipping and handling cost.

Or stop buying these things outside EU.

In the USA, it has been the case that when a Chinese company ships something to the US, the US postal service (the US taxpayer) picks up the cost so that Chinese companies get free freight on light packages. That explains why Chinese company’s don’t care if they ship 3 of those $1 widgets to the US in 3 separate air fare boxes a week apart instead of waiting and shipping it complete in a single package.

The reverse is not true and things shipping from the US to China are paid by the US shipper. That craziness was outed not long ago and apparently the Trump administration has been working to achieve equality. Not sure when it will change, but you can bet money it won’t continue. Those $10 flashlights coming out of China into the US won’t be getting the postal costs picked up by US taxpayers in the future at some point. The free ride for the Chinese will be ending, possibly July 2020 -so stock up now on cheap Chinese goods if you live in the US.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/11/05/how-the-usps-epacket-gives-postal-subsidies-to-chinese-e-commerce-merchants-to-ship-to-the-usa-cheap/#5df10c1c40ca

this thread was posted by me before the Corona pandemic…So,what do you all think now about the future of chinese stores and this e business?
It will be the same…?

Here was the rule that they add VAT if the total value of the product +shipping is over 15EUR, and this is going on for several years, but as far as I have learned actually here the customs decide which packages to sent at the customs office and which directly to the buyer based on monthly quotas. There have been various releases on this matter.
So because of this some people have to go to the customs, some not. Once you are there at that office they either add VAT or don’t based on quotas also, so basically most gets non-VAT.

As far as I see 3 or more years ago people were not buying like there is no tomorrow products from China online. Recently even the authorities make comments about the aliexpress influx of packages blocking the customs due to huge amount of packages.
I really think so far packages from China were ignored as being some cheap stuff, so who cares, but as the quality in China grew a lot and you can get now, serious smartphones, serious tables, serious laptops, serious flashlights, etc. everybody knows that not all coming from China is low quality these days, so it means there is some serious value to it that has to be taken into account.

And none the less the regulations will be stricter and stricter year by year, it is obvious that the governmental control is higher and higher year by year in all matters of society, why should buying stuff from China be a wild uncontrolled thing.

I think that there will be more reciprocity. The rest of the world will likely stop subsidizing shipping costs from China and start charging taxes, just like the CCP has always done to the rest of the world.

btw…is the free shipping from China to the rest of the world option only for eshops or for everyone?? private sending….
i read today,from july 2021 they will charge our orders…

I hope you understand there is no free shipping…

you mean i pay for it…but i dont know it….:slight_smile:

Yeah, it is included in the final price of a product. Yet the sellers pay low prices to the shipping companies due to being subsidized by the government.

Now the western postal companies are also subsidized, when you have a national post owned company that is losing millions of euros per year and that company does not go bankrupt and it is not being closed after so many years, means the government is supporting that business.

It’s supposed to be changing for the US next month, due to the the renegotiation of the decades old fee structure of the Universal Postal Union. When the last agreement was put in place, China was still just a budding economy, so they have enjoyed low shipping rates for a long time. Trump knew this, and threatened to pull out of the Postal Union, if the now vastly lopsided agreement wasn’t renegotiated to meet modern postal rates for large volume, small pkg (2kg) e-commerce importers.

China is supposed to pay up to 70% of what the post office charges for domestic mail under the new plan - still a subsidy for China.

Can’t speak for the rest of the world but the United States pulled the plug on free shipping from China for >2kg packages. “Option V”, back in September 2019. This agreement allows the U.S. to set its own postal rates for imported parcels weighing fewer than 4.4 pounds. The deal also allows nations importing more than 75,000 metric tons of parcels to adjust their rates beginning in July 2020, with a second set of countries self-declaring new rates in January 2021. These reforms will lead to significant price increases for shipments from China to the U.S. starting to phase in July 2020. According to the Chinese Post Office, fees paid by China to the U.S. and other countries to deliver packages will nearly triple through 2025 as rates get phased in.

The reality is that most shipping from China is via Ocean bulk tonnage and not subsidized, so your cheap Walmart goods will still be cheap Walmart goods and despite the hit to the flashlight community it’s not a huge hit on China’s ability to export. Chinese mfg are savvy hard working folks who will generally work around these new issues such as bulk shipping to Amazon and setting up US stores, etc etc.

But is the free shipping for everyone or just for eshops etc… People who make business? I heard not everyone for example on ebay has real seller license… And 5hey have also free shipping…

what i have seen with cheap stuff - aliexpress etc, is that there are no more 21 cent deals for anything

everythign starts now at about 89 cents.

So there is the shipping subsidy removal.

the cheap stuff before was usually things that could be sent in small thin envelopes

if it was heavy or big, like a bicycle or a welder, you could usually get it cheaper at walmart or amazon

It was never “free”. For the United States, our “free” shipping was paid by all of the Americans who ultimately subsidized this “free” shipping.

As much as I’ve benefited from the old system when buying things from China, I also agree that it’s unfair and I should be paying for what it costs to ship items to me.

its in my language…but-its here.from 2021 all gadgets should be not cheap anymore-cos vat tax on border and other taxes….and we will have to wati much longer to the delivery….will the eshops move their warehouses to Europe etc?