What's your country import limit to not get charged with extras? (customs and taxes)

Off-topic Chatter
1

Im interested how different these are worldwide:

Slovenia:

Up to 22€ free

22-150€ tax only (althrough they sweeten it by adding 4,25€ postal expenses, and another 1,25€ of a notify letter. Tax is charged on top of all expenses, they usually add up another 1-2€ of which no1 can explain why...)

150€+ Tax and import duties. + same as above. Import duties varies for electronics and clothes and other merchandise.

2

ALL European Union

Limit 22 euro.

Less than 22€ = no pay tax, no pay "import duties"

More than 22€ but less than 150€ = pay ONLY tax, no import duties

More than 150€ = pay tax and ALSO import duties

(Import duties = depend of value of the items and the category they are)


Aaaand depending on the country, can add some euros for the "management" (spain=17€ + "storage costs")

3

"can add some euros for the "management" (spain=17€ + "keeping costs"

That also qualifies under daylight robbery.

4

ahahah The WORST thing here in spain is that EVEN if the product cost less than 22 euros, of course, you have not to pay tax and not to pay import duties. BUT you HAVE TO pay those 17€ + storage costs anyway.... Only for the "management" customs did

Total robbery!

EDIT: Aclaration. Pay those 17 euros + more ONLY if the package is HELD by customs........

5

If Customs here get interested, the PO charges you £8 "handling fee" or £13 if it ends up in the hands of the parcels division. I have no idea how they decide which one takes the package.

6

I wish you were right, but unfortunately you are not. In this country (also EU) you have

to pay 25% wat if the value are more than around 10 €. This amont includes the

postage!! You also have to pay importduties if the value is higher than a certain

amount which I cant remember.

To this comes you have to pay the postalservice for collecting this amount for the State.

This is "only" 22€.

The good thing is that the control often seems rather lax. I use to keep my purchases

under 20$ and so far so good! Sometimes I can see that the package have been opened

for inspection.

7

I have to agree with Nautic. Unfortunately you're wrong fran82. I already wrote the following in another thread, but it surely belongs to this thread.

The limit where you have to pay 25% VAT in Denmark is 80 Danish Crowns and has NOT been changed in 15 years! (this is without postage, but you must pay 25% VAT of the postage also if you break the limit). That limit is equal to about $13.80 but the PO add another $28 fee to do you the favour. That way an order of $14 becomes $45. Denmark is famous for having the highest taxes and prices.

But we only have to pay toll (customs duties) on orders bigger than about $198 and normally this is only 6%.

8

OK

This will help us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customs#European_Union

9

I live in Belgium ans the system here changed

first it depends on if the customs find your package.

If they do, you have to pay, but it is a fixed amount.

10 euro's no matter for how much you ordered.

Seems like the system here is better than with you guys :d

10

LOL! EU should have about the same practices but as we found it is a mess. After hearing all this my customs arent THAT bad afterall...

11

My all packages passed without any custom fees. And that is a lot of them.

I hope we will never join the EU :)

12

$40 CDN, at which point an extra 12-15%

13

I'm sure I read earlier that there was a limit of 170 SEK (~18,90 EUR) before you had to pay customs or VAT but checking the official swedish customs homepage today it seems to be gone. This means you have to pay 25% VAT plus a handling fee of 100 SEK for any item from outside the EU (e.g. that would be 11,97 EUR for one DX pig light!!!). If your order is more than 1600 SEK up to 20% customs will be added.

I think robbery is too nice a word! |(

Luckily it seems that customs is not very often interested in these yellow padded envelopes from the far east. From my about 15 orders from HK/CN last year only one was caught. :p

14

I have read on a Swedish site that duties less than 100SEK will not be collected but if that is including the fee it is surely a silly rule.

15

I checked what HMRC (Our Customs) say.

From

http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageTravel_ShowContent&id=HMCE_CL_000014&propertyType=document

2.3 What are the limits for customs duty and import VAT?

  • Commercial consignments of £18 or less are free from customs duty and import VAT. For example, goods purchased over the internet with an intrinsic value not exceeding £18, will not be charged any duty or VAT but this does not include alcohol, tobacco products, perfume or toilet waters. See paragraph 2.5, 2.6 and section 3.
  • If you are sent a gift with a value of £40 or less, and which complies with the rules shown in paragraph 2.4, it will be free from customs duty and import VAT, but this does not include alcohol, tobacco, perfumes and toilet waters.
  • Customs duty becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135 but duty is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £9.

There are a number of other circumstances where relief from some or all customs charges may be available. If you think your goods may be eligible for a relief you should contact the Customs Helpline for further information.

top ^

2.4 Gifts

Goods sent as a gift that are over £40 in value are liable to import VAT. Customs duty also becomes payable if the value of the goods is over £135 but is waived if the amount of duty calculated is less than £9.

To qualify as a gift:

  • the customs declaration must be completed correctly
  • the gift must be sent from a private person outside the EU to a private person(s) in this country
  • there is no commercial or trade element and the gift has not been paid for either directly or indirectly
  • the gift is of an occasional nature only, for example, for a birthday or anniversary.

Note: if you purchase goods from outside the EU to give as a gift to a relative or friend, whether or not addressed to that person, is treated as a ‘commercial consignment’ for which the import VAT relief threshold is £18 (paragraph 2.3 refers).

16

Argentina:

I theory there are taxes of 50% of the value of the object you receive, and you have a "free tax ticket" of 25usd per year per person. So, if you receive something wich costs 30usd, you will have to pay the 50% of the difference, that is (30-25)/2 = 2,5usd.

In real life, if packages are not too big, customs don't check it and you receive them at home. So I buy multiple small packages.

17

Not sure about that. The particular order of mine that got caught was for 352 SEK. I had to pay 88 SEK (25% moms) plus 100 SEK for handling a procedure I did not want to have in the first place.

18

Germany:

officially 22 € but customs officers don't start collecting under 26,30€ (equal to 5€ tax)

26,30-150€ taxes of 19%

150-30000000000000 € taxes of 19% plus import duties (which vary widely on which product you are importing)

So essentially I try to stay under 26,30 € which equals to 33,92 $ atm (depending on the actual PP exchange rate)

19

I envy You.

20

And the beers are cheaper in Germany also.