My fellow Europeans, what has your experience been shopping directly from Wurkkos and Sofirn sites as opposed to ali etc.? Are they a part of the IOSS scheme or does one have to jump through the import hoops?
Last time I asked :
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Packages from Sofirn and Wurkkos simply arrive at your doorstep, no need to jump through import hoops.
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Never had to pay any custom fees after placing order and receiving the parcel. But Sofirn website has some strange tax to be paid when placing order - no such thing when ordering from Wurkkos website… 
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W were ordering only from Wurkkos website and AliExpress (Sofirn). And in both cases there were no additional fees.
Also, now due to EU law the tax is added and paid on product site. On AliExpress it is clearly visible.
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That’s the reason I’m asking actually, the light I’m getting for my mum is 10USD more on aliexpress but that’s nothing compared to all the fees that get tacked onto non IOSS shipments by the post here.
Thanks a bunch y’all!
no taxes or whatever they call them
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Same thing for me. Never paid an additionnal import tax when ordering from the sofirn website. i do live in France.
Regards.
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I shopped on the official website of Sofirn in China. Delivery to the Czech Republic. The price I paid at the time of purchase was final. I didn’t pay any other taxes. The delivery took place directly without customs procedures. The value of the package was not higher than EUR 150.
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Hey, vítej and thanks a lot! I’m also happy to report the same is the case with Fireflies’ store. Here’s hoping Hank looks into this as well.
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Absolutely right. Parcels over 150 € are taxed and you will pay this tax when you receive the goods. Anything below 150 €, the price of the goods already includes the tax.
It’s very easy to check. Put in AliExpress cart goods for more than 150 €. And you will find that the tax will be - minus. This is where the message will be that you will pay the tax yourself.
Any scheme to reduce or eliminate tax may harm the seller of the goods.
Therefore, when you ask the seller to reduce the estimated value of the goods, carefully and accurately choose your words so that the seller does not have problems because of you.
My opinion, if you want to try to avoid taxes. Order goods more than 150 €. Practice shows that sometimes the buyer does not pay the tax on the spot when receiving the goods. As luck .
Be careful to depend too much on the word “sometimes” in the previous post.
This is not the case in NL. Every item I followed with T&T is checked by customs.
There is a VAT surcharge on every purchase abroad. This is (almost) always collected by the seller.
The seller hands the VAT over to customs, or our Ministry of Finance.
When the item costs more than €150 you’ll have to pay customs +VAT.
When the custom department gets actively involved there is also a handling fee to be payed.
This depends on which company does the actual clearing (red tape), but will cost you from €8 to €12.
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