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Avoiding Customs Charges (vat Etc)


The Duck

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I've had a package from New Zealand sent over, and I looked at its 'status' and it said ...stoped at customs... customs charges added....

The box that says its a gift is ticked. I didn't realize that you could still be charged customs charges (i.e. VAT...) on a gift!! Its going to be about £250 and i haven't got £250!!

What is the best argument i can come up with?

Please help.

Max

Edited by Quackers
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The gift marking doesn't help if the declared value is too high.

Is the package from a shop?

Is the item in its original box?

Does the parcel contain any reciept or anything that states the value of the item?

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The gift marking doesn't help if the declared value is too high.

Is the package from a shop?

Is the item in its original box?

Does the parcel contain any reciept or anything that states the value of the item?

The package is from a shop, but it is not marked as such. The item is not in its original box, and it doesn't contain a receipt.

This is exactly what the tracking crap says:

Date Time Location Tracking Event

06-08-2007 14:40 International Hub En route to delivery depot

06-08-2007 05:18 International Hub RELEASED WITH CHARGES

02-08-2007 21:17 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGING

02-08-2007 21:17 International Hub AWAITING CUSTOMS CHARGES

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hmm.. the shop may have written the value correctly on the customs sticker you have to put on the box. if that's the case, you can't do anything but to pay up, which sucks.

the way i learnt you have to do is to mark the parcel as a gift or commercial sample, and declare a REALLY low value. Anything under a tenner is safe. This means the insurance only covers that value though, so if the parcel is lost you lose out on a lot of money if it's something expensive.

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hmm.. the shop may have written the value correctly on the customs sticker you have to put on the box. if that's the case, you can't do anything but to pay up, which sucks.

the way i learnt you have to do is to mark the parcel as a gift or commercial sample, and declare a REALLY low value. Anything under a tenner is safe. This means the insurance only covers that value though, so if the parcel is lost you lose out on a lot of money if it's something expensive.

Ok, thanks very much for the help.

Does anyone know how much (%) it'll cost me? roughly?

And is there any way i can say 'No, I don't want it, please return to sender' ??

Thanks very very much.

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Does anyone know how much (%) it'll cost me? roughly?

It's about 31% in Poland (22% VAT and 9% duty).

That's roughly what you should expect, maybe a bit less, it seems the UK is more liberal in terms of taxes than Poland...

What the shop you bought the parts from should have done, is to deduct VAT. Otherwise, you just pay double. I was in the lucky situation a year or two ago, when Tarty sent me some parts, deducted VAT but forgot Poland was in the EU. So i got my parts for 60 pounds less because they didn't charge me anything on the border :P

edit: remember that you pay tax from the value of the parcel + the shipping costs.

Edited by Inur
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i believe the shipping is a different tax. my mate ordered some guitar parts from the US where they did not specify the shipping properly, so he had to pay a standardised amount which was something silly like 20 quid in tax for the shipping alone. silly yanks...

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