Customs duty payable

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pixelated

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I haven't bought much stuff online apart from CDWOW but I'm thinking about buying a digital camera from an American website.

This is a big step for me. The camera would be about $800 + any sales tax etc due. I dont want to get a shock when asked for customs duty when it arrives. The duty amount would have to be factored into whether I would go for the camera or not.

How do I go about finding out how much that would be before I place any order? Is there one method of delivery, e.g. US Mail/An Post or DHL etc which would be a smarter, more cost effective carrier?

Any advice at all would be great, and could save my cash and my blushes.
 
I recently bought a watch from Singapore over the 'net (from an ebay seller) and got hit by customs for 21% VAT. The VAT bill didn't arrive until about 4 weeks after I got the watch itself, but it was a bit of a stinger as I thought I'd gotten away with it!

I would imagine that you can expect to pay the 21% VAT and no more. Also you shouldn't be paying any US sales tax at all.

By the way, the VAT is levied on the shipping costs as well as the cost of the product.
 
Customs

Not sure of the price comparisons with what you are looking to buy but you could look at www.pixmania.com as I never paid any customs duty when I bought a camera.
 
customs duty

Some people on this site eat me for giving this tip but here goes - I always ask the Ebay seller to devalue the goods that I am getting. EG if it cost me $40 then I get them to put $20 on the docket. That way I would get taxed 21% on $20 = $4.2 instead of 21% on 40 = $8.4.

The few items I have bought always cost me less than $50 and I have been lucky to avoid paying tax on anything I have received so far.
 
Re: customs duty

Some people on this site eat me for giving this tip but here goes
Click to expand...
Some of those people eat Liam Lawlor & CJH for their tax evasion too - Not much difference (except for scale).
 
customs

Nice one Jister. You would make a good border resident.
 
Re: customs

You would make a good border resident.
Click to expand...
What does this mean, Cu? Are you saying that customs duty evasion in rampant in the border regions?
 
.re: gerry

I had a quick look at pixmania.com but couldn't find the camera I'm looking for listed.

Didn't I read here somewhere that all the manuals which come with cameras from Pixmania are in French?
 
Re: .re: gerry

I just bought an audio prduct from a company in Florida, when UPS delevered it to me I had to pay 96euro charges (78 Vat at 21% and 12 euro "Other Charges"). The product cost 340euro to buy so the total cost of about 440euro was still 110euro cheaper than the cheapest price I could find for it inDublin. So just add on about 21% to your cost before ordering....
 
customs etc

Hi Rainyday: Couldn't resist winding you up.Knew you'd bite, but not as soft as you actually did. Heres a genuine question though and there's an genuine answer too. This is not a trick question. Bearing in mind that the nearest point to sourth Armagh from Dundalk is approx 3 Miles How many people have ever been convicted by jury at Dundalk since 1922 (or from first case taken ) of smuggling goods or products or anything for that matter in from Northern Ireland ? There is an answer and its not a trick.
 
Re: customs etc

At a guess, zero. Tell us more about what really happens up there.
 
Re: customs etc

I noticed on www.strawberrynet.com the other day that we can be liable for duty and that if we have not paid on orders so far strawberrynet.com had paid it as a goodwill gesture.

Has anyone ordered goods and then had to pay the duty from tordering on this website?
 
excise duty

Rainyday, go to the top of the class for the correct answer. Before the EU etc the customs always tried to get cases transferred to Dublin. on the basis they knew it was a waste of time going to a local jury on a smuggling charge. At one stage they even had roadside checks at Slane bridge! Locally it would not be classed as smuggling but in the 70's and 80's when a telly could be up to £200 cheaper in the north then logically it was the place to purchase. You just didnt come home on the road where the customs were. And there was plenty of those. The only time I have ever seen every route covered was during the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001 and even then it wasn't foolproof. There is an article on Newry on another page in this forum and I assume they are comparing prices with Dublin. If Newry were as cheap as some people think , then logicaly Dundalk would have no shops worthwhile, yet there are 3 shopping centres in town with one on the way, an application for a 'designer village' approved by the local authority (but under appeal by a Drogheda businessman to bord planala), and the retail park development on edge of town. How do these survive if Newry is so cheap? Maybe the multiples are cheaper closer to the border than their other stores. I don't know if they are or not but I do know that Sainsburys in Newry is dearer than Sainsburys in Armagh. Is this because they have a hugh Dublin army of shoppers every saturday and don't need to be competitive.? Probably, to quote Carlsberg. Cheers.
ps When I purchase on Ebay I use an accommodation address ( of a work colleague) in Newry as the postage is a lot cheaper. Not smuggling. Just sense.
 
Rainyday

Some of those people eat Liam Lawlor & CJH for their tax evasion too - Not much difference (except for scale).

I think there is somewhat of a difference between what Liam Lawlor and CJH were up to, and the small man who finds a bargain on the internet.

The same small man has been crucified with heavy taxes in this country for decades, while blue shirts existed in elite circles.

It is this same small man, be they those forced to emigrate to find a means, or especially those who had no resources to even emigrate, who some how kept the economy ticking over.

And now he is to be begrudged something because it is not within our totalitarian rules.

This attitude makes me sick. I will always stand for the small man.
 
.

I agree with Dan the Man.

I wonder how many people bleat on about paying correct duties etc, and aren't paying any BIK on their internet & equipment usage (on company machines)?
 
customs

what jister is saying about devaluing the product value...make sense...and to be honest is very common....even if you dont ask the shipper-seller of the goods to do this most of them will do it as a service to you anyway...

i bought a dig camera from ebay from a hong kong seller...he wrote the replacement value of the camera on the customs docket. Therefore i only had to pay vat + a small customs charge of €5 ....still saved a fortune comapred to buying it down town.

the other way of possibly avoiding customs and vat is to get the sender to write that the goods you are receiving is a gift....worked for a friend of mine but maybe customs have copped onto this one by now.
ciao
 
Re: .

catbert,

[broken link removed]

I think youll find that you have a personal allowance below which you are not liable for duty. In the same way I think youll find that at present incidental use of company technology / communications resources (mobile phone, internet, email etc) is not liable for BIK.

everyoneelse,

Did anyone hear the interview on The Last Word by Cat Mooper Tuesday evening. He had a customs official on who was quiet good. He kept coming back to the question of Risk Management. If the risk of allowing shoppers from New York having a serious impact on state revenues then you could expect customes to adopt a tougher stance.

ajapale
 
.

hi ajapale,

I'm not going to hijack this thread, so this is the last I'm going to say on this. Moderating or frequent contribution to bulletin boards can hardly be regarded as 'incidental use of company technology'. Do the maths - some people have accumulated thousands of posts.

If anyone wants to read more look at this thread:


(It was prematurely closed because it obviously must have hit a nerve.)
 
Re: .

Seeing as you seem so obsessed with this catbert, why don't you get in touch with the revenue and see what they have to say about it?
 
customs

On a related issue, did anyone hear that revenue (or customs) guy being interviewed on the Orla Barry show this morning on Newstalk? I only caught the end of it but I gather his point was that customs would be making a special effort in the next few months to catch people who travel to New York for short trips to do their Christmas present shopping. There's a limit on the amount of personal goods you bring in to Ireland, and you would easily exceed it with a bit of Christmas present shopping. I think even one iPod would be due to attract duty!
 
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