Items over €175, coming back from NY - penalty?

B

Bluebean

Registered User
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hi everyone,

I'm in New York, and am very pleased with the value of clothes, shoes, jewelry etc. over here.

Just wanted to know what are the rules around bringing items back to Ireland through Dublin airport?

I know there is a limit of something like 175 euro, and that I should take tags off everything I buy etc.
But what actually happens if they say I've bought x00 amount of items? Do I just pay tax on the items, or what?

thanks in advance
 
Re: Items over 175euro, coming back from NY - penalty?

Lets just say that despite rumours of a crack down, thousands of people go through the green channel in your situation without any problems.

You should of course declare any items above the limit and pay any relevant VAT and duty.
 
Re: Items over 175euro, coming back from NY - penalty?

ang1170

Can you declare an item after you have passed through the green channel?
 
Re: Items over 175euro, coming back from NY - penalty?

Take off all price tags, packaging, shopping bags etc. Wear the shoes a couple of times now, put the jewellery on you. Wear the new fur coat when arriving from NY and cut off the label. I've never done this but I guess it would work.
 
Re: Items over 175euro, coming back from NY - penalty?

If you think about it, there are four or five flights a day from the US with some 300 people on each flight. You probably have about a one in a thousand chance of getting stopped by Customs. As long as you don't look like a pack mule for Macy's you should be OK...
 
Re: Items over 175euro, coming back from NY - penalty?

tallpaul said:
If you think about it, there are four or five flights a day from the US with some 300 people on each flight. You probably have about a one in a thousand chance of getting stopped by Customs.
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I would disagree with this based on recent experience. When I was coming through Dublin airport from NY last week there were c. 10 customs officers in the green channel (until some moved to the blue re-directing those passengers from the same flight that did not like the look of the green and then opening their bags). Given there was only 1 flight arriving from the US at that time, a large proportion of Irish passengers at least had a short chat with customs/ their bag put through the x-ray machine.

Passing through Dublin airport this week, at a time when no flights were arriving from the US, I could see only one customs official in evidence. They really do seem to be targeting US shopping trips and people that have passed through Shannon recently say it is similar there.

I am not sure to what extent they go through luggage or what action they can/ do take, but I have it in the back of my mind somewhere that they can confiscate anything that is taxable and has not been declared. Perhaps this is more likely on a high value item that has obviously been bought on the trip rather than items of clothing that have tags removed etc.
 
All relevant taxes and duties should be paid.I have heard that they are requesting weights for luggage going out and comparing them to weights coming back. The thing to do therefore is clear out your wardrobe before you go and bring the stuff you are binning. Give it to charity in the US and fill your suitcases with the new stuff. Remove all tags and throw away all recipts. Wear any jewellery, use any phones/IPods.And if stopped remember there is no proof, just deny everything, say it's all your own. They'll try and trick you into admitting you've done something wrong. Just grin and bare it.I must re-emphasise all duties and taxes should be paid and that this site does not condone tax evasion of any kind.
 
John Rambo said:
.I have heard that they are requesting weights for luggage going out and comparing them to weights coming back.
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I can confirm with absolute certainty that whatever else customs officials may be doing they are not doing this....absolutely not !!
 
thanks for all the replies everyone. To be honest, its not like I'm planning on bringing back a huge amount of shopping, I'm not shopping like its an olympic sport or anything!
I'm going to leave the tags on any gifts, as something like children's clothes, well its fairly obvious that I didn't bring that with me (not travelling with any children).

VAT is 21%, but how much is duty or does it depend on the item?

I'm just going to hope for the best I think, fingers crossed!

thanks again.
 
Bluebean said:
VAT is 21%, but how much is duty or does it depend on the item?
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Duty does depend on the item. For example, clothes from outside the EU have a duty rate of 12% plus there's an extra duty of 15% if the clothes are coming from the US - so 27% in total. The VAT and duty are applied multiplicatively so the total add-on ends up being just under 54%.
 
Re: Items over €175, coming back from NY - penalty?

is the 175 limit is per person ,can a family of six could bring in 1,050.00 duty free?
 
chum said:
is the 175 limit is per person ,can a family of six could bring in 1,050.00 duty free?
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It's per person aged 15 and over - the limit is 90 for someone under 15. The amounts can't be pooled - so two people would not be allowed to bring back a single item worth 350 but could bring back 350 between them if the items can be split into bits that add up to 175 each.
 
I just came back from NY today.I would think in excess of 90% of the passengers on the flight had been on shopping trips with most with the red heavy tags on their bags.We had two bags which were 31 kgs each along with two smaller bags. There were only two customs officers visible to me (5.30 this morn) both in the green channel and didnt pull anyone over that I saw.
 

I'm not sure that it is all that smart to take advise which seems to be based on the assumption that Customs Officers are plain thick and have never considered the possibility that travellers will try to evade tax.

It reminds of those TV licence ads which just might make people realise that childish excuses don't work.
 

That's pretty much my experience as well.

It's a fairly safe assumption that customs are not so dim as to realise what people are doing.

I guess you can draw your own conclusions.
 
I heard someone in work talking about this. She was talking about someone who was stopped by customs and they were going through the stuff she bought. They could tell the shoes were new as they hadn't been worn (so wear them a bit over there) and they were going through clothes she had to see what if any duty/tax she had to pay. One of the points she made was that there is no vat on childrens clothes so they shouldn't count. Sounds logical. I didn't hear the rest of the conversation so I don't know if it worked but its worth a try if you get stopped.
 
Wow, what an interesting post. Public tips on how best commit an criminal offence: SMUGGLING

When I came home last week from JFK-LHR-DUB I passed through the green channel, got asked by a customs offical (there were at least 12 on duty) why I did not use the blue channel (coming from the UK). I told him I started in JFK and hence must use the green channel. He was surprised about my honesty and because I was under the value needing declartion I went off.

Other people behind and in front of me were not so lucky. People were trying to go through the blue channel but the bag tag clearly showed they started in the US so they had the pleasure to get their bags controlled and some of them had long chats with customs.

I suggest you read this: [broken link removed] It gives you all the info about allowance and what to do.
 
thanks for all replies everyone. Taking in to account that children's clothes will not be charged duty, it turns out that I will not have more than 175 euro worth of items bought after all, so I will not be smuggling or trying to evade tax.
Phew!
 
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