Thomas
Your points:
Authoritative answers? How kind! ... How credulous!! ;->
Which shipper? UK Royal Mail at this end, fed into by normal postal service
at the other end is cheapest - GBP13. But it's the shipper who decides - I
ask US sellers to use plain USPS, not the USPS GEMS which is express, and
costs 2x clearance fee (for priority service). !00 Euro sounds punitive -
but then you are not French, hein?
John H to blame? No, absolutely not - the Royal Mail clearance agent made
the mistake (but I got a refund!).
Yes, that is correct, gifts only have to meet the value criterion, S&H is
ignored (read the criteria carefully, and literally, as I didn't when I
wrote that).
Piers
PS Re the duty rates, also remember that the rates in the harmonised
tariff can reduced if the exporter is in a "Most Favoured Nation" for
example. So it is slightly less bad than it looks. VAT is the killer.
Maybe we can find an OM-er in Channel Islands for re-shipment (outside EU,
so no VAT, but within EU for customs purposes). Now that would be against
the rules!
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Thomas Heide Clausen
Sent: 13 May 2003 13:26
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [OM] Duties to Belgium
On Tue, 13 May 2003 11:45:17 +0100
"Piers Hemy" <piers@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> European Union rules only allow relief from charges on imported goods
> which meet either of these criteria:
> * have an intrinsic value (actual value of the goods excluding
> S&H) of Euro22 (=USD25) or less;
> * are correctly declared gifts whose value must not exceed
> Euro45(=USD52).
>
--snip
>
> Customs clearance fee can be USD20
> and upwards, depending on the shipper. Cheapest is usually the postal
> service, so long as you don't use their express service - but it's up
> to the Belgian end to determine the charge.
Ahh, authoritative answers. Good :)
LaPoste in France kindly asked a 100 Eur processing fee for their assistance
2 weeks ago when I received something from outside EU. Which shipment
company do you use?
>
--snip
> Not knowing the rules cost me a _lot_ on USD60 of parts from John H.
Same here. However John is not to blame - he sends insured (as he
should) and declares the value (as he should) such that insurance and
customs match. Further, he is a company, so he is legally bound to declare
as such.
I've used John and, despite all the customs problems for which he is not to
blame, he is a good person to deal with who can get many odd things and
plays "by the rules". All else equal,
> Knowing the rules got me an OM4T for not much more than those parts.
>
> As a seller, aside from observing the "opportunities" alluded to
> above, the best you can do is make sure not to include the shipping
> cost in the value you declare - the customes authorities at the other
> end will add the shiping cost on anyway - as I discovered :-(
>
Yup, that is true. Well, except I have discovered that when receiving
something of a value under the "45 Eur gift limit", the shipping is not
added (which would bring the total over 45 Eur). If this is the rule or is
just luck, I dunno.
--thomas
--snip
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