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When do you pay for your "import duties"?


Johnny Bravo

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I've just went onto the barnes and nobles website to get the book Hitler, Germans and the Jewish Question by Sarah Ann Gordon for $5.00 and the estimated shipping delivery cost is $19.99 which is the delivery charge but does this include import duties? 

 

The website information says:

 

"On International orders, customs and import duties are applied once the shipment reaches its destination. These charges are the responsibility of the recipient of your order and will vary from country to country. Contact your local customs office for details."

 

"*** International Customs/Import Duties and Local Delivery - On International orders, customs and import duties are applied once the shipment reaches its destination. These charges are the responsibility of the recipient of your order and will vary from country to country. Contact your local customs office for details."

 

So is the charges you pay just what is at the checkout and that is final or do you have to pay more when the book (or whatever you order) actually arrives? This whole international thing is confusing me!

 

 

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I'm pretty sure it means they can charge you extra if they need to (if customs do apply extra charges), but they might not need to. To be honest I never order from anywhere that has this warning, just in case!

Do you live in the UK? I just had a look on amazon and you can get a new copy of that book for £13.24 plus £2.80 delivery, from a UK seller. I think this would end up about the same price, considering delivery, wouldn't it?

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For me, in the Netherlands, it's usually when the package arrives at the door, you have to pay the delivery person the taxes. You don't know how much until they arrive (so you have to have some cash handy). It doesn't always happen, only sometimes. I've only ordered from outside of Europe a few times, but this is what happened to me. Amazon.com was the only site that took the money for customs beforehand and then said they'd give me back if it happened to be less. It was almost that amount so of that extra money I only got back two dollars or something. Personally if at all possible I try and get things from inside Europe so I don't have to pay import taxes. Only if the item is unavailable closer, I order from outside Europe.

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If you live in the UK it works like this.

 

You pay the price the retailer has the items advertised for. They ship the items to the UK and depending on the declaration on the parcel and how it's packaged H.M revenue and customs may hold on to it. H.M revenue and customs will then send you a letter informing you that there is import duty to be paid on the item and detail what those costs are. If you want the items, you have to send them payment and they will release them into the UK postal system. If you don't pay then I don't believe they are sent back to the retailer, I imagine (but I may be wrong) they destroy them. If you are lucky the items may not be picked up by customs and you will get away with paying the import duty. In general, if it looks like a parcel from a member of the public, e.g a gift then it won't be held. If it looks like a parcel from a business to a customer it will.

 

I've been stung this way in the past buying things for the U.S.A on eBay.

 

All this being said, books certainly used to be V.A.T exempt and I believe this is still the case.

Edited by Brian.
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