Now the Swiss customs ask me to pay 60 CHF in duty and tax, because they say that in Switzerland, the total custom value includes also the transport, so 280 CHF.
Is that true?
Is there a way around that?
I just bought something abroad and ship it to Switzerland by normal AirMail. The product costs 80 CHF, and the transport 200 CHF.
It is true and it is correct.
A way arund it? To lower the tax use a cheaper shipment method.
To get rid of the tax import it personally, as in: carry the thing personally over the border. Possible for items of a total net value of CHF 300 per day.
unfortunately not...when you import goods the total cost including delivery needs to be under 62 CHF otherwise they will tax you. sorry
ok, thanks.
Just to round off what others have said: http://www.fedex.com/ca_english/serv...dutiestax.html
Basically, almost all countries use the value of good plus insurance and freight as the basis for customs and tax calculations.
Somebody had posted something about buying a gift card and then using the gift card to pay for items and it reduced the declared value of the goods on the shipment. I suppose it's specific to a certain website and possibly can't be guaranteed to work.
Interesting technique which works because the customs declaration is wrong.
Basically the incompetence of the supplier is exploited - and if that backfires, ie. customs opens the package and determines the True Value - then this will be more painful than correctly declared value.
Awesome, thanks for the comprehensive answer!
Ship to germany? if ones live in Zurich side or check something similar in France?
There are plenty of pack handlers set up here over the border that for a small fee (5 euro per pack up to 20 kgs for example) will receive your pack for you.
Short train/car ride to collect and assuming it is less than you taxable allowance of 300 francs, you can bring it back over the border.
Yesterday I picked up a pack that was the size of a big plastic bumper (see other car related thread), super efficient is all I can say for 5 euro costs.
Although just to note, you can not claim back VAT in this manner, since the item was shipped to Germany by the seller.
A colleague regularly has Amazon.fr orders posted to the Divonne les Bains post office just across the border. She has no post box or anything, she simply states her name and she can pick up her order, no fee or anything. They even told her that the french post offices around Geneva are amongst the busiest in the country for this reason.
I also ordered stuff from Asos.fr. The taxes are ill !
But now I found a website http://www.i-reductions.ch which shows you all stores where you can shop without paying taxes. I already ordered from HP, PKZ and La Redoute and I had no problems with it. Moreover, you can even find voucher codes on that website. So it's kind of my "shopping tip" for everyone in Switzerland.
I just forgot... The only exception on the website is asos... There you pay the taxes !
Something totally wicked is going on (for me) with Amazon.fr, getting it shipped directly to Switzerland:
I get charged the (correct amount of) deposit for import tax. And two or three months later - I get _all_ of that back, as a correction to import tax handling.
This effectively translates to paying no tax at all, although I should (and would!) be paying these 8%. I suspect that there is some error in the system (and thus I do not bank on it to last forever), but I am quite happy to benefit from the current state of affairs.
Note: This only applies to Amazon.fr specifically, for any amount (over a total of four orders, so my sample size is limited, granted). It does not apply to .de, nor does it to .it.
Hope I will benefit from the same error ^^
Forgive my ignorance but,
where do you guys order stuff from?
USA ? Australia ? UK ? or anywhere not shipping to Switzerland ?
Then is that relative cheaper by shipping or even better, possible to ship ?
I mean you ship to Germany or France because of cheaper shipping costs or are they even not shipping to Switzerland and you somehow overcome this situation?
Hi all, does anyone have experience with customs duties for used clothing? I am having a preowned wedding dress shipped from Sydney. Will I still get taxed if the sender notes that it's USED? Also, I cannot figure out how duty is calculated... it seems different all the time. I know it's the value of the item + shipping, but what percentage?
Never tried but remember someone mentioning that he was charged tax for his own mp3 player his friend was shipping back to him.
I don't think that new/used makes difference, but rather the value declared. Though I guess something of a huge packing is unlikely to be of a small value.
Sometimes sender wrote a smaller value and I did not get charged and sometimes the seller wrote a higher value than it was and I got wrongly charged...
You can ask to the Swiss Customs Administration:
Email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Tel: 0848 639 639
Website: http://www.ezv.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en
although the information is very organized.
I don't know about used items, but here it is my experience.
I was in Thailand, I bought a thai mattress which weights 17Kg, and I send it by postal office.
This is the information they told me about the cost:
so, in my case, the value of the item + shipping was 257 CHF in total.
then I had to pay 46.17 CHF:
: (16 + 0.03 * 257)*1.08 + 257 * 0.08 = 46.17 CHF
the first time I received the packet, they asked me to pay 62.50 CHF.
I complained, I had to return the packet to the Swiss Customs Administration (before accepting the packet from the swisspost),
and then I payed ~55 CHF. I didn't bother to ask anymore.
What is very important is that your parcel contains a detailed information about the content and cost, otherwise they need to open the parcel and inspect it, and they bill you 13 CHF. You should include a description of the item, mention that is a used item, and the value and shipping.
Customs duties normally depend only on weight.
VAT depends on value, and is normally 8%.
Tom