ebay - tax on items from the USA

[Martin]

lads, trying to get an item on ebay and its as cheap as chips, but yer man wants to put the full price on the invoice for customs, does anyone know what the import tax rate would be? (those of you who have been stung might know)!


by the way its a fecking great time to be buying bike stuff from the form the states if you can think of creative ways to get stuff back! this eve 1 euro = 1.57 dolar :-)


hey fergal when you over there next with work, I've a shopping list for you !!!

[paddyobrien]

not sure on the import tax .. think it might be something like 10 or 15 percent. the real bitch is being stung by VAT ont he purchase price plus the import tax. VAT will be 21 percent.


It can get pricy, but probably still cheaper than buying here

[Morgan]

You may have to pay both duty and VAT. It's worked out as follows:


((Cost of goods + cost of shipping) + 4% duty) + 21% VAT

[Morgan]

Oh, and if your item is shipped by Fedex etc. you'll also have to pay a €10 handling fee AND pay VAT on that too!

[Martin]

jeepers, but even with the above its working out cheaper! thanks for the responses lads!

[Dave]

You should ask to see this guys VAT number before you purchase, he might not have one and just be charging you anyway...which if you haven't guessed is illegal.

[Morgan]

The VAT isn't charged by the seller (in the case of international eBay sellers) - it's charged by Customs and Excise here in Ireland.

[ciaranc]

Damn government and their taxes, why cant they heavily tax motor-crossers ?

[ciaran]

I just a pair of running tights (the sexy skintight ones with lots of flashy bits) from San Diego, as an experiment. They're 90 euro here, 60 dollars (40 euro) there. By the time I got them, I spent


40 euro on the tights

30 euro on shipping

13 euro on "handling" (what the hell - surely handling is shipping?)

35 euro on VAT and Duty


Total 120 euro.


Lesson: not worth it, get one of your mates who goes to the US to pick it up, or have a friend receive it in the US and post it as a gift.


Your mileage may vary, that's my experience this week.


Now, all I need is a lycra thong, so I've no VPL under the tights. I've seen a good on secondhand on eBay Sweden.....

[shane]

man ciaran corson does be on here on occasion them type of things will give him nightmares

[shanethepainter]

Me thinks Ciaran will spending a lot of time on his own,

wearing them things!!

[diamondG]

just got my garmin with heart rate monitor from ebay, it worked out well


€260 sale price from crc, but on ebay I got it for €190

that included shipping.

I asked him if there was anything he could do to help me avoid tax etc

So he marked it as a value of 34 dollars, so no tax or handling fees.

Its probably dodgy as I'm sure if it got lost with fedex they would only pay 34 dollars and not the full value.


something I didn't realise until this purchase too was that on ebay when its a 'buy now' price, you can make a lower offer, great because it worked

[Scrivo]

This is the beginning of the end Graham...The beeping will instantly convert you into something less cool.