Please educate me on European and Asian Fees you need to pay on my gear

[Photobackpacker]

My new P3 backpack includes 14 different SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) and ships in one of 96 possible configurations. That does not include the protective cases that go inside. The good news is there is no other camera backpack on the market that offers the custom fit offered by the P3. The bad news is: no camera store on earth is likely to want to carry the P3 with so many other One-Size-Fits-All options. That means my non-US customers take a disproportional price hit when they buy my system. I am kicking around ideas to see if there is a legitimate way to address this but I need a better understanding of the fees assessed on my non-US customers.

When I send out shipments to customers outside of the US, I know you need to pay customs and duty. What I don't know is how the fees are calculated. Do they use the full value of the items shipped, the discounted value of the items shipped and is the shipping you pay also included in the taxed portion? If it is easier to answer by way of example, please assume:

1. A system equaling $350.00, with $60.00 shipping fee and what would be the impact of a $30.00 discount applied to the value of the items shipped.
2. If you were to buy the same system in a local camera store how would the price be different?

[lbenac]

Bruce,

China would be likely duties on CIF value (eqpt + freight + insurance) + VAT on that total (CIF+Duty).
Duty rates varies but could be something like 15% and VAT should 17%.

Cheers,

Luc

[Sevo]

In Germany, it would amount to duties (maybe 2-3%, if any - YMMV depending on how the item gets classified) on the sales price plus VAT (19%) on price, shipping and any duties applicable, if the taxable value exceeds the minimum thresholds (IIRC something like 30€ for VAT and 150€ for customs).

In any case, all that is handled by the buyer or shipping agent at the German end - all you have to do is fill that green sticker and send by mail, and it will be charged by the postman upon delivery. Beware: US sellers seem to think that they do the purchaser a favour if they omit filling that, or fill it with ridiculously low values. That notion is plain wrong when dealing with EU customs - if the sticker is incompletely or inconsistently filled, it means travel to the associated customs office (which gets picked by routing, and may sometimes turn out to be at some airport or harbour far from the destination) within ten work days, or the item is shipped back. I've lost several purchases when I either could not get a day off in time or the travel cost to the customs exceeded the value of the item...

[Photobackpacker]

So if I applied a $30.00 discount to the items purchased, that would decrease everything from duties to VAT?

In Germany, it would amount to duties (maybe 2-3%, if any - YMMV depending on how the item gets classified) on the sales price plus VAT (19%) on price, shipping and any duties applicable, if the taxable value exceeds the minimum thresholds (IIRC something like 30€ for VAT and 150€ for customs).

In any case, all that is handled by the buyer or shipping agent at the German end - all you have to do is fill that green sticker and send by mail, and it will be charged by the postman upon delivery. Beware: US sellers seem to think that they do the purchaser a favour if they omit filling that, or fill it with ridiculously low values. That notion is plain wrong when dealing with EU customs - if the sticker is incompletely or inconsistently filled, it means travel to the associated customs office (which gets picked by routing, and may sometimes turn out to be at some airport or harbour far from the destination) within ten work days, or the item is shipped back. I've lost several purchases when I either could not get a day off in time or the travel cost to the customs exceeded the value of the item...

[Photobackpacker]

Bruce,

China would be likely duties on CIF value (eqpt + freight + insurance) + VAT on that total (CIF+Duty).
Duty rates varies but could be something like 15% and VAT should 17%.

Cheers,

Luc

How about Canada?

[SergeiR]

Russia: at the moment, when sent via mail (not UPS/DHL/Fedex) aka EMS/USPS/whatever - pretty much anything under 1.000 EUR is not taxed. Above - 30% of exceeding value. DHL/UPS/Fedex using 200 EUR ancient limit and pocketing the change (which is considering how much it costs already - quite a hefty kick in...). Handled by receiving party in either case.

[IanG]

Shipped to the UK the the extra cost in duty and VAT etc would add an additional 29% to the cost of the backpack and shipping.

The Duty is payable on the Item and shipping cost, that's 5%, then there's the 20% VAT op top of that and finally a charge usually £8-£10 for the post/delivery company in the UK who collect the extra taxes.

Ian

[pasiasty]

So if I applied a $30.00 discount to the items purchased, that would decrease everything from duties to VAT?

Exactly. VAT in EU is calculated on actual price paid including all costs spent to deliver the item up to the custom border of the EU (shipping, insurance) plus customs (I'm not sure about this). Customs duties are uniform in the whole EU, but may differ depending on the source country.

When receiving a shipment from outside, VAT rate of recipient's residence country applies (it might be anything from 15 to 27%). If you have a reseller in the EU, they sell to private clients with VAT rate of the reseller's residence; that's why so many companies are registered in Luxembourg (15%).

Countries may implement Low-value consignment relief, for incoming shipments of low value (can be set between €10 and €22). Sometimes it happens that VAT and customs are not applied even if the value apparently exceeds the threshold, and nobody knows why.

The post or courier may charge for acting as a 'customs agent', usually it's 5-30$ (if single package to a private person is concerned; for three tankers full of crude oil the fee might be higher). Varies depending on country and company.

[lbenac]

It depends on the province. BC would be 12% (GST + HST).
For Canada the killer is if you use a courier like UPS or FedEx as the brokerage fee is very high.
i.e. I will not buy from a vendor that ships UPS
Accordingly I purchase from B+H that has made a deal with Purolator so that freight and brokerage are low but the items are pre-cleared

Cheers,

Luc

How about Canada?

[Regular Rod]

UK at least 20% VAT and possibly some Duty. The really "rise-up-and-kill-them-all" rage comes from being charged by the courier for the "service" of holding onto my goods for several days and then charging me for the service of collecting the taxes for the HMRC. You pay the courier at your end, with my money of course, but the courier wants to get paid twice and so stings me for more money, while they hold onto my kidnapped goods that you have tried to send me. In today's global economy there should be no Duty anywhere on anything but until we do actually get round to trying true "Capitalism" we will have a long wait for tariff free borders...

It was the shipping and knowing the above that stopped me clicking on my cart and buying your P3 and all the trimmings for my Shen Hao 8x10.

As for buying locally, your products are not available so that option is out for us. On that subject, living in "Rip-off Britain" the tendency of importers of anything from the USA is to at least charge £1 for every $1 of value and then they often add more. Film in the UK is twice the price for the same film in America.

I have noticed on eBay a number of vendors from overseas offering a single buy it now price including shipping and taking care of all the taxes. I haven't tried anything from these vendors yet but if it works it may be a way forward.

RR