Watch Out!!!!

[Rietzschel]

Hey Guys,

In all my enthousiasm I bought a used Swoard (#0006) from a guy from the States.
I paid E 500 for the board and E 80 for shipping. So far a fair deal

Now the Swoard comes through Dutch Custom Services and I have to pay between 25 or 30% extra
It´s called VAT (Austria), Mehrwehrtsteuer (Germany), BTW (Netherlands), anyway a lot tax has to be paid again
They also charge this tax over the shippingcosts I´ve paid

OK here´s the joke: when you buy as a private person an article from a private person from the States, Customs will immediately/automatically see that as an imported thing. In a transatlantic deal: Private person or enterprise, there is no difference!
Enterprises can recollect that tax, private persons can´t!

I failed to investigate the procedure in advance and thats my fault, so let there be one stupido .

There are people on this forum who already knew this, for them thanks for reading
For those who didn´t know I put my story on the forum for anyone who has plans to buy things from the States. (e.g. Ebay things) You need to calculate +25% at least!

To conclude: for E 100,-- extra you buy a new Swoard, with garantee

So guys, you see, I won´t hesitate to invest my good money in a lot of knowledge for your benefit

Greetz Guido

[nils]

your swoard is warrantied so no worries on this !



Nils

[Rietzschel]

Hey Nils,

Thats good, cause I didn´t expected it to be . So thanks for your reply

[István]

Rietzschel,

Sorry to say, but this is obvious.... VAT is there on everything you buy as a cosnumer good. If something is coming outside of your country then the import customs duty is usually equal to the local VAT (they usually call it import VAT). Of course their might be other extra charges due to a protectionism, environmental concerns, etc, but a board I believe would never fall under these categories.

Usually you can reclaim the VAT of the country you are importing from (e.g. before the accession I went to Austria to buy something, above a certain level I could reclaim Mehrwehrtsteuer, meaning cross the border on the way back, get a stamp form the Austrian customes, present it on the Hungarian side and cash in - and obviously not presenting the goods at the Hungarian customs, so save the Hungarian VAT ).

VAT is usually lower than you indicated, it varies from country to country, in Hungary it is 25%, but it is one of the highests within EU, in most of the countries it is below 20%.

The important thing is that within the EU there is no such mechanism (import tax), so you can buy and sell your Swoards without any extra charges - and it still has a warranty!!!


Kindest,

István


ps.: One more thing, I do not know the US system, but the other issue that might led to this situation is that I guess you did not have an invoice on the purchase, because you were buying from a private individual.

[Rietzschel]

Hi Istvan,

I know, I know... but it has been done, so no use crying over spilled milk

You wrote:

Usually you can reclaim the VAT of the country you are importing from

Istvan, when I understand you correctly, I can claim these costs in the USA. And if so do you know how...

Grtz

[Jakob]

Hi!

As Istvan said, you won't be able to, for you were not given a receipt because you were buying from a private person. You didn't pay Us tax so you can't get back the tax you didn't pay. Sorry I guess...

Bye,

Jakob

[István]

Jakob is right! Next time you buy a Swoard in the US, make sure you get an invoice, fill out a tax free form, get a stamp at the customs when taking the stick out of the country and next time you go there you'll get your money back. It is that simple

Just one question: how did the german custom people estimate the price? Why did not you tell them: 'I bought it for 10 bugs so piss off!'

The other solution, I think if someone sends you some gifts up to a certain value, it is also exempt from import tax. A used board might be considered to be below that level.



Cheers,

István

[Rietzschel]

Hi Istvan,

Since I already payed (used PayPal, which works fine), we agreed to insure the shipment.
What if I receive an empty box , don´t want to think about it.

Everything over E 45,-- is tax obligated, even gifts. So the E 10,-- solution crossed my mind, but with the amount of insurance written down Costums first charges me and when I don´t agree then afterwards I have to see to get my money back.
In Holland the taxservice more or less turned the moneysituation around, that means they state something and if someone doesn´t agree (s)he has to proof otherwise.

To me it´s a closed book, I´m really looking forward riding the Swoard

Jakob, Istvan thanks for your suggestions

Greetz Stup(Gu)ido

[Hans]

Hi, Guido

Want to make some things clear here about importing goods outside the EU to the Netherlands. All the things said here in this topic are true but some things are completely far from the truth or the amounts stated here are way out of the common (dutchimport) taxrules.

There is no such thing existing in the Netherlands that you can claim your paid taxes back in the country where the parcel came from. You can only can exhange taxes if you have a taxnumber in the Netherlands (it's called a BTWnummer). You can only have this number if you have an official company with an authorized BTWnumber which was send to you by our local taxinstitute. And you can only do this if you can claim that you need the importstuff for your company, selling or else. So it's quiet normal that you pay taxes over a parcel that came from the outside of the EU. Donek for instance has an arrangement that they pay the taxes for EUcustomers in the USA. The boards are then about EUR 600.--. You can try to send the parcel as a gift from abroad without adding a value on the parcel. But then you will have certain risks, like when the parcel don't arrive you won't have the possibility to claim (because the amount isn't mentioned) and so on. Or when the parcel will be damaged in transport....
If you would have bought the SWOARD from the SWOARDguys the difference would have been much bigger than the EUR 100.-- you mentioned before. New Swoard EUR 790.-- + sending costs 54.-- totall will give 844.-- then about 26,5% taxes, administration and BTW gives about EUR 224.-- Totall 1.068.-- if you are lucky. If a parcel is under EUR 22.-- (and not the mentioned EUR 45.--) than in certain circumstances you won't pay taxes if the parcel came outside of the EU.

Hope this will clear up some things about customtaxes in the Netherlands.
So you are not that stupid. If you want to know more about taxes or other things about finance, just give me an email.

Greets, Hans.

[Rietzschel]

Hey Hans,

Thanks for your reply and offer! It did make a lot clear to me.

Leaves me with a question though:
Where does this knowledge come from it must be, taken in account your boardcollection you´re the experience-expert.

Grtz Guido

[Hans]

Hey Hans,

Thanks for your reply and offer! It did make a lot clear to me.

Leaves me with a question though:
Where does this knowledge come from it must be, taken in account your boardcollection you´re the experience-expert.

It's not only my experience, just happened to be partially my work/intrest/studying taxes (just dull, it's only money).

Greets, Hans.

[István]

Hans,

There is one point where I'm a bit confused. I think that reclaiming the VAT of goods that were taken out of a country is normal even without a registered VAT number or without a company and it has nothing to do with the tax system of the country that your are taking the goods into.

The example I mentioned before:

Imagine we are in 1999. I (as a Hungarian private individual) go out to Austria. I go to the famous Shopping City Süd (quite shitty..) and buy goods over a 1000 ATS (Austrian Schillings). I get a 'Tax Free' form filled in and attached to the invoices. Then I jump into my car, stop at the Austrian side of the border, get a stamp on the form (to prove that I took the goods out of the country). Afterwards in any Tax Free office I can get the VAT (Mehrwehrtsteuer in this case) back.

This act has nothing to do with the Hungarian tax / customs system and did not need any VAT number registration, neither a company. Obviously in my example I should have paid the Hungarian taxes.

Of course, with EU everything has changed and in this respect you are right. But I still believe that in general if you take out goods from a country to an other country (and in this respect EU is one big country) you can reclaim the VAT of the goods (and obviously pay the taxes in the country where you are taking the goods)

Anyway, sorry for this boring topic, and I'm not a tax expert, hence I might be wrong.


Cheers,

István

[Hans]

Hi, Istvan

You are right, I said in my topic that somethings mentioned here are right others aren't. And your statement was right. But that's only the case if you are abroad by yourself and take the goods personal with you from a country abroad to your homecountry with another taxclimat. For instance from the USA to the Netherlands. You can get the USAtaxes in your pocket, and officially you have to declare the new products with the dutch customs and pay dutch taxes. When you buy things from behind your computer, and that's what we are talking about overhere, things are different. No getting USAtaxes back, and also paying dutch taxes (if you are not a company with a tax/BTWnumber)!! Or just arrange something as Donek and Blue tomato does for its foreign customers, but then you must be a company to arrange such things. Because who is gonna pay for the taxes: yes, we the customers are, not the companies!!
Hope I am a little bit clearer now. (I just mentioned it as dull, because if you are not with it you will find this a dull subject, generally speaking, not if you have to work or study with it, anyway money is just dull, even it is our/my job.)

Greets, Hans.

[Arjan]

Hi Dutch guys,

Your % are not correct. Customs charges you 22,7% (19% VAT and 3,7% import for snowboards). This is amount is charged on pro forma invoice + shipping costs!

Greets,

Arjan

[Hans]

Hi Dutch guys,

Your % are not correct. Customs charges you 22,7% (19% VAT and 3,7% import for snowboards). This is amount is charged on pro forma invoice + shipping costs!

Thanks Arjen for correcting me, was guessing because nothing was to be found on snowboards in my taxesbook, so took another sportsarticle which I tought was nearly close. Some customs will also take a percentage because of their administrationcosts.

Greets, Hans.