Penalty charge from customs

[toys4geeks]

Raising up an old thread but with relevant question:

I do buy DVDs from NZ for educational purposes however, customs charges me with tax, almost 30% of the cost of material + shipping (yes, combined). Do we have any existing laws or regulations on DVD imports, particularly those for personal use?

when you got the customs charges, what was the volume of your particular transaction, perhaps it helps to  keep the pcs.  down to max considered as personal use.

What jacks up the price is not the duties and taxes but for some goods the storage fees . But I remove the shipping costs and compute for duties/taxes seperately and hindi naman 30%.  HTH

[wastedlyf]

It was just a piece so kahit ako nagulat.

DVD cost was 56 AUD + 35 AUD shipping fee. Approximate cost was Php 4,150. Computed tax is around 1,900++ (more than 30%) pala - so ako nagulat. Then ironically, DHL (courier of that package) sent SMS on a Sunday afternoon and sabi nila pag within 3 days hindi nakuha, storage fees daw on top of the outstanding fee. I had to prepare some documents as per their advise to declare items as personal use in an affidavit and that what drew me to a lower tax. 

Pero ang hassle lang kasi kung everytime may import for educational material (quarterly kasi updated yung materials and the provider hasn't setup an online delivery of materials ala iTunes), e same problem ang daraanan just to get those DVDs on time.

[pekspert]

Caution: DO not use DHL as a courrier for packages. Pang documents lang sila. I was taxed heavily before for a upscaling DVD player i ordered from China.

[toys4geeks]

It was just a piece so kahit ako nagulat.

DVD cost was 56 AUD + 35 AUD shipping fee. Approximate cost was Php 4,150. Computed tax is around 1,900++ (more than 30%) pala - so ako nagulat. Then ironically, DHL (courier of that package) sent SMS on a Sunday afternoon and sabi nila pag within 3 days hindi nakuha, storage fees daw on top of the outstanding fee. I had to prepare some documents as per their advise to declare items as personal use in an affidavit and that what drew me to a lower tax. 

Pero ang hassle lang kasi kung everytime may import for educational material (quarterly kasi updated yung materials and the provider hasn't setup an online delivery of materials ala iTunes), e same problem ang daraanan just to get those DVDs on time.

next time prepare mo yung docs stating personal use ahead of the shipping, if possible have it shipped from your australian contact to include a copy in their packing list.

[Clondalkin]

The safest assumption is to consider that with the exception of documents, all items are taxable up to 50%, especially if you use courier service.  In my experience, I find that you'd have better chances of not paying anything via EMS than through any courier service kasi mas "proper and documented" ang courier service companies when dealing with Customs, while the Post Office is tipong hit or miss.  Yeah all items I sent via courier ay laging required ang invoice.  Pero iba-iba talaga experience ng mga members dito because the Customs policies are as clear as mud.

Although some items may honestly be for personal use, I dont think the Customs people really look at that kasi for them, lumang tugtugin na yon.  And it seems they dont even really know the actual duty rate - maski nga sa airport where it is clear that each traveling Pinoy has a 10K-peso duty free limit, they don't seem to know how to apply customs duty properly.

Raising up an old thread but with relevant question:

I do buy DVDs from NZ for educational purposes however, customs charges me with tax, almost 30% of the cost of material + shipping (yes, combined). Do we have any existing laws or regulations on DVD imports, particularly those for personal use?

[toys4geeks]

My experience sa EMS, depende sa address ng post office. may crocs sa iba(in which case you will be asked to go to the office for examination) meron naman diretso sa yo.

Last year i bought 3 pieces of iphone video cables from china (10 makes it commercial), then shipped here.
usap sa customs, kano daw, i showed them the correspondence ng order detail and parang < 500 for 3 units. so di na ko pinabayaran.  

yun kasabay ko na old lady, pina parcel ang laptop na luma, eh hinihingian ng 15k. di ko matiis and so i showed customs sa iphone na sa ebay ito price nyan, ayun, binigay and assessed as that.  

but tama si Clondalkin, hit and miss si Philpost sa ganyan, so you better "gear" up with docs -- paypal payment copy, invoice etc.  hassle yan.


pero yung sa Australia subscription, ayaw mo ba na ipa image na lang sa kabila at download mo na lang, wala ka ng shipping costs. or baka may ebook or online version yun subscription. HTH

[wastedlyf]

^wala pa kasi silang facility to do that, plus the fact na takot sila na mapirate yung materials nila. actually, i don't have problems with this before when we were using TnT. Nung nagshift to DHL yung shipper, dun na nagkaaberya ang lahat.

Sa last order ko, I was billed with a tax of 1,900++, I just filed an Affidavit of Ownership stating that the item is for personal use and has no commercial value, then dun lang nila ibinaba yung cost to 500. Sa TnT, walang ganun, sa DHL lang talaga. Dyahe lang kasi kung everytime na bibili e magfile ng ganun to think the item is not even available sa local market.

[toys4geeks]

^wala pa kasi silang facility to do that, plus the fact na takot sila na mapirate yung materials nila. actually, i don't have problems with this before when we were using TnT. Nung nagshift to DHL yung shipper, dun na nagkaaberya ang lahat.

Sa last order ko, I was billed with a tax of 1,900++, I just filed an Affidavit of Ownership stating that the item is for personal use and has no commercial value, then dun lang nila ibinaba yung cost to 500. Sa TnT, walang ganun, sa DHL lang talaga. Dyahe lang kasi kung everytime na bibili e magfile ng ganun to think the item is not even available sa local market.

explicit mo na lang ke TnT, mahal si DHL talaga.