WTF International Post Office!

[elhombresinnombre]

Are you sure about the USA.. I sent a package from AU to USA worth around $250 (which i declared on customs declaration form on box) in march, and they didnt get charged at the other end..
I dont know about UK.

In AU if the item is under AU$1000 no tax, NZ if under NZ$500 no tax is paid.. But if you do pay tax its GST (same as VAT) on value of goods and freight..

I have to admit that I am no longer as certain as I was about the USA because my information came from third-party sites without attributions and I'm finding the the genuine US Customs site impenetrable. So I withdraw my remark about the USA - not unreservedly but until I can find confirmation either way. US duty is applied at different rates to some things, not others and there are thresholds as discussed before and it looks like state taxes are added on top of all the rest. But I'd like to invite a US importer to guide me through this maze.

Absolutely certain about the UK, though. Many years ago I used to import stuff into the UK and got hit with duty and taxes as described and I see from the UK Customs website that it is still the same. Again, there are exempt goods and thresholds under which no tax or duty will be applied - but I see that for personal imports (Amazon, eBay etc) that threshold is going to be reduced to just GBP15 from November this year.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

I'm mailing a violin to a friend in BA. What would be the best way to do this?

I answered this before but the reply seems to have got lost.

If it is a student violin, don't bother. The cost of shipping versus the likelihood of damage make it likely to be cheaper in the long run to buy another one instead. The same student instruments are available in Argentina and Chile though often under different brand names. Compared with the UK and USA they are somewhat more expensive in Argentina but cheaper in Chile.

If it is a valuable instrument, hand luggage in the aircraft cabin only. Don't entrust it to anyone else because you'll never know if they allowed it to be crushed in the cargo hold until it is too late.

 

[StevePalermo]

Absolutely certain about the UK, though. Many years ago I used to import stuff into the UK and got hit with duty and taxes as described and I see from the UK Customs website that it is still the same. Again, there are exempt goods and thresholds under which no tax or duty will be applied - but I see that for personal imports (Amazon, eBay etc) that threshold is going to be reduced to just GBP15 from November this year.

Maybe I got lucky. I'm in the UK at the moment and just received a package from a US book company (via Amazon US). I paid about £90 for a bundle of books, and didn't have to pay a penny in import duties. It arrived yesterday; I just had to sign, and nothing extra to pay. Do they send the bill later?

 

[elhombresinnombre]

Maybe I got lucky. I'm in the UK at the moment and just received a package from a US book company (via Amazon US). I paid about £90 for a bundle of books, and didn't have to pay a penny in import duties. It arrived yesterday; I just had to sign, and nothing extra to pay. Do they send the bill later?

In the UK as in Argentina, books are exempt from duty and VAT/IVA. Other goods, such as DVDs, cameras are subject to both. If someone is sending a non-commercial gift (marked 'gift' on the customs form) to the UK then it is exempt up to a value of (I think) about GBP130. But stuff sent commercially is dutiable above GBP18 (soon to be reduced to GBP15) and anything sent express delivery is treated as commercial and charged accordingly.