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Clothes from USA

Question

Hello,
I want to order some clothes from a US website withchic.com. Do I have to pay more duty fee once in Belgium? I am already paying the shipping to the site itself. Do I have to pay more because it is from US?

CM

You can find all the details on the BPost site (Hope you can understand a bit of French).

http://www.bpost.be/site/fr/residential/parcels/international/Frais_supp...

Oct 15, 2017 12:36
Stephydetroy

Thank You;

Oct 15, 2017 19:45
CC_R

In my experience they can and do open packets from the USA and slap you with a tax demand.
I ordered something on eBay that was taxed locally and despite it being sent by eBay's global shipping program and stated as ALL taxes paid this was only local tax it almost doubled my costs in the end eBay paid it after a huge despute they said oh it's in the small print but one of their employees had told me to pay it and it would be refunded and this meant they paid after a lot of hassle it was a lot of money. This was a case for a craft machine i found only amazon packs seem unaffected.

Oct 16, 2017 07:45
kasseistamper

The bottom line is that anything shipped between any two countries in the world is liable for inspection and import duty unless the countries have an agreement to the contrary. Obviously all EU countries have such an agreement with each other.
Anything coming into the EU from the US is liable. If your parcel is chosen for inspection it will be handled by whichever organisation shipped it and they may charge you a fee for that service. The customs service may then impose import duty.
There is absolutely no way to predict what might happen or what it might cost you. All you can do is budget for an unspecified extra amount and hope that you get lucky.
And, of course, exactly the same applies if someone in the US wants to order something from Belgium.

Oct 16, 2017 10:06
Mikek1300gt

"And, of course, exactly the same applies if someone in the US wants to order something from Belgium."

Not really because the receiver in the USA is unlikely to be taxed, even where liable for any tax. The US customs have far less incentive to check goods at all except for possible contraband.

It's not really duty where the bill lays when goods arrive in the EU, it's VAT and handling fees.

Cost of goods+ duty+ postage + VAT on that whole amount plus a possible handling fee.

Oct 17, 2017 14:56
anon

This is probably too late, but you do realize that this site isn't actually based in the US?

It's a company based in China. That's why they don't have any contact postal address information on the site.

You only need to look and read the text on the site to realize that something is not quite right.

I'll quote exactly from their site
http://www.withchic.com/shipping_delivery_guide/

"Generally this‘s no extra taxes for your order, since every country have enough tax-exempt amount for normal personal shopping.

but there may be subject to customs duties once order over a certain amount ( about $200-300 +), even though, we will do our best and choose the properest shipping method, and Usually,we will write lower value and mark “gift” or “sample” to help you to avoid the tax or less your tax.

But, this is a international business general guideline and may vary depending on the customs office of your country. so if you are asked for a taxes or duties, don't be disappoint or angry, try to contact to your customs office, and we will help you alaways."

Don't be in the least bit surprised if your order gets stuck in customs, and don't hold your breath waiting for them to "help you alaways"

Oct 17, 2017 15:42
Mikek1300gt

There was always huge debate on the subject of value and "gift" on the eBay discussion boards, and how the receiver was going to end up with huge fines or confiscated goods. In maybe 6 years that I used those boards, not one single person threatening death and damnation to people receiving goods this way to find one single relevant example of any such thing happening.

"Gift" in particular is utterly pointless. It raises the threshold from one where they rarely bother collecting the taxes to another where they rarely bother collecting the taxes, and if the value is already above both then "gift" will doubly make not the slightest difference.

Oct 17, 2017 17:01