
stibaer
This site helps a lot to see which duty and taxes could be charged in the worst case.
Import duty & taxes for EZ-Robot Revolution JD
20,7% for Germany
Argh. Isnt there some way to be set free of this?
I buy this robot mainly to show my pupils in school the fun of programming and mathematics.
(And to play with JD at home myself, wait, I mean preparing the lessons ofc^^)
Its even unpayed community service as lecturer.
Oh German tax office. You are so damn greedy 0_O
I don't think that taxes can be avoided, but are there couriers that don't have extortionate fees for admin when they have already been paid to make an international delivery ?
Cheers
Jay
A good rule of thumb, regardless of if anything send from overseas is a gift, for education or whatever is to always allow for and expect to have to pay duty etc.
I was stung with my BlinkM which the nice folks at ThingM sent me after a cheeky email to them, I paid more in duty and tax than I could have got a BlinkM over here for because the declaration was incorrectly filled out. I did try complaining to FedEx/DHL/Whoever only to be told that I pretty much had no choice but to pay them despite it not working out worthwhile and had I been asked I would have said not to accept it. I also complained about the admin fee but they wouldn't even budge on that either.
I also had a few other international shipping issues with some other items I've had in the past. For instance, I bought a guitar from Germany, £300 for the guitar, I had to pay over £100 to be allowed to pick it up! A blanket from the US, cost was about £30, duty & tax was more, for a blanket! I accept I need to pay tax (despite paying it on what I earn anyway!) but paying more than the item is worth just makes me sick.
International shipping is a nightmare, plain and simple! Sometimes it can't be avoided though.
You can be freed of duty + taxes if the products are mainly for educational purposes and you can proove it.
In my case its for teaching at school. I just have to give the customs department a writing of the school, that prooves, that the products are needed as educational tools and the invoice has to have a little hint somewhere, that its for educational purposes as well.
One original and 2 copies of the invoices should also be on the outside of the package inside a Package list - invoice-envelope.
In Germany the envelope for the package list - invoice looks like this:
Makes things faster and they can deliver it right to your home. Otherwise you would have to drive to the customs office to pick up your stuff, because they arent allowed to open the package without you to reach the invoice. And the next customs office is often veeery far away.
You can also be freed if you need the products as a student for your academic studies.
I am sure one of the professors can write an appropriate validation.
I hope my investigations help especially the pupils and students to save some bucks so they can spent even more cash on ez-bees^^
Might not be possible in all countries, but as far as I know its possible in all the EU-countries.