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What did you pay in import taxes & duties?
As someone soon to have an L1 on my bench, I'm interested in hearing what we're all paying in taxes and duty around the globe.
Early predictions: Aussie get dudded, Americans finagle their way into paying next to nothing! :P
*Yes, yes, yes - I know this is an owners forum. I'm claiming special privileges as the site admin.
Early predictions: Aussie get dudded, Americans finagle their way into paying next to nothing! :P
*Yes, yes, yes - I know this is an owners forum. I'm claiming special privileges as the site admin.
Comments
I think i ended up paying around $180 in duties, but then claimed the machine and HG1 on my tax
Tax claimage is a given - after all, I do work for the coffee industry!
Who else is chiming in?
If so, that's quite reasonable.
I think there are some tax exemptions on certain coffee equipment here too
cheers
james
On an invoice price of A$2465 I paid A$410.63 duties.
10% GST, 5% import duties and the balance of about $50 for customs clearance fees.
These are only estimates of what the $410.63 costs were for as I received no paperwork at all from DHL, just a message on the answering machine, and an automated computer to take my credit card payment details.
The whole procedure was very fast, 48 hours from the UK to my home.
Kfir.
Under A$1000 and it sails straight through customs without any charges. Over A$1000 there is 10% GST on the total cost including shipping, 5% duty and agents fee's.
I actually think that's reasonably fair but it has to be budgeted for.
I paid NZ$569.88, which was broken down to:
Goods and Services Tax (GST) on importation $519
Import Taxation Fee $33.10
GST on the Import Taxation Fee $4.97
Disbursement Fee $12.81
I guess it wasn't too bad as I had budgeted for around $800.
However the story doesn't end there...
My original machine was one of the early machines that suffered significant shipping damage, so it was actually returned to London for repair/replacement.
Before returning the machine I spoke to DHL and specifically asked about the Goods and Services Tax and Import Taxation Fee that I had just paid on a machine that I would no longer have. I was assured that I would not have to pay the bill again, all I would have to do was present my paperwork and the fees already paid would be transferred to the new machine and they would simple release it when it arrived without any hassles.
Man, was DHL wrong!
Reiss shipped my replacement machine and when it arrived DHL contacted me asking me to pay the tax bill, I REFUSED TO PAY and the machine sat in their warehouse for 24 days while we (Reiss and myself) argued with DHL because they were asking me to pay the Tax bill a second time!!!
I was told by DHL that I would have to apply for a refund from Customs and that DHL didn't do this for their customers. I went through the process, scanned all of the documentation and send all of the emails collaborating that the original machine had in fact been returned to the UK so that Customs could process my refund.
A few days later DHL emailed again suggesting that I ring Customs to speed up the process, I rang and spoke to a client services officer at Customs who told me a completely different story. Customs could not refund me the money as I had never paid them it in the first place, DHL had. I paid DHL and they paid Customs on a "broker deferred account" so when the refund was processed DHL was going to get it!
Aaaarrrrrrgggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!
Reiss and I argued with DHL NZ and DHL UK and suggested that they should just release the new machine, they should pay the second GST bill as they were going to get the refund on the first bill, but they didn't want to budge and neither would I. Sure I could have paid the bill, but I wasn't paying on principle. If I had paid a second time I think it would have been very hard to get my refund back from DHL so I just said stuff it, I'll wait.
Reiss emailed DHL UK again and tried to put some pressure on them to speed things up, he even offered to pay the Customs bill and I could pay him back when I got the refund but it didn't get to that stage. DHL emailed me saying that they had received confirmation from Customs that the refund was going to be processed but that it may take 4-6 weeks and that they were going to do me a favour and process it urgently as a "special request", so I'm assuming Reiss had some influence over DHL UK who pulled strings at DHL NZ and got the ball rolling.
The only catch was that it cost me an extra $48.07 in fees that I was told I had to pay twice and couldn't get a refund on.
The whole process was dragged out by DHL but to Reiss's credit he stood by me, regularly checking in to see what was happening and doing the best he could at his end to get a company on the other side of the world to release my machine to me. My "coffee machine" folder in my inbox has over 80 emails in it from Reiss. I have never had a problem communicating with Reiss, he often replied instantly and considering I live on the other side of the world this could be at 6am, 6pm, midnight or even 3am in the UK!
I think to be fair I have probably been one of Reiss's most difficult customers and he has repeatedly apologised to me for the problems I encountered. I don't hold a grudge against Reiss, actually I don't have any problems with him at all, his customer service is fantastic, he tells it like it is, what's wrong with that? My grudge was with DHL, they damaged the machine and then miss-informed me about the ease of re-importation and the GST issue.
Just for the L-I
DHL requested monies a month after delivery!
DHL are, in my experience, the best of the local agents I have imported other expensive stuff via FedEx and UPS and not had great experiences
If you are bringing stuff in with a value over $1000 you need an importer number, easy to get from customs (who are very good).
Our courier did drop my machine on my doorstep VERY hard (it was drizzly and the box slipped) but Reiss's super packaging did the job.
Phill
You guys are really getting it put to you for just a fine cup of coffee! That is a staggering amount of money
When the postman brought my Roastilino, no payments either.
When I got my HG One from the US, the DHL guy sat down at my desk and had me take my credit card to pay customs. I managed to quickly forget what I paid. Another HG One owner here in The Netherlands got a customs bill later, after the grinder was delivered.
When I received Stephens acrylic/magnetic mod from the USA, customs added a sum again. It doesn't worry me much.
My son in law was wise to take his espresso machine from The Netherlands to Australia as personal hand luggage...
Phill
Sorry that's a reply to the reply to mine
James and Kelsey, if you happen to be up Townsville way and need and Londinium style espresso, let me know
Cheers
James
About 600 $Ca for me (Duty, taxes and DHL).
Martin
The amount I paid include a 15% taxes on the value of the LI (goods and services tax).
Regards
Martin
but the USA is very inconsistent - it really is the luck of the draw, but even the worst case scenario is pretty good
Customs? Duties? Never heard of them... :whistle:
Customs? Duties? Never heard of them... :whistle:
It is all inconsistent! The sales taxes vary city to city!
What the languages and laws do in the different municipalities are really arcane! Whne they add laws they don't take old ones off, generally speaking.
http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-hs-code-lookup/
From my experience this isn't correct for Australia.
The site shows Australia has a 10% duty plus $55 customs clearance fees.
From my experience it should say.
A shipment value of less than A$1000, no fees
Over A$1000 there is 10% GST plus 5% duty on the total cost including shipping plus a customs clearance fee of about $55.
There's no duty on domestic coffee machines, but GST and customs clearance fees apply.
Reiss will be able to tell you what the specific harmony code is, but domestic machines attract a 10% GST on goods+shipping and the customs clearance fee.
So on GBP1625 + GBP160, I paid a total of AUD366.19 for GST and customs fees, which is about AUD10 cheaper than I thought it would be.
Reiss is now putting this harmony code on the paperwork, so it should be extremely straightforward in the future.
I thought the current rules are for importation into Australia for items over AUD1000 were 10% GST on goods plus shipping plus 5% duty plus a customs clearance fee.
In my case my L1 plus shipping cost GBP1557.37 which equated to AUD2465 at early March exchange rates.
In late May DHL charged me AUD410.63 in fees but didn't provide a breakdown of costs. By my calculations this equated to 15% plus about AUD40 which is what I expected.
I don't understand how on a more expensive machine with less favorable exchange rates you were charged lower importation costs.
despite what has been posted by self appointed experts on a certain Australian coffee forum there is no mystery or magic or lottery to importing espresso machines into Australia
the truth of the matter is if it was risky, difficult, or uncertain these guys wouldn't be importing espresso machines into Australia because it would be beyond them
what they don't want getting out of the bag is it is so easy to import espresso equipment into Australia that even they can earn a nice living from it
go here http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/HT85BW2012.pdf
the international harmony code for an espresso machine is 8516.71.00
if you click on the above link you will find that there is NO DUTY on espresso machines into Australia
you will pay 10% GST on landed cost of the goods. full stop.
if you were incorrectly charged i would suggest you have grounds for lodging an appeal with a view to securing a refund, here;
http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/FINALCOMPLAINTSANDCOMPLIMENTSWEBREADYFILE.PDF
there is nothing difficult about bringing importing espresso machines into Australia with DHL, or indeed FEDEX or any of the major couriers
the reason you pay them a clearance fee is because they do all the leg work for you
you don't have to raise a finger, just call DHL and whip out your credit card as soon as you see the goods have cleared customs on the DHL web tracker and you can expect to see you machine the next day if you live in a major centre
it simply could not be any easier
there is only one consignment (a K10 fresh grinder) that we have had delays getting into the country and that was Brunei, and we've sent machines to just about every country on the globe that isn't at war