import duties for purchases from Switzerland

[Bender]

I am toying with the idea of getting a Ayo mount from AOK in Switzerland but is just dawned to me that they are not in the EU. Are there some special arangements with Switzerland or will i have to pay duties for the mount?

Thanks

Andre

[Velvet]

You will have to pay 20% VAt on the imported price plus bout 5% import duty as well, this is roughly. so add another quarter to the price and you wont be far foo

Regards

velvet

[Bender]

hmm, might as well go for a discmount then.

I buy most of my stuff from TS in Germany, one of the better sides of Europe that you dont have to worry about these things.

[crashtestdummy]

you may get lucky and not have to pay the taxes,its a month since i had some eyepieces arrive from the US and still not had a bill for the import fees so hoping ive got away with it.ive heart it depends on the courier in the uk as if it gets transfered to parcelforce for final delivery they pay the taxes and bill you but if it goes through UPS(which mine did) you sometimes get away with it

[cantharis]

If you have the goods and haven´t paid the duty you have got away with it. They charge you duty before they give you the goods!

But you must reckon you will have to cough up !!! Import duty then VAT on the entire cost including carriage charges !!!

[DaveS]

When I bought my Galileo laser pointer from Laserglow in the US the courier wanted the VAT in cash before he would let me have the goods and I had to sign the paperwork to say the VAT had been paid.

[rowan46]

I have on occasion received a bill from customs after the delivery

[Velvet]

yes so have i received the bill much later

Velvet

[crashtestdummy]

Regardless im not counting my chickens just yet.

[E621Keith]

You can calculate the import duty and VAT using this website

http://www.dutycalculator.com/new-import-duty-and-tax-calculation/

[StevieDvd]

I too have received invoices from couriers well after delivery. If postie/parcelforce deliver without claiming duty and the handling fee then you may have been lucky, but the couriers are a different matter.

[LukeSkywatcher]

When i buy from outside of Ireland (which is 99.999% of the time), i dont seem to get hit by import duties or taxes. I just get the cost of the goods+shipping+VAT (combined and agreed upon when ordering) on my VISA bill..............translated into euros.

The Irish government dont seem to charge me for importing. Would this be correct?

You pay the VAT to the company in the country your order comes from?

My way of thinking is that if the final costs of shipping,VAT etc is over 30% of the retail price of your order then dont buy. So 25% is within that margin..............i would buy.

[cowasaki]

I think it has a lot to do with size too. Most larger boxes seem to get stopped. There is a personal limit under which you don't pay duty but you have to bring it in yourself for that so it's not going to help. It's a roulette job with stuff from the US and Europe. To make things worse if there is a duty charge then Parcel force (as with most other companies) add on a handling fee so that you end up getting a double whammy!! I had an £18 fee on something from the US about 18 months ago.