[CamelBackCinema]

I am totally clueless about this. I want to help a guy out but I don't know if it is the right thing to do... Does misrepresenting the actual value of the contents sent overseas so that the person doesn't have to pay a huge amount at customs violate law?

 

[dvallere]

Yep.

"The Customs Service can open any package without notification to the customer. Should a package be found to have a false declaration, the sender could be liable for prosecution if harmful or illegal items were found. Customers mailing banned material or falsifying customs declarations may be subject to fines."

People are pretty bad about calling something a "gift" on the customs form - I can't see how Customs is going to accept "gift" as a declaration for a used item, but people do it. I've never personally known anyone to get busted by Customs but it must happen sometimes.

 

[Lil_JV]

Yeah, but are the customs people gonna know how much everything is valued at? NO. Especially headphone gear. Do someone a favour. If you've ever payed duty you'd understand.

JV.

 

[Sovkiller]

You can always send an item as a gift...no commercial value, this is done evne by respectable companies "while sending samples"....

 

[dvallere]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil_JV Yeah, but are the customs people gonna know how much everything is valued at? NO. Especially headphone gear. Do someone a favour. If you've ever payed duty you'd understand. JV.

Wait, are you telling the OP that he should be accurate, or telling me that I can get away with falsifying customs records? Forget it! (This is partially why I don't ship out of the US.) It's like lying on your tax return; eventually something is going to catch up with you.

There was a guy in Australia in the early days of MD, Nick someone? who used to buy MD units from Hong Kong or Japan and sell them to US people...He stated right on the website that he would always put "gift" on the box. Now that's a customs inspection waiting to happen! Wonder whatever happened to that guy?

 

[Lil_JV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvallere Wait, are you telling the OP that he should be accurate, or telling me that I can get away with falsifying customs records? Forget it! (This is partially why I don't ship out of the US.) It's like lying on your tax return; eventually something is going to catch up with you. There was a guy in Australia in the early days of MD, Nick someone? who used to buy MD units from Hong Kong or Japan and sell them to US people...He stated right on the website that he would always put "gift" on the box. Now that's a customs inspection waiting to happen! Wonder whatever happened to that guy?

Ummm... nothing! LOL! Yes, they are going to have a big investigation because someone marks an item as a gift. Give me a break.

JV.
[size=xx-small]Now I'm not going to sleep tonight. I'll have nightmares about this![/size]

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dvallere Wait, are you telling the OP that he should be accurate, or telling me that I can get away with falsifying customs records? Forget it! (This is partially why I don't ship out of the US.) It's like lying on your tax return; eventually something is going to catch up with you. There was a guy in Australia in the early days of MD, Nick someone? who used to buy MD units from Hong Kong or Japan and sell them to US people...He stated right on the website that he would always put "gift" on the box. Now that's a customs inspection waiting to happen! Wonder whatever happened to that guy?

Well, it was very stupid for that guy to make that public statement...But in the last event, nobody can prove if it is actually a gift or not...as nobody can prove if that item was the one you paid for, or an actual extra gift you are sending, and you will recevie the purchased one when ready...also if it is an small package, the USPS officies, just keep the records of customs for about 3 months only....

Of course if you want to be 100% inside the law, it is ok, and I encourage everybody to do it, or course, you just declare what you want, and people will buy from others when they get hit by the customs fee...

BTW the customs fees are IMO pretty stupid, you should be free to buy what you want in any part of the world..period...That is what free market is all about, competitive prices, if you want to avoid people getting from abroad, just drop your home prices, if others can do it, you can do it also...

 

[dvallere]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lil_JV [size=xx-small]Now I'm not going to sleep tonight. I'll have nightmares about this![/size]

Ambien. See the other thread

No, this guy was shipping out like 20-30 units a month to the US. Surely his local PO might have gotten suspicious?

Anyway, I think the buyer needs to accept the fact that for a US seller to falsify the customs form is a crime and either be prepared to pay the duty, or be prepared to buy from another seller.

I spare my potential buyers this unnecessary hassle by refusing to ship overseas!

 

[StevieDvd]

The value of an item, especially used, can be debated. I would not put the full retail price on a package if it was used but perhaps a low ebay price. You can always state you checked it's value on Ebay.

Steve

 

[AlanY]

Isn't it a felony to make false declarations on customs forms?

In any case, regardless of whether it's illegal, it's silly to misrepresent the value of items. If the buyer can't pay local taxes/VAT/etc. on the item's purchase price, the buyer can't afford it and shouldn't have bought it. Headphones and amplifiers are luxury items, not necessities. If you have a beef with your nation's tax policies, become politically active and make some noise, don't expect people in other nations to lie in order to make acquiring luxury items a little easier for you.

 

[squall2072]

It depends if your shipping it with insurance, if you are and you mark it down then its not going to cover the true value and you could make a few $$'s loss if it all goes wrong.

I've bought stuff from the states (RS-1 included) and was never stung with custom fee's, although that was marked down to $100

Can't say I'm a fan of any taxes to my government...but thats a topic which we can't start

 

[Headphony]

I don't think it's against the law at all to violate customs laws.

 

[plainsong]

If we're talking about single items here, the customs here doesn't give a rip about anything but the value. You can't put zero value on something here and have them not sniffing at it. And then when it's opened they only care about seeing an invoice. Most ebayers forget that part, and that's why I always have to print out the Paypal receipt. If the value is different on the customs form, they're not really bothered about it, as long as prove with the invoice how much it's worth, and pay the customs on that.

What they're after are the big-ticket orders that are clearly not legal, like shipping a bunch of computers and marking it as "used, gift, zero value." Or thousands of cd's, or things even less legal...

But one person ordering one thing? No, they won't come and arrest the sender or sendee, they just want the tax on the value of the invoice.

 

[StevieDvd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by squall2072 I've bought stuff from the states (RS-1 included) and was never stung with custom fee's, although that was marked down to $100

Consider yourself lucky.

I've paid duty on several items, even when it's been marked as a gift. I could not argue with the duty since it was not really a gift and the sender had marked it so to try and save me money (though I had not specifically asked for that - he was just trying to be kind).

On the whole I plan for the duty and feel happy if the customs guys 'decide'

to let my packages through without charge.

Perhaps we should ask our politicians to remove duty on essentials like hi-fi and add it on to fast-food as a health initiative

 

[Sovkiller]

Quote:

Originally Posted by squall2072 It depends if your shipping it with insurance, if you are and you mark it down then its not going to cover the true value and you could make a few $$'s loss if it all goes wrong. I've bought stuff from the states (RS-1 included) and was never stung with custom fee's, although that was marked down to $100 Can't say I'm a fan of any taxes to my government...but thats a topic which we can't start

I import regularly amps from Rudi in Italy and the fees are something to take into consideration, just as a side note, I have never paid less that $30.00 per package.....and declaring low prices on the amps...OK?


Quote:

Originally Posted by AlanY ".....Headphones and amplifiers are luxury items, not necessities. If you have a beef with your nation's tax policies, become politically active and make some noise, don't expect people in other nations to lie in order to make acquiring luxury items a little easier for you...."

In the case of the necessities they will charge you as well.....just FYI....Politically active, who cares, how many people became politically active against the Iraq war here, and who cared??? And that was a life death issue, do you really believe that a custom tax will be even consider other than to be increased to fill their pockets even more???