Amazon presumptive import taxes

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Forums › Finance and wealth management › Amazon presumptive import taxes

Disrespective

1934 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 146

#199094 4-Aug-2016 10:19

I'm looking to buy a couple of things from Amazon and have found a strange occurence.

The items (including shipping) from Amazon.co.uk total to GBP$203 (NZD$377), or on Amazon.com they're USD$250 (NZD$376). However Amazon.com adds a NZD$115 import duty tax payment...

Am I likely to be stung for the tax when my UK sourced items arrive, or would I be refunded from the US site?

pulsta

164 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 12

#1604130 4-Aug-2016 10:35

That does sound a bit off.

Maybe check with www.whatsmyduty.org.nz

asmcar

331 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#1604138 4-Aug-2016 10:46

Beware - if duty is not claimed on the US order when Amazon takes a deposit, it takes 60 days for the deposit to be refunded. I'm currently waiting for $100 to be returned to me, really puts me off it.

Disrespective

1934 posts

Uber Geek
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#1604146 4-Aug-2016 11:06

pulsta:

That does sound a bit off.

Maybe check with www.whatsmyduty.org.nz

The USD price is OK, and so is the UK price, however the UK price does show a warning stating that it's very near the limit of $60 duty.

wellygary

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#1604149 4-Aug-2016 11:11

$400 NZD is the level that GST ( and other fees ) will kick if its non-duty item

The exchange rate they use is at the time of arrival and it is NOT the bank rate

http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/utilities/pages/rates-of-exchange.aspx

So you are close to the level, and if the Ex rates move by the time you item arrives you could get stung.

frankv

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Lifetime subscriber

#1604151 4-Aug-2016 11:16

Disrespective:

I'm looking to buy a couple of things from Amazon and have found a strange occurence.

The items (including shipping) from Amazon.co.uk total to GBP$203 (NZD$377), or on Amazon.com they're USD$250 (NZD$376). However Amazon.com adds a NZD$115 import duty tax payment...

Am I likely to be stung for the tax when my UK sourced items arrive, or would I be refunded from the US site?

Odd... I thought that under NZ$400 there was no GST to pay. And duty is minimal on most stuff; 10% on a few things (clothing, shoes, motor vehicle parts), 5% on others, but mostly 0%. http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/tariff/theworkingtariffdocument/Pages/default.aspx has the full list. So on $376 at most there would be $94 to pay.

Are you importing these things for a business?

Disrespective

1934 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 146

#1604161 4-Aug-2016 11:35

Nah, it's computer hardware, and I always thought it was as soon as I needed to pay more than $60 of GST ($400 of goods) then they'd sting me for it. Not some arbitrary number, but I guess there's other levies and charges there that they need to take on my one-off single item purchase that would be there if I imported 10 of them.

*shrug*

I was just surprised that the AmazonUK system wasn't able to see that the GBP price was close to the threshold, like the US site did, and preempt the fees.

Regardless, I put the order through with AmazonUK so we'll see how it goes.