Parcel "held for clearance" by customs for a week for no reason.

Forums › Off topic › Parcel "held for clearance" by customs for a week for no reason.

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Linuxluver

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#1641606 28-Sep-2016 10:52

Geektastic:

James Bond:

Jase2985:

you do realise that customs are busy and it does take time to process the orders

They must be absolutely flat out then with a tsunami of parcels coming in as I'm still waiting on mine.

Given the $40 'fee' or whatever it is these days that they add for doing the job you already paid taxes for them to do, I would expect service in return....!

The purpose of the $40 fee is the fill the $50 GST gap on small imported items.

Job done.

Now you just import it because the locals don't sell it....and look at you blank-eyed and slack-jawed if you suggest they do.

This local market void (on the shelf and in the retailer cranium) accounts for 90% of what people imported anyway.

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MikeB4

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#1641607 28-Sep-2016 10:53

When it comes to statutory bodies there is no "in between the lines" decisions and actions must be backed by empowering legislation and in line with approved official policy. My life for along time was governed by this. The changes if any have been to bring consistency with GST and other statutory requirements. Nothing new just tidying up.

Geektastic

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#1641686 28-Sep-2016 11:37

MikeB4:

two things in life one should never do... (A) look a monkey in the eye. (B) p!ss off Customs

I've seen one or two instances where it may have been possible to do both at once...!

Geektastic

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#1641689 28-Sep-2016 11:38

Linuxluver:

Geektastic:

James Bond:

Jase2985:

you do realise that customs are busy and it does take time to process the orders

They must be absolutely flat out then with a tsunami of parcels coming in as I'm still waiting on mine.

Given the $40 'fee' or whatever it is these days that they add for doing the job you already paid taxes for them to do, I would expect service in return....!

The purpose of the $40 fee is the fill the $50 GST gap on small imported items.

Job done.

Now you just import it because the locals don't sell it....and look at you blank-eyed and slack-jawed if you suggest they do.

This local market void (on the shelf and in the retailer cranium) accounts for 90% of what people imported anyway.

Yes, it is remarkable how many still think we should accept what they deign to give us and be so grateful for it that we overpay them to boot...!

Geektastic

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#1641691 28-Sep-2016 11:41

Linuxluver:

surfisup1000:

wellygary:

timmmay:

Clothes are subject to both duty and GST. According to "What's my Duty" it's $9 duty and $14.85 GST, total $23.85. So you may get a bill, or you may just be unlucky.

But its under the De Minimis level of $60 so they will not charge the Duty or GST

I had a feeling that certain items such as clothing were not exempt.

It could be possible that customs is waiting for the OP to pay the duty before releasing. I'd call the delivery agent.

This happened to me once. I had to register for a customs number and pay GST and/or duty.

I had to do this, too, but it was for an item over $1,000. (A camera). At that level, you have to have an import agent ( DHL and others do this if you use them) or be an agent yourself......or they send the stuff back eventually as there wa no one to deal with it.

Customs is being more problematic in order to make importing things a bit more frustrating and annoying so people will be discouraged and buy locally.....from someone else who imported in larger quantities and added a markup.

I remember doing that and explaining that I was not an "importer" in their sense of the expression (i.e. I do not make my living importing things and selling them on) but merely an individual citizen shopping overseas. The conceptual difference seemed beyond their grasp.

afe66

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#1641700 28-Sep-2016 11:55

Customs have to draw a line somewhere to differentiate between businesses importing things vrs individuals and have chosen it to be $1000.

There wont be many members of the public who routinely import things over $1000 so it seems reasonable to draw a line here.

At the end of the day getting an import number, which I had to do for my HTC Vive, took about 10 minutes to fill out the form that DHL emailed me, add a copy of photo ID and email back. And the number is good for 3 years.

Satch

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#1641866 28-Sep-2016 14:42

afe66:

Customs have to draw a line somewhere to differentiate between businesses importing things vrs individuals and have chosen it to be $1000.

There wont be many members of the public who routinely import things over $1000 so it seems reasonable to draw a line here.

At the end of the day getting an import number, which I had to do for my HTC Vive, took about 10 minutes to fill out the form that DHL emailed me, add a copy of photo ID and email back. And the number is good for 3 years.

A.

Perhaps the limit of NZD $1,000 is a bit low in this day and age. They should assess this on a combination of dollar limit and number of imports. Dollar limit to prevent businesses from bringing in one massive import for the year to avoid charges, and number of imports to identify those regularly importing bulk items for business purposes.

I went to all the trouble of getting an import number just before Xmas as I was importing around NZD $1,200 in tapware for my bathroom but they cleared customs without being charged...

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Behodar

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#1641881 28-Sep-2016 15:10

Satch: I went to all the trouble of getting an import number just before Xmas as I was importing around NZD $1,200 in tapware for my bathroom but they cleared customs without being charged...

Sounds familiar. A couple of years ago I imported two identical items worth $650 each. I ordered them separately to avoid having to deal with the $1000 limit; I was perfectly happy to pay the tax but didn't want the hassle of setting up import numbers etc. In the end, both items came through without being charged. Go figure.

Geektastic

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#1641883 28-Sep-2016 15:13

afe66:

Customs have to draw a line somewhere to differentiate between businesses importing things vrs individuals and have chosen it to be $1000.

There wont be many members of the public who routinely import things over $1000 so it seems reasonable to draw a line here.

At the end of the day getting an import number, which I had to do for my HTC Vive, took about 10 minutes to fill out the form that DHL emailed me, add a copy of photo ID and email back. And the number is good for 3 years.

A.

Why do they have to draw such a line and if they do, surely a registered business is a business and an individual is an individual? Why else have company numbers etc?

My number is miles older than 3 years - 10 now, I think - and it still works fine, the paperwork has no end date on it. Is that a new thing?

Geektastic

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#1641885 28-Sep-2016 15:15

Satch:

afe66:

Customs have to draw a line somewhere to differentiate between businesses importing things vrs individuals and have chosen it to be $1000.

There wont be many members of the public who routinely import things over $1000 so it seems reasonable to draw a line here.

At the end of the day getting an import number, which I had to do for my HTC Vive, took about 10 minutes to fill out the form that DHL emailed me, add a copy of photo ID and email back. And the number is good for 3 years.

A.

Perhaps the limit of NZD $1,000 is a bit low in this day and age. They should assess this on a combination of dollar limit and number of imports. Dollar limit to prevent businesses from bringing in one massive import for the year to avoid charges, and number of imports to identify those regularly importing bulk items for business purposes.

I went to all the trouble of getting an import number just before Xmas as I was importing around NZD $1,200 in tapware for my bathroom but they cleared customs without being charged...

Whether you are a business or not is surely a matter of fact: the IRD and Companies House etc determine that fact, not Customs.

Behodar

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#1641889 28-Sep-2016 15:23

I think it's not whether you're a registered business, but rather whether you're "in the business of" importing.

Geektastic

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#1641947 28-Sep-2016 16:37

Behodar:

I think it's not whether you're a registered business, but rather whether you're "in the business of" importing.

Why should it matter? A private individual is surely free to be "in the business of importing" because they import 100 things a month for personal use?

Equally, an actual legal business may import only 1 thing a year.

It seems a banal distinction to make: why have yet another definition of business when there are already perfectly useable ones?

Linuxluver

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#1641956 28-Sep-2016 16:47

MikeB4:

When it comes to statutory bodies there is no "in between the lines" decisions and actions must be backed by empowering legislation and in line with approved official policy. My life for along time was governed by this. The changes if any have been to bring consistency with GST and other statutory requirements. Nothing new just tidying up.

Mike....please.

You're technically right....and politically wrong.

The process changes and additional fees were brought in entirely to slow down and frustrate the growing wave of imports retailers and importers were complaining about.

You won't find that written in a law. But it's what happened and it's why it happened.

Policy only says what policy says. Legislation only says what it says. Policy and / or legislation don't say the whole story about where they came from or why. At best Hansard records that. But for Customs rule changes....we need to read between the lines.

This one wasn't hard.

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MikeB4

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#1641958 28-Sep-2016 16:51

Linuxluver:

MikeB4:

When it comes to statutory bodies there is no "in between the lines" decisions and actions must be backed by empowering legislation and in line with approved official policy. My life for along time was governed by this. The changes if any have been to bring consistency with GST and other statutory requirements. Nothing new just tidying up.

Mike....please.

You're technically right....and politically wrong.

The process changes and additional fees were brought in entirely to slow down and frustrate the growing wave of imports retailers and importers were complaining about.

You won't find that written in a law. But it's what happened and it's why it happened.

Policy only says what policy says. Legislation only says what it says. Policy and / or legislation don't say the whole story about where they came from or why. At best Hansard records that. But for Customs rule changes....we need to read between the lines.

This one wasn't hard.

Don't confuse the goings on in the funny building with the reality of official actions. Again there are no lines in between the lines.

KellyP

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#1642018 28-Sep-2016 18:25

At last, the NZ Post tracking number on my order went active this arvo 15 days after the parcel arrived in the country

The NZ Post App says "Handover" while the NZ Post website states "Item held in Auckland Airport". They must be really busy if it took Customs 15 days to look at it.

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