Hi all

Just had the post man at the door with a parcel from my mum in england containing 3 chocolate bars, 2 pcts of angel delight and a video with some stuff she did me on the tv total cost £3 or 5 chf, he wouldnt give me the parcel unless i payed a tax of 65.40 chf,

i didnt pay it question now can i complain and who too ( that speaks english, ) will the parcel just be sent back to my mum, and will she be charged

Thanks alot
Dawn

Complain why again exactly?

are you not Swiss, Dawn?

I can't believe the figure is so high if all that was in is what you describe; there's a flat fee plus the VAT on the value of the good inside.

Was`there a customs declaration on it? The fees could be for handling, opening the package, working out that angel delight () isn't really a class A drug, watching the video, etc.

Have you got a bill? I assume that these 65 Fr. aren't only for handling and paying method fees but also include taxes for estimated value, is that so?

I don't know what you can do now except to use customs declaration forms in the future. The British post should've offered one, even on <2kg parcels, I think.

There was an artickel about this in one of the last issues of Saldo. How you end up paying customs- and hanlingfees way above the value of the goods you "import". You may want to try to find the article. Don't remember what their recommendation was.

Saldo was a good hint Tilia, this article is from 2005 and states that private persons might send parcels with gifts worth up to 100 Fr. customs and VAT free to a private person in Switzerland, but I think the customs declaration is still required. The question is, was there one on your parcel? It usually is a green sticker for small parcels.

Don't know how it is when sending a parcel from England to Switzerland but when we send a parcel to my wife's parents we always have to fill out the form to tell the customs what it contains. You just have to declare it as a gift and there won't be any charges other than the postage.

Next time you need Angel Delight and Chocolate...come to us!

Hiya, I had a parcel arrive last week and it had electrical goods to the value of £50 in m, I only had to pay 20.05 chf for tax and they hadn't even opened it, it was marked as a gift and they had only gone by what was written on it.
When they tried to deliver it did they give you a card? If so it should have the ref no on so you could try the web site www.swisspost.com and under the customer care part it says they speak english.
Maybe they just dont like you importing chocolate!!

Good luck

Michelle

Post office will charge you a flat 10 franc fee plus VAT of 7.6% on the value of the goods inside. If there is no green customs stickers declaration on the package then guaranteed it will be opened and the Swiss customs will place an arbitrary value on the goods.

EXCEPTIONS:
Private gifts: With a declared value of less than 100 Francs will pass without problem. However, if there is obvious fibbing (ie: £500 videocamera and the package is marked £30 gift) then expect to be hit.

Commercial goods: Anything that has less than a 5 Franc VAT collectible will be allowed through. In other words, if the declared value is less than about 65.40 Francs it will get through without problem. At today's exchange rates that's about £27.

Excellent! I can imagine swiss customs officials rubbing angel delight into their gums!

I had the same problem with some "free" satnav update disks from Garmin. But I can't offer a solution, I just paid the fees and sulked about it.

You make me giggle so much,
yes there was a form on it saying the contents and price was £3 in value
Didnt look like the parcel had been opened mind you he held it so close to his chest, Video had corronation street and the Queen on it ( for my daughter) and the angel delight was butter schotch flavour

So it just seams excesive that they want so much money when there really isnt anything else in there
Have a good day Dawn

Yes looks like it was a tax, but a form was on the front saying what was inside and the value of £3, so i still carnt understand why the tax was high, i thought you could receive gifts of 100 chf with out the tax

oh my oh my, I am just wondering what to expect when my order from play.com is delivered.
They send the stuff out in single packages and my first order of three items( 2 Dvd's and 1 calendar) i got without problems ,but this time I ordered 6 cd's ....................

any ideas on the amount of money i should reserve to pay taxes and custom fees,should it come to the worst??

10 Francs PLUS 7.6% of the value if the declared value is over 65 Francs.

Upon thinking about this I think you probably misunderstood the postman. Sounds like as if there was no declared value on the package and the Swiss customs decided that the package was worth 65,40 francs as they were probably annoyed at having to go through it. Thus, they declared the value at 65,40 meaning you have to pay the minimum 5 franc VAT plus the 10 franc admin fee for a total of 15 francs.

No it had the form on the front saying what was in it and the value at £3 it was definatly a tax to pay on it of 65.40 chf i have to pay that if i want to and collect it

Just seems a bit too conicidental to me. I would enquire at your local post office, you might chance upon someone speaking English to help you.

Just want to reiterate then when you import something (of value) you get charged for 2 things: The admin fee of 10 francs and the VAT (MWSt in German) which is 7.6% of the value. I have never in 7 years of ordering stuff from abroad had to pay any other fees, but then again I've never had food sent to me from outside Switzerland so perhaps I'm missing something in the regulations.

Good luck

On another note somehow I managed to get away sneaking a 1000chf phone through the post today with ZERO charges, so I guess I was very lucky.

Saying that they wouldn't know what a mobile phone was. (it was written on the package, with no value declared)

I reckon if someone had put "handy" I would be facing a nice bill now