I am ordering some items from the US Ebay. I understand I should pay Swiss VAT and customs duty on these items? If that is the case, what is the basis of the value? I guess purchase price. In that case should I ask the seller to prepare a fake receipt with a very low value? These are some collectible ites and Swiss customs cannot figure out their real value..

AFAIK the base for the calculation of tax and duties is not the price but the value, at least that's how I have seen and experienced it.

Customs, at least the German heroes of the Zoll, are not as dense (dumb) as I used to think. They are pretty smart when it comes to determining a value, and in many cases I have seen them ignore a (fake or real) invoice and go by the estimated value of the item.

I've bought a few item from Ebay US and most have sailed thru customs with no problems...regardless of value apparently ( however something my wife just bought she did have to pay customs duty on )
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you can ask the seller to create a low value on shipping doc. but many will refuse to do this.

good luck

Aaah, finally something in my area of expertise!

The customs people here are well and truly switched on, I had circa 70 deliveries last year from Ebay purchases (mainly kicks/sneakers and vinyl art so EXACTLY the collectables you describe and I also thought they would never ever know the true value) and on circa 20% of these deliveries my items were held, I recieved a little white card which requested a "receipt or invoice" to prove that the price the seller had quoted was accurate.

I called and spoke to someone there and they have a PC now where they will search for your purchase on Ebay (often since the seller includes the Paypal receipt inside the package, if not they'll use the item number) and if they don't match then expect a stern telling off and all of your future purchases to come under this type of scrutiny.

Generally purchases will be subject to value added tax (Mswt) plus customs processing fees, even secondhand camera equipment in my experience. As someone mentions above, non-documented or poorly documented parcels will be held until proof of purchase price is provided, eg bank transfer acknowledgement, ebay auction page.

Sometimes purchases may slip through if they're in small padded envelopes rather than cartons, and have been sent through the US Post instead of a courier service.

Bear in mind that if it's a high value item and you want the parcel insured for the real value, there's no way to get around a full declaration of the value.

Try this site
In English.

Thanks. This advice helps.

You're welcome.
P.S. use the "thanks" button!

hello!

i have bought on german ebay a playstation 3 worth 470 euro = 850 CHF
does anyone of you know if i do have to pay taxes, custom fee or stuff like that? whats the VAT like? 7.6%?

I would guess that it depends on how the seller ships it and how they complete the customs form. I bought a Sky+ box off of ebay and got hit for vat/duty.

If you do it through normal post then expect.

CHF33 - Customs clearance.
CHF20 - Admin fees
CHF27 - Zölle if some bit of paperwork isn't filled out be the seller. I'm still trying to work out what this is.

Add the total above to the initial purchase price, not including shipping. Then put a 7.6% tax on top of all of it.

So you would be looking at about CHF120-CHF150 in fees.

If you ship through a courier the admin fees will be different.

Is it second hand or new? Is this price German VAT free? Do you know anyone who lives on the German/Swiss border? Just some thoughts to keep your price down...

The seller has to provide some evidence of the value of the item, like a shipping invoice. Otherwise customs will hold the item unless you or the sender provides such info. A printout or pdf of the ebay page showing the price you paid for the item will work.

ok, will let it ship to a friends place.
im there one weekend in october, so i can take it with me then...
cheers!

Just curious, how would the amount due change if German (or any EU for that matter) VAT had been charged?

if you can get sales tax removed by the seller than you're laughing - otherwise you're paying double. Naturally, on second-hand goods, you're not laughing.

Some remove it when shipping outside the taxable territory - some don't.

If you can't get it removed, you're paying 19% in Germany PLUS 7.6% in Switzerland on the total amount including VAT and shipping!

So if an item costs 100€ ex VAT, add 19% and 10€ shipping for a total of 129€ plus customs processing fees and 7.6% of 129€ when it reaches CH.

Hi was that ebay UK? Looking for a sky + box

Sometimes quite different - I've had a courier firm charge me a fixed CHF70 handling fee on top of the normal clearance and zoll fees. The item, a battery charger, only cost CHF150 .

Yes, I used eBay UK to buy the Sky+ box. Worked just fine. It was much cheaper than the continental Sky resellers mentioned in other threads on EF if you already have a working Sky card.