Hi,

How does one make sense of DHL import charges?

I ordered goods from Germany. A company that often exports. The total cost including shipping was 340.31 EUR excluding their German VAT.

The bill from DHL is 80.30 CHF.

Einfuhrzoll - 5.90 CHF
MWST - 34.40 CHF
Vorweisungstaxe 38.00 CHF
Kontoführung und Risiko-Gebühr 2.00 CHF

There is no reference on the invoice of how they arrive at their values, nor exchange rates etc.

I understand VAT at 8% is due. Now if 34.40 is the 8% then it means that they valued the goods at 430.00 CHF. So I think this means that they gave and exchange rate of approx 1.26. Not sure if this is fair given that on 3rd August (date on invoice) it says that the rate was approx 1.10
http://www.ecb.int/stats/exchange/eu...ph-chf.en.html

I guess some admin fee of either the 5.90 or 2.00 is fair.

Don't understand the other thing.

The MWST is the tax, I'm not sure what rate they use but I once disputed what they calculated (they taxed me at around 25%) and was refunded the difference.

The other 3 things are all standard admin fees. Search the forum for lots of threads with more info on DHL and import fees.

The 38.00 CHF is quite high for an admin fee? Is this meant to be a percentage of the value?

Thanks, James.

34.40 MWST means they valued the goods (plus postage) at about 430 CHF (assuming 8%), which seems about right.

Whatever it was you imported also attracted import duty (Einfuhrzoll)

The Vorweisungstaxe is what DHL charge for handling.

Not seen the Kontoführung und Risiko-Gebühr before. Seems like a nice little earner.

Wait to see how much the "global blue tax refund" crook scheme are taking for a fee...

I'd say 38chf is high for such "admin fee" (really admin fee? it's probably automated and everything). But it is like it is, and that one does not worth fighting against. (too low value, too deeply part of processes)

I thought the import process is included with those courier services - Vorweisegebühr sounds a lot like customs wanted to check on the package...

i'm reading random stuffs: apparently there's a "importing processing fee" to pay to the swiss customs, and another "examination fee"...

Sorry can't find accurate sources yet.

Nope, it will just be their standard admin fee. They may have fees for different values eg. 38CHF for above a certain value, a bit less for below that value. This is also what Swiss Post do. Their standard admin fees are 18CHF (value below 500CHF) and 35CHF (value above 500CHF)

Courier companies notoriously charge ridiculous admin fees so it pays to try and get things sent by regular post if you can.

You have to pay MwSt/Tax on the sum of price + shipping cost + Einfuhrzoll/Duty + Admin charges/Vorweisungstaxe + Other fees

I just bought a ceiling lamp from Germany which costed 69 euro.

And I got this bloody 38 SFr. of admin fees. Plus the 2 SFr. Risiko-Gebühr. I feel so robbed!

So, it is a fixed price and not a percentage.

I wish I had check this thread before ordering .

Anyway, I feel a little better knowing that the same lamp cost 150 SFr. here.

I know it's an old thread but I thought I could share my experience importing a piece of guitar equipment from thoman.de. Reading these posts made me a bit scary, but I thought what the heck. But the bill was reasonable. The product costed 539.49 EUR.

I got billed by DHL:

CHF 17.40 Einfuhrzoll
CHF 54.90 MWST

And that's it.

Cheers

Fabio

i would be expecting a second bill to arrive for the DHL charges, was it delivered recently?

I think DHL don't know how much to charge.

We bought some things from the UK and were sent a bill, which we paid. Then we were sent a duplicate bill for the same package a few days later, except it wasn't quite duplicate - this time it was about CHF 5 more expensive. I'm glad I paid the first bill.

Hmm hope not It was in the beginning of December. The strange thing is that it was charged by the mailman. I was expecting one of those orange slips they love.

I ordered a snowboard from France which I'm getting on Friday. I "think" I know what I'll be charged but I'll know for sure when it gets delivered.

I'll post here when I know as this is my first internet order since moving to Switzerland and it could come in handy to people in my situation in the future.

As promised:

OK, so I received my snowboard and here's what I had to pay to import it from France:

What I purchased cost 392.39 EUR and shipping was 24.90 EUR so that's a total of 417.29 EUR.

Die Post shows it cost 542.00 CHF and charged me 43.35 CHF for VAT (8%) so they used an exchange rate of 1.299 which is higher than what I'm finding on google (1.207)! Oh well...

They also charged me the 35 CHF standard charge so I had to pay 78.35 EUR in total.

I saved a little over 10 EUR compared to what I would have paid had I lived in France.