Why.

It was only 55 EUR from amazon.de, and they charged me 25 CHF at the post office as taxes/duties..



Is it just for Germany to Swiss?

The limit without tax/charges is around 65 sfr - so if they used a bad FX rate in their calculation (could be 6 months out of date) that would explain it

It was probably mostly for storage and handling. It is close to thievery. No, wait. It is thievery.

CHF 62, actually (including postage, not just the price of the item).

Once above that, it CHF 18 + 8% VAT, so CHF 25 sounds correct.

Tom

I order things from the US all the time, of about $100-$200 in value each. I've never been charged duties.

Sounds about right for what i have been charged in the past as well.

Don't accept the package, it will go back to Amazon & you will get your money back.

Some suppliers will put a nominal value on the package to keep customs charges down. They may describe it as a sample or gift as well.

I have never had an overseas package charged in these circumstances.

That's illegal, fines are very heavy. There is no way Amazon would do such a thing.

I didn't say it was legal, just that some suppliers do it. Not everything purchased on Amazon comes direct from them.

If the quoted value is realistic e.g. cost price instead of sales price, customs are unlikely to do anything about it. I certainly wouldn't suggest asking a supplier to do this.

Many people do ask for a lower value recipt. Customs will ask for a paypal receipt or eBay ref no. It's happened several times to me.

Swiss authorities are under the false impression that doing this will deter people from ordering stuff overseas... but what they are actually doing is making people more and more determined to find ways to get around it somehow. They should really either raise the limit a lot more...

Its a private company that charges these fee for handling customs. Its not the state who is responsible. It is just normal that you have to pay Swiss VAT if you import goods from an other country, that is why you can claim the foreign VAT back if you import goods (Amazon will automatically do this if you order out of Switzerland).

Your point that this fee is to detere people from shopping abroad is just nonsense.

If it were purely private there'd be a way to avoid them. But since the customs authorities employ the private company to do it - without giving the consumer the ability choose to use this private company, then surely the authorities are partly responsible. If I had a choice to avoid the 18CHF in some way, then I would, but since I cant the decision makers who put this "private" company in place are to blame too.

Im happy to pay the VAT, but the 18 CHF they charge on top is ridiculous.

thanks for the words everyone,

my co worker orders from amazon.uk and never gets charged, they order quite allot as well.

Its just crazy that taxes/duties is almost 50% of the cost of the item.

I remember when i was in the US, i would get buyers on ebay who would buy my goods, they would ask to put gift or no value on the product when shipping it.

I find it crazy, but it seems your either lucky or unlucky.

Just another pain to deal with

PS: Shipping US -> Switzerland is crazy, my family had to 3day a text book and calc, it was 200 USD.

It is that postal company which delivers your goods that applies this fee of CHF 18 for handling customs, and not some company appointed by Government.

Its the supplier (i.e. Amazone) who chooses the postal company, that delivers to Switzerland. They are free to choose another company or to negotiate a better deal with their current postal company and they might do so if they get the right feedback from their customers.

As the postal market in Switzerland is free for all letters and packages above 100g (identical to the regulation in most EU-counties) that leads us to the conclusion that the fee of CHF 18 has to be A) justified or B) is not considered an issue by the store (i.e. Amazone) who charged the postal company with delivering your goods.

If case A is true, then there is nothing you can do about it other then accept things as they are.
If case B is true then you have to complain to the store (i.e. Amazon) that they should get you a better deal.

As the Swiss postal market is deregulated for all items above 100g there is no way to blame the government for this fee.

Is it possible that Amazon.uk uses an other postal company than Amazon.de? Maybe they do not apply a fee for handling the customs and just apply Swiss VAT to the goods they send.

It takes time & costs money to provide a service, do you want to work for free as well?

Big companies like Amazone have quite some weight in negotiation because they are important customers of postal companies, so maybe they are able to get better deals if the want or they could decide that for the sake of customer satisfaction they do not charge the buyer with this fee.

Amazon are a big customer of the people that do the import taxes in CH? Amazon just want low cost.