Hi all,

I'm looking to order something online and inc' posted it'e £130, so would maybe incur import duty. The seller ahs said if I use DHL there is know duty, is this true?

No, it is not true.

It's not the duty you have to worry about, it's the ADMIN charge.

Don't know what DHL charge, but with UPS, the tax was ca. 8chf and the Admin ca. 45 !!!!! on a ca. £50 item.

I didn't think it sounded right. It's a Jacket and it's £100 with £30 postage....for that surely the postie should be flying it over on his back.!!!!! Anyway, he reckons for an additional £10 he'll ship DHL, and there would be no duty to pay.

Sounds like I'd be out another tenner, and still get duty, thanks guys.

I've had a quick google for a laymans gude to import duty on goods ordered online but can't really find, one. Could anyone please point me in the right direction.

Thanks again

PG

If you are looking to import some nad´s then make sure that they are kept well chilled.

Here it is, hope it helps:

http://www.swisspost.ch/en/index/uk_...iewId=10006253

I can't comment on "duty" for clothing, not my area of expertise. BUT, you will get hit for VAT, about 20 CHF (based on £130 item = 260 Francs) plus admin fees from the shipping company. If you use DHL, or any other courier, expect that to be high (anywhere from 40 to 75 francs). The cheapest will be the normal postal service (10 francs).

You will be paying VAT on the total value of the item which includes postage. However, if this is something you won off of e-bay you can always try to convince the seller to put a low value on the customs declaration (below CHF100), mark it as a gift and see if it bypasses the sharp eyes at customs*. However, if this is a commerical source outside of the UK there will be no chance of them doing that.

Did you also know they should not be charging you UK VAT? If they are then demand that they deduct it.


* Disclaimer: Smitty does not condone this course of action, just something he heard someone mention once.

i have ordered some car seat from UK, which is much cheaper, and the seller sent the packet with an invoice showing very low amount (which piss me off, he must think he had done me a big favor!!) on the opposite , now customs clearance got problems, DHL told me that the officer doesnt believe the price, and ask me to send the real invoice on paypal, which i did as she asked.

does anyone know what will happen? a penalty? to me or to the seller? I really dont mind paying VAT, since with the UK price, it already save much money i can pay here, but I really need this badly quick, and DHL is being useless as usual, does anyone knows whether i can clear the cargo myself at the import zoll office?

tks in advance

We process worldwide shipments daily using all the usual suspects, DHL, FedEx, TNT & UPS.

They all charge fees that are as clear as mud.

The last DHL invoice we had for a 4Kg box had CHF 28.90 for extra costs fuel and CHF 30.00 for extra costs remote area served, plus VAT on the declared customs value. So CHF 58.90 for nothing tangible on something worth about CHF 220.00, go figure.

Either way, the cheapest way in my experience is to use the normal postal service with a low value (but not completely fictional) and hope that it doesn't get inspected in Basel.

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It pays to ask the shipper to put the details of contents and cost on the outside of the package, if they do not do this then customs may open it and charge an even larger fee on top of the additional tax costs - this seems to be a bit of a lottery though!

Standard costs are now 18.00 plus Duty/VAT by post, or 35.00 for "normal processing".

DHL may be higher, and a cashTV program recently covered this, where the couriers were charging quite high fees.

Of course no-one in a bordering canton wants to encourage outside shopping so there's little protection. It's in the canton's interest if you are left saving nothing compared to buying locally.

I'll be getting a DHL shipment from Germany Friday and am anticipating the charge. I'm annoyed the site didn't make it clear they didn't ship with Post vs. DHL. Of course inside Germany it's the same company.

I just ordered a computer, and it was sent via DHL from Germany to Switzerland. In addition to the MWST (which was calculated correctly from the declared price), I received the following administrative charges:

Vorweisungstaxe/Taxe de presentation/A Causa della Mostra - CHF17.50
Kontoiuhrung und Risiko-Gebiihr/ (...): CHF2.50
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zwischensumme/Sous-total/Totale parziale: CHF19.50

I just recieved a bill for some items I ordered.
It has 19.30 chf worth of tax but with administration fees the bill comes to 63.30 chf! I'll be specifying that my items are sent normal post from now on.

Just got a shirt worth 42€ with 10€ delivery. No additional customs, probably due to low CHF/EUR exchange rates. Delivered by DHL.
Same shirt costs 50€ incl. VAT in Germany and 88 CHF here.

hi everyone
i have an enquiry myself regarding packages arriving to switzerland adress. in the past ive ordered things from the USA from ebay sellers (spent around 20 dollars) so sent via normal mail and i have never received any charges whatsoever from duties taxes nor admin. has the price i paid have somthin to do with it?
last year i ordered from germany though, not sent by normal post but company called hermes (similar to dhl), when i received it i had to pay admin charges taxes and had a charge from LE POSTE (swiss post) for delivering it to me as hermes had given it to them for some reason.. can you tell me why all this is and why the charges from germany to switzerland and not from usa?

in the past i have also ordered packages cheap ones from china.. never received bills or never had to pay taxes duties admin etc

also ordered from ebay uk uk sellers delivering small products to me..
ive never ordered expensive items always under 35 pounds


i dont know if all this taxes has to do with the company used to send the items or the price. i have a feeling that couriers like hermes dhl do this charge thing but if sent by normal post like royal mail there are no charges , am i right? im talking about receiivng packages in switzerland sent from uk .



ive never used dhl but there is a pair of shoes id like to order from a uk website and they only charge me 4 pounds to deliver to switzerland ..weirdly cheap. anyway the shoes are 30 pounds as they are on sale. but i am only worried about charges..will i receive admin,taxes duties charges or post office charges?? i need a clear head so i can order..get in touch

thanksss
all this is confusing me why only once i received a charge.

ps just wanted to correct that the website is using DHL as delivery.
pps,things i ordered in past from uk were like 10-20 pounds max..

A friend of mine in the UK used Hermes to deliver and is currently locked in a legal wrangle with them because they managed to lose a 6ft roll of fencing, but that's another story.

Basically, if the total amount of what you order, including postage nudges above CHF 62 you will be charged admin/duty/contribution to the post office's Christmas party, etc. They really do seem to "magic up" all sorts of admin charges once it exceeds the CHF 62.

For me, I only order something over the CHF 62 if I am really sure that even with the extra charges it's cheaper than buying it here.

Alternatively, you can get it delivered to some woman in Konstanz, DE who operates a service where you just pay CHF 5 for a parcel and she keeps it until you can pick it up. DE is in the EU so you don't get hammered for charges. I can't remember the name of the lady right now but I think it's been posted on here in the past.

I get confused about DHL.

German Post have outsourced their parcel post service to DHL so parcels via this route should be handled as ordinary post in Switzerland; in fact the parcel delivery vehicles here are marked Deutsche Post DHL.
DHL also have courier services & parcels via this route can arrive with high & mysterious admin charges.

How you can tell in advance which route will be used I have no clue

Forgot to say that some couriers give kick backs to the senders so these senders are reluctant to send by normal post.

What charges do you mean? I've never had any admin charges receiving stuff sent via DHL.

They're pretty hopeless at delivering though. Either they deliver during the day Monday-Friday when you're at work so they don't actually deliver, or they deliver during the day Monday-Friday when you're not at work and don't bother to actually ring the doorbell to say they have a parcel for you, in so they don't actually deliver. There doesn't seem to be a delivery option 3.

so if i order these 30 pound shoes on uk website and they are sent to me with dhl will i get import,tax duties admin or post office charges?
what will happen?
hopefully dhl arent a company that charge postage till it arrives in switzerland .then once it arrives in switzerland to get to my home here in bern will cost me another cost?
hope you can clear that up for me somehow
cheers