I am a Canadian, currently living in the UK, looking to ship my items to Lausanne as I have a job there in the fall. I will not be there until Augsut, but need to ship my items in July as I am leaving the UK to head to Canada for a month before heading back to work. I have looked at:

http://www.ezv.admin.ch/zollinfo_pri...x.html?lang=en

and find it all very confusing. I've downloaded and filled out the form, but who do I submit it to? The shipping company (UPS)? Any help would be great. I dont want to pay import tax on my clothes and furniture (I have very few things: 4 boxes x 25kg each)

Thanks!

If you give the 4 boxes to a UK shipping company they can store them until August.

In August you come here and register, and then post a copy of your registration to the UK shipping company. They can then complete the document package and send them to your address in Lausanne.

This company will do it all for you, they come to West Switzerland nearly every week http://www.lukerbros.co.uk/aboutus.html

I understand your frustration. I am from Quebec and I came here last August with my wife and one child. Before coming, we shipped 5 boxes from Quebec. Each box was 15 to 25 kg. I was very confused with Form 18.44. I simply wrote "Personal items" on the boxes. I sent the boxes with Canada Post, using the least expensive option (which was 6 to 7 weeks delivery time, fine with us since we were spending July travelling through Scandinavia). The boxes were delivered to our apartment here in Switzerland. We never had to deal with customs. We never had to pay anything. Lots of people here on the English Forum had told me that form 18.44 was important, that I would have to pay lots of fees, lots of taxes, blah blah blah... None of that happened. I still don't understand Form 18.44.

thanks for the responses.
I think I will just post the items with UPS, as all I am sending is my clothes and a few books. Not sure what they could tax me for on used clothes really.

i also have a question.. if my friend posts items from US, declared as a gift, i won't be taxed for it, if the value of the package is within 100chf or value of the package + shipping cost is within 100chf?