Weight Weenies

Hello folks!
I need to ship a frame from HK to Germany and then to country probably noone here have heard of. The reason is, shipping from HK to Germany is 85$, to unknown place 250$.

But the question is about import taxes in Germany. I'd love to squeeze that frame without taxes to the Germany. I googled that maximum tax free is 22Euros. Is that correct?
Not like I don't want to pay Germany any taxes, I love their cookies, I just need to get a certain frame back home, thats all

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Yes, the tax limit is 22 euros in EU. You can try stating the value of cargo lower than than, but there is no insurance that you can import it without paying taxes.
Contact you German shipping company and tell them that you want to re-export the goods as soon as they arrive. Maybe they can arrange the second shipment in the "customs zone" and thus officially not import it to Germany.

I want to use courier company that has Germany adress and mostly ships ebay purchases from Germany to my country. They will only pick up a box in Germany and deliver to me. Shipping will be done by HK EMS service so it will go straight to Deutsche post in Germany.

my country = Latvia? Or where do you want to ship it from Germany?

If anyone picks it up from customs, you will have to pay unless you have made an arrangement.

Also, the chances you'll get away with an underdeclared box are very slim. Customs folks are not that stupid.

Check for import VAT as well. I've been bitten by that. Non EU purchase is a hassle.

Omiar wrote:my country = Latvia? Or where do you want to ship it from Germany?

Yes

If the goods arrive in EU, you have to pay tax only one time. Inside EU there is no more tax - so if you ship it from Germany to Latvia, there is no more tax.
A frame costing less then 22 would be very unlikely to pass customs without taxation, but there are better chances to not pay tax when you ship it directly to Latvia. Our ex soviet customs don't have that "german accuracy" in their work - ask how i know

If you can get the HK person to help you, what you could try is: The seller should declare the goods as used and less then 22 euros and it would be a good thing if he could verify it (by email) to the customs when necessary - i.e. "it is a used frame discovered when i was cleaning up a garage, i didnt need it, thus sold it".
The downside is that the declared value is also the insurance value, so when the frame is damaged during the shipping, you get also less than 22 euros.

Greetings from Igaunija

The easiest way is to declare them as "samples" that you did not pay for, and were sent for you for free. Done this many times (shipping to Estonia equivalent to Latvia) with no issues.

The other ting is, you should investigate the shipping, there is no reason the cost is so high @ 250. EMS for a frame should not be more than 100-120 USD. Would save you the hassle of Germany and I bet the customs in Latvia are much less strict:)

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