ebay... buying from sellers in hong kong

[ProfMonnitoff]

i'm looking to buy a camera, and no stores here have it yet. many stores on ebay have it, but they're all located in hong kong.

i have no worries about receiving the camera, and there is a good warranty through the manufacturer, but i fear that i'll have to pay customs charges. does anyone have experience with this?

i'm in europe (austria).

[dan.de]

In Germany you have to pay custom charges on everything from outside the eu if you bought something for more than ~30€. Sometimes you are lucky and receive it without having to pay for it but normally you have to pay the sales tax (19%) and a special tax which is different for every type of item (5-15% I think).

One month ago I bought some topsider's for around 55€ with shipping and had to pay 21€ for customs duty.

But I have to add that Germany is very strict about any kind of taxes (which are already quite high in comparision to other countries).

[the breaks]

If customs happen to pick your package up you'll get raped by taxes. Unless you take some creative liberties with the paypal receipt of course.

[ken shinoda]

i never get taxed for 10k + haute horlogerie watches i buy that get shipped internationally.

You gotta know the rules of the game.

PM me for details.

+rep me:cool:

[Agent Orange]

i am located in germany, too. creative work with the paypal receipt only works if there is no receipt included in the package, otherwise theyll automatically calculate and charge you taxes.

also, beware. this often works out when privately buying clothes from rather unknown labels. they know how to use he internet to double check prices, and they always check the ebay article numbers. if caught, you might get away with a small "ordnungswidrigkeit" fee, but if the guy is in bad mood you can also get the full tax fraud / forgery of documents deal.

from my experience, about two thirds of the time stuff went through without me being charged. but so far everytime i received something via ems, i got charged, no matter the declared value.