Gilles from Mechelen in Antwerp Province collects Rubiks cubes. Recently he ordered a Rubiks cube from the United States. The cube cost 13.79 plus 8.27 euro postage and packing, a total price of 22.06 euro. Gilles waited and waited for his Rubiks cubs, but it didn’t arrive. Eventually he received a letter from the Belgian post office Bpost. “I was asked to pay 19.56 import duty. This brought the total cost to 41.62 euro, while the actual price of the Rubiks cube was less than 14 euro”.
Gilles had no choice other than to pay up. “It was either that or no cube. If I hadn’t paid I wouldn’t have received it and in any case I had already lost the money I had paid the American web shop”.
Customs
But is it possible that import duty on some products from outside the EU can actually higher than the value of the product itself? Francis Adyns of the Federal Finance Department told VRT News that this certainly can be the case.
"The price of the purchase doesn’t make a great deal of difference as you have to pay 15 euro in admin costs to Bpost. In addition to this import duty is also charged”.
Bpost’s spokeswoman Veerle Van Mierlo told VRT News that "The 15 euro is for what we call costs for customs formalities. This is a sum that covers our administration costs”.
Bpost’s Customs Declaration Service uses the 15 euro to cover costs incurred by:
· Verifying the contents and value of the parcel.
· Contacting the recipient if the contents, value and information on the parcel is incorrect or incomplete.
· To complete the necessary customs declaration.
· Store the parcel while waiting for the recipient to pay the import duty charges.
Import costs on larger, more expensive purchases are lower as a percentage of the total cost. However, as was the case he with Gilles’ Rubiks cube, import duty on small, low-value items can sometime be higher than the price of the item itself.
Click here to find out exactly how the import duty costs are calculated.
Tips from Bpost
The Belgian Post Office Bpost says that it is possible to avoid paying addition costs for online purchases made from vendors outside the EU if you:
- Buy from a registered web shop. The vendor will charge VAT on your purchase in advance, which means you won't pay any import charges and your shipment can go through the importation procedure faster.
- Always read the small print. Since 1 July 2021, the VAT exemption for importing goods from outside the EU has disappeared. VAT must always be paid, even if you have purchased the goods online.
- Check whether you can place your order with a shop that ships from within Belgium or the EU.
- For goods worth more than EUR 150, you will always have to pay import duty.