Jim Stewart wrote:
David Billington wrote:
Jon Elson wrote:


F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:36:08 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


We'd be brought up before the WTO and be fined billions of
dollars. So would Germany.

============
Actually I think this is the situation in most EEC countries with
the "value added tax." It is commonly rebated when goods are
exported and charged when goods are imported.

Yeah, I just sold some stuff to a guy in Belgium, and FedEx bills me
later for the VAT/duties, etc. I was shocked to get the bill for 23%!
Since I get these bills a month or more after the shipment, I can't
bill for it in advance, so I take a bath on this stuff! I may have
to just
double my price for sales to the EU!

Jon

I can't see why you should have to pay any VAT or duties. In my
experience of buying from the US I am the one who pays the VAT and
duties as applied by the UK customs. I would strongly ask FedEx why
you are being asked to pay the bill rather than the purchaser.

If the purchaser declines to pay the duties and the
purchaser does not have a FedEx account, FedEx will
charge the shipper. FedEx pays the duties at the time
the goods clear customs, so they have to get the money
from somewhere.

We got bit to the tune of about $3000 this way.
Luckily, the customer needed to do repeat business
with us and after about 3 months, ponied up the money.

The best solution is to have your customer open a Fedex
account and then ship it with duties on them.

OK I wasn't aware I could refuse to pay the VAT and duties bill at my
end. I can't remember what happened with the UPS delivery but DHL
delivered some goods from the US promptly and then billed me the VAT and
duties about 2 months later, I just paid up, as I was expecting to pay
some extra. The Belgian guy may have been savvy and refused to pay up
but that is not playing ball. On a few occasions I have gotten stuff
from the US and Australia via the UK postal service and in that case
when moneys are due I had to go to the sorting office and pay up before
getting the items, no money no goods.