Shipping costs and taxes

DaHanz

Senior Member
Aug 24, 2010
151
34
Hi @ all,

due to the fact that I am thinking about buying an android tablet I had a thought also about the taxes that may be added to the price of the product and the shipping costs.
Perhaps it will be possible to make this to a "sticky" thread if we collected a little bit more of information for the different countries...

But let me first ask my question:
Is there anybody from Germany who bought a tablet from china and could tell me about the procedure of shipping and, if there were taxes their height?

Thanks in advance!
DaHanz
 
Aug 31, 2010
18
1
I am in UK not Germany and am an importer as a profession so I can offer a little advice.

First, it's going to depend how it is shipped to you, EMS, HK post or UPS / DHL.

As a rough guide if you are ordering a single tablet from China to Europe you can expect to pay betweThen $10 and $20 for shipping, depending on the method used. The more expensive options (PS or DHL) are going to take 3-5 days door to door. HK post and EMS can take up to 14 days.

For import tax costs it is a bit of a minefield, first of all it depends what the item is described as in the invoice. If it is described as a laptop computer the import duty within the EU is 0%. This is a fair and accurate description in the eyes of customs and you are not cheating or doing anything wrong by asking your supplier to mark it as a laptop.

Then there is VAT, I believe in Germany it is currently 19%/. This will be charged on the value the shipper in China places on the invoice, no doubt they will offer to mark down the value of the invoice for you, it is customary practice to do this in China, in fact as an importer we always want the correct value on invoices so our accounts add up, it can be nearly impossible to get a Chinese supplier to do this sometimes as it is more work and expense for them (anything over $600 has to go through a customs clearance process). I can't really comment on this practice as it is illegal and as an importer I could not be seen to condone it, however it would be fair to say that nearly every small package that comes out of China does not have the correct value declared on the invoice with the goods and there is little to no consequence of this if you are simply an end user and not a business.


The truth is for most end users that buy a single from China I would not expect the item to arrive with a bill of more than $10, if anything at all.

ONE LAST BEWARE.

Apple consider the tablets that look like ipads to be an infringement on their intellectual property, the bevel button with the square on it is a registered design to Apple. They are fully aware of these tablets I know of shipments o 100's that have ben seized and destroyed here at UK customs because Apple have put an application in that they reak their IP rights, the same is true across the whole EU. If customs do happen to open it a random, which is not particularly likely but possible, they will take it and destroy it, if it has the Apple style button on it. If this concerns you, you can be totally safe by choosing a tablet that is not a blatant rip off of the iPad, there are plenty out there.

Hope this helps.
 

ljygm1411

Junior Member
Aug 2, 2012
1
0
I am in UK not Germany and am an importer as a profession so I can offer a little advice.

First, it's going to depend how it is shipped to you, EMS, HK post or UPS / DHL.

As a rough guide if you are ordering a single tablet from China to Europe you can expect to pay betweThen $10 and $20 for shipping, depending on the method used. The more expensive options (PS or DHL) are going to take 3-5 days door to door. HK post and EMS can take up to 14 days.

For import tax costs it is a bit of a minefield, first of all it depends what the item is described as in the invoice. If it is described as a laptop computer the import duty within the EU is 0%. This is a fair and accurate description in the eyes of customs and you are not cheating or doing anything wrong by asking your supplier to mark it as a laptop.

Then there is VAT, I believe in Germany it is currently 19%/. This will be charged on the value the shipper in China places on the invoice, no doubt they will offer to mark down the value of the invoice for you, it is customary practice to do this in China, in fact as an importer we always want the correct value on invoices so our accounts add up, it can be nearly impossible to get a Chinese supplier to do this sometimes as it is more work and expense for them (anything over $600 has to go through a customs clearance process). I can't really comment on this practice as it is illegal and as an importer I could not be seen to condone it, however it would be fair to say that nearly every small package that comes out of China does not have the correct value declared on the invoice with the goods and there is little to no consequence of this if you are simply an end user and not a business.


The truth is for most end users that buy a single from China I would not expect the item to arrive with a bill of more than $10, if anything at all.

ONE LAST BEWARE.

Apple consider the tablets that look like ipads to be an infringement on their intellectual property, the bevel button with the square on it is a registered design to Apple. They are fully aware of these tablets I know of shipments o 100's that have ben seized and destroyed here at UK customs because Apple have put an application in that they reak their IP rights, the same is true across the whole EU. If customs do happen to open it a random, which is not particularly likely but possible, they will take it and destroy it, if it has the Apple style button on it. If this concerns you, you can be totally safe by choosing a tablet that is not a blatant rip off of the iPad, there are plenty out there.

Hope this helps.



I am in Glasgow and i have the same question about tablets import. Can i have any contract information of you? Because i am interesting in tablets import and may run some business on them.
 

hfksdkf

Member
Jul 24, 2012
22
0
of course it depends on which method you choose to ship, just like EMS, and HONGKONG post may be cheaper, but it will cost long time, to Germany, I think about 10 days. while if you choose DHL, you only need about3-5days to get your tablet, but maybe more expensive. About the tax, I am not clear.
 

userbe1155

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2011
697
55
i have used dhl when buying from china. on these occasions duty was mentioned but no bill was actually sent to me so i presume dhl covered the cost themselves. i use redtabletpc.com who i have found to be trustworthy & reliable. they also follow the chinese practice of 'marking down' the price of the shipped item so even if tax has to be paid it is very low. i was asked to pay around £7 but as i said, no bill was sent to me. dhl usually takes around 5 days from shipping to arrive in uk so i presume europe is the same or less as my tab was sent to germany 1st before then being passed on to uk. even if duty has to be paid i think this is a fair price to pay for the peace of mind & speed of using this courier. free shipping usually incurs no cost at all but does take considerably longer to arrive.
 

bootsie

Member
Aug 3, 2012
6
0
Hi, I live in the UK and ordered an Android 4 recently from China. There was no one in at the first attempt to deliver my tablet, but an invoice from UPS states I have to pay £27.26 COD when delivered on a day requested. From what I have read on other Forums, this seems excessive? the bill states that £16 is either freight or VAT and £11.27 is either freight surcharges, brokerage surcharges or Government charges. I paid £11 for `expediated delivery` at the time of purchase. Not to worry it`s done now.
 

Natey2

Senior Member
May 25, 2012
477
44
Aren't there any physical stores in EU that sell these Chinese tablets? If they exist, what do they charge vs. individually ordering directly from China?
 
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