Vat and other charges

ed

Hi. I have just started purchasing online recently. I have my eye on some stuff on ebay. My question is, would I have to pay VAT on the cost of the item plus shipping?
If the item is used and purchased from a person rather than an online shop, would I have to pay VAT at all or does it apply to both used and new products?
What other costs would I have to pay at the post office, when the item arrives?
Thanks

inflames

Yes, you would have to pay shipping as well as import TAX.
I have not found a scale for import TAX yet, sure someone here will have one.

They normally nail you on import TAX, so if you have a friend on that side of the world let him ship it to you.
All he needs to do is place a gift sticker on the parcel and you would not have to pay import taxes.

He/She can get this sticker at the courier company you chose to use.

Just be careful on ebay. I have bought a Peavey 6505+ 4 month ago and still no sign of it.
I also used state mail so this could be the reason for the delay, but shipping with FEDEX would have cost me R5k!

MikeM

You don't pay tax on shipping. I used to import tons of pc stuff and they only hit you on the items themself (Unless the price is specified as one cost)

So for example a $100 item would be

$100 * 1.154 + Shipiping * 7.5 (It's @ R7.34 now and buying costs a little extra) to get your final cost, UNLESS you have to pay actual customs (Like %40 on clothing :/)

arjunmenon

Hi,

I'm no expert here, but i work for a freight forwarding company and we deal with customs on a daily basis.
I'm not sure about spare parts etc for musical instruments, but for musical instruments custom duty is not applicable, however, a custom VAT is applicable ( commercial value + duty amount + 10% currency adjustment = X amount x 14%). For amplifiers, again there is no custom duty, but ad valorem of about 7.6% is applicable (in addition to the custom VAT).

So your calculation should actually be based as follows:

Commercial value + shipping + SA local charges (i.e. customs & documentation) = landed cost

Hope this helps.

ed

Thanks for the replies guys, it really helps. I am actually buying a couple of pedals off ebay. But to have general knowledge of import duties helps with purchasing other items as well.
Thanks once again.

kayDUB

Hey ed, what you buying?? ?

Let us know how it turns out!

CDee

You can also ask the person sending it to you to mark it as a "gift". They can't charge you VAT on a gift. This is not always possible and may or may not work. So, rather work out the cost with all the Vat and duties etc. included, then if you get them to ship it as a gift and they don't charge you VAT, bargain! ?

[deleted]

inflames wrote: They normally nail you on import TAX, so if you have a friend on that side of the world let him ship it to you.
All he needs to do is place a gift sticker on the parcel and you would not have to pay import taxes.
He/She can get this sticker at the courier company you chose to use.

CDee wrote: You can also ask the person sending it to you to mark it as a "gift". They can't charge you VAT on a gift.

Gifts are limited to the R400 per person per "package".. AND you only have 2 every 12 months... for a birthday and christmas. not to mention it is illegal to place a gift sticker on it if it's not. Not worth the risk of getting caught!!

There are NO duties on ANYTHING music related... not on guitars, not on guitar parts, not on woods for guitar, not on effects pedals, Nothing.

VAT is calculated at 14% on the rand value of the foreign invoice on the day it lands and gets cleared from customs. It's usualy 14% VAT and then a small "handling" fee, I have seen before.

MikeM wrote: (Like %40 on clothing :/)

Not anymore, went up on the 12 October 2009 to 45%.. OUCH

CDee

Brentcgp wrote: Gifts are limited to the R400 per person per "package".. AND you only have 2 every 12 months... for a birthday and christmas. not to mention it is illegal to place a gift sticker on it if it's not. Not worth the risk of getting caught!!

Okay, on second thought, don't do the gift thing. ??? :-[

[deleted]

CDee wrote:
Brentcgp wrote: Gifts are limited to the R400 per person per "package".. AND you only have 2 every 12 months... for a birthday and christmas. not to mention it is illegal to place a gift sticker on it if it's not. Not worth the risk of getting caught!!
Okay, on second thought, don't do the gift thing. ??? :-[

I was going to try it with clothes ? But you REALLY do NOT want to mess with SARS.. They'll take everything... even your dog

CDee

Brentcgp wrote:
CDee wrote:
Brentcgp wrote: Gifts are limited to the R400 per person per "package".. AND you only have 2 every 12 months... for a birthday and christmas. not to mention it is illegal to place a gift sticker on it if it's not. Not worth the risk of getting caught!!
Okay, on second thought, don't do the gift thing. ??? :-[
I was going to try it with clothes ? But you REALLY do NOT want to mess with SARS.. They'll take everything... even your dog

I only read something about it about a week ago, my sister stays in Aus and she wants to send me some CD's and stuff I asked for. She is giving it to me so I don't want to pay VAT for it. It's a gift.

[deleted]

CDee wrote:
Brentcgp wrote:
CDee wrote:
Brentcgp wrote: Gifts are limited to the R400 per person per "package".. AND you only have 2 every 12 months... for a birthday and christmas. not to mention it is illegal to place a gift sticker on it if it's not. Not worth the risk of getting caught!!
Okay, on second thought, don't do the gift thing. ??? :-[
I was going to try it with clothes ? But you REALLY do NOT want to mess with SARS.. They'll take everything... even your dog
I only read something about it about a week ago, my sister stays in Aus and she wants to send me some CD's and stuff I asked for. She is giving it to me so I don't want to pay VAT for it. It's a gift.

That won't be a problem, you can claim R400 to be exempt from VAT. ?

baseline

[quote author=inflames
Just be careful on ebay. I have bought a Peavey 6505+ 4 month ago and still no sign of it.
I also used state mail so this could be the reason for the delay, but shipping with FEDEX would have cost me R5k!
[/quote]

Just to add a little something, it just isnt E bay, i am still waiting for videos sent in JUne this year, the problem is some of the guys in the states don't use tracking numbers unless you ask so you have no way of knowing where it is, and our Post office system after the strike is !!! well lets just say CRAP.

Riaan

the problem is some of the guys in the states don't use tracking numbers unless you ask

Another problem with some of the guys in the States is that they don't know their a..holes from their elbows when it comes to shipping internationally. On two occassions I bid on and won with guitars that were for sale, and had actually been quoted shipping of around $70-120 USD which I accepted. After I'd paid the full amount including shipping, they suddenly were unable to ship the guitar for the quoted shipping - they never realised that guitars were oversized, that it was so expensive to ship guitars overseas, etc etc.... Luckily in both cases I got my money back, but the last time it took me a good few weeks and some threatening e-mails to get the guy to refund me.

My advice would be: stick to the big sellers on EBay, not the small time dudes in places with names like Nipplecap, Iowa or so on, who has one guitar and a couple of computer parts for sale. These seemingly often turn out to be down and out dudes living in some trailer somewhere, selling his last girlfriend's guitar.

21Fretter

Brentcgp wrote:

There are NO duties on ANYTHING music related... not on guitars, not on guitar parts, not on woods for guitar, not on effects pedals, Nothing.

A bit of necro post but I've been looking at bringing in a USB recording interface and while I'm at it, some strings in bulk. Just to clarify, there would be no duties on any of these items or would the interface fall under electronics and not music? If it's a cousin bringing the goods in (musiciansfriend won't send the device to SA but they will to Canada) are there any possible added costs that could be dropped on her if she is just bringing it as part of her luggage?